April 6th: L'AMOUR BRAQUE (Andrzej Zulawski, 1985)

The strange relationship between a bank robber, his prostitute girlfriend, and a young dreamer he meets on a train.

Polish-born Andrzej Zulawski studied film in France before returning to his native country to work as an assistant with influential director Andrzej Wajda. His feature debut The Third Part Of The Night in 1971 was censored, and his follow-up The Devil was prevented from release for over a decade. He found freedom and international success in France with The Most Important Thing Is To Love, but returned right back to the cauldron in Poland for the never-completed sci-fi epic On The Silver Globe, censors again forcing Zulawski to leave for more artist-friendly territory.

After the horror crossover hit Possession (a British-German co-production), Zulawski set up shop once again (and nearly for good) in Paris. He embarked on two films loosely adapted from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's works, the latter, L'Amour Braque a reworking of the Russian writer's The Idiot. Teaming up with songwriter Etienne Roda-Gil (a first-time screenwriter), the script wreaks havoc on the French language, mixing slang with literary and poetry quotations.

Heading up the film's cast is Sophie Marceau (Braveheart, The World Is Not Enough), Francis Huster (from Zulawski's previous film), and Tcheky Karyo (La Femme Nikita, Goldeneye). Behind the camera is Jean-François Robin (Betty Blue).

Zulawski's reputation for go-for-broke cinema with elaborate, kinetic camera movements and histrionics from his actors is fully apparent here, with a smorgasbord of violence and sex. While its mid-80s release and surface sheen puts it in the company of the French cinema du look filmmakers Luc Besson, Leos Carax, and Jean-Jacques Beineix, Zulawski digs considerably deeper into his subject matter and is a controlled force behind the chaos.

The film stunned audiences and critics upon release, but is now considered one of the director's most important works. Marceau would become romantically involved with Zulawski for over 15 years, and they would collaborate together on two more films.

Running time is approx. 100 minutes.