Zazie Dans Le Metro
Screening on Film
Directed by Louis Malle.
With Catherine Demongeot, Philippe Noiret, Carla Marlier.
France , 1960, 35mm, color, 88 min.
French with English subtitles.
With Catherine Demongeot, Philippe Noiret, Carla Marlier.
France , 1960, 35mm, color, 88 min.
French with English subtitles.
Precocious, foul-mouthed preteen Zazie spends 36 hours with her female-impersonator uncle in Paris with the sole intention of going for a ride on the Métro—but everything seems to conspire against her goal. Zazie dans le Métro was Louis Malle’s brave attempt to find visual equivalents to the eccentric, jazzy syntax of Raymond Queneau’s novel through a wide array of cinematic devices: sight gags, trick shots, superimposition, slow motion, accelerated motion, and intertextual references. The surreal view of Paris in bright colors gives much pleasure, as does Catherine Demongeot’s sparkling performance as Zazie.
