The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

The film opens with an extended shot of a somewhat bedraggled Vanessa Paradis explaining to a woman off screen how her life has been a meaningless mess. The camera watch Paradis carry on for about five minutes, while tears begin to roll down her cheeks. The scene is never referred to again.There is a cut to the same Paradis, still bedraggled, ready to jump off a night-time bridge in Paris. Just as she's about to take a nose dive, she's interrupted by an observer standing nearby, Pierre Auteuil. He doesn't rush to her aid or anything. He tells her that her run of bad luck is just a patch of rough road and, besides, she looks too good to waste. If she's so anxious to off herself, she can come and work for him. He's a knife thrower at a circus. The bridge is where he picks up girls so depressed that they're willing to take the job, regardless of the danger.At this point I began to shudder all over with fear. Not fear for Paradis, but fear that I was in for a long, very French disquisition on the nature and meaning of life, all shot at night and in the rain.But, lo, it's much better than that. In fact, it's pretty good. Briefly, Auteuil and Paradis make a splendid team and they rise to the top of their profession, if that's what it is. The tricks get more difficult. Auteuil throws his knives blind, and then at Paradis while she's rotating rapidly on one of those wheels that the simply dressed target always spins on. They're luck in every respect; they win big at Monte Carlo.Now, your typical-standard American romance has them quit while their career is at its zenith. With their considerable stash, they buy a well-appointed beach bungalow, Auteuil puts himself through medical school and becomes the avuncular brain surgeon he's always wanted to be, and Paradis is ecstatic at finding herself a pregnant housewife with a room dedicated to her home sculpture and macramé.Not here. Paradis is happy enough having knives thrown at her, but she and Auteuil never play doctor together. Instead, he's merely annoyed when her whimsy takes her to somebody else's bed. At one point she's about to make it with a contortionist, an interesting concept.Just when the going is great, she finds "Mister Right" aboard a carnival boat. (I missed the original French for "Mister Right", but that's how the English subtitle came out.) She bids Auteuil a quiet good-bye and she and her new flame depart in a lifeboat. I haven't figured out how they got off the cruise ship in a lifeboat in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea either.But no matter. The plot forges ahead. Mister Right deserts Paradis immediately in Istanbul. She drags herself around the city. It's never explained how she manages to support herself but it's easy enough to guess. Auteuil loses his uncanny skill with the knives and is reduced to selling them for "a few dates or a cucumber." He wind up dressed in tatters and about to jump off a bridge himself.I never took the knives/luck business too seriously, figuring it must be a symbol for something else. By the end, I figured the something else was total commitment in a relationship, including outright expressions of love and including physical intercourse, both of which had been missing. The movie itself prompts this kind of conjecture. Vanessa Paradis hauls him into a dark tunnel, saying that they both know what they want. And what do they want? Another knife-throwing episode, while she writhes orgasmically and Auteuil sweats up a storm, both of them totally glandular.I've always liked Auteuil. He has the face of Humphrey C. Earwicker, a kind of everyman. His nose is as big as his eyes. Paradis' body is flawless. And her face is almost inhumanly handsome except for her teeth. Lots of attractive women have gaps between their two upper incisors, but she has gaps between all of her teeth, so sizable that Auteuil, if he wanted, could throw knives through them.I enjoyed the thing. It was in black and white, and free of those crazy tilted camera angles and wobbling shots and instantaneous editing that more recent films are susceptible to. Try it. You might like it.

This is a beautiful, poetic, absorbing and intensely romantic movie.Daniel Auteuil won a Cesar (the French Academy Award) for his performance here and he certainly deserved it. His portrait of a knife thrower is chilling and warm at the same time. It is amazing that Auteuil did not become a Hollywood star. He has been nominated for Cesar's 12 times and has won twice. Only Gerard Depardieu has been nominated more (15 times and 2 wins). While Depardieu has made more than a dozen Hollywood films, Auteuil has been in none.Bsides Auteuil's outstanding and soulful performance, Vanessa Paradis is astonishing. She is as sexy and openly seductive as Greta Garbo. It is easy to see why she has been Johnny Depps lover/companion for the past 20 years or so.The film is artistic. So do not expect a linear Hollywood plot or easily understood characters. Just let the film's ambiance sweep you away to another world.

In Paris, the needy and unlucky Adèle (Vanessa Paradis) is a complete loser, used by all the men in her life. In a Parisian bridge in the night, when the Adèle is near to commit suicide, the knife thrower Gabor (Daniel Auteuil) invites her to be his target in his show. She accepts the invitation, and they become a great success in show business. Like two halves of a bill, when they separate, they become losers again. Soon they realize that only together they would succeed in life and find love with each other. "La Fille Sur le Pont" is a magnificent and delightful fairytale about two half-souls that meet each other in a Parisian bridge, filling their lives with lucky, happiness and love. The story in some moments recalls the wonderful films by Frank Capra, in other moments is quite erotic. The performances of Daniel Auteuil and Vanessa Paredis, showing a perfect chemistry, deserve a nomination to the Oscar. Most of their witty dialogs are fantastic, the direction of Patrice Leconte is splendid as usual and the black & white cinematography is stunning. "La Fille Sur le Pont" is a movie to be revisited many times and highly indicated to fans of filmed poetry. My vote is nine.Title (Brazil): "A Mulher e o Atirador de Facas" ("The Woman and the Knife Thrower")Note: On 08 Jul 2018 I saw this film again.

Like many other french movies, this movie is about the beauty of film making, it's about the art that does not necessarily depend on a story. There is a great amount of fantasy in this movie, like most good things in life. One thing that I really liked about the movie was the fact that you can take almost any frame and it could be part of a photography exhibition. Some people may complain about the story, which may be bland by itself; others may complain about the fairytale-type romance in the movie, which may seem too sentimental. But it is the excess of emotions that gives it the flavor of a fairytale. I'd never watch a movie to learn something, because good movies like good poetry is beauty itself, and we don't analyze that.