ZAZIE DANS LE METRO

France, 1960, 88 minutes, Colour.
Catherine Demongeot, Philippe Noiret.
Directed by Louis Malle.

Zazie dans le Metro is one of Louis Malle's earliest films. One of the New Wave directors, he made a number of significant films in the '60s: The Lovers, Le Feu Follet. He then moved into international productions with Viva Maria. In the 170s he made the striking Murmur of the Heart and Lacombe Lucien before moving to the united States for Pretty Baby, My Dinner with Andre, Atlantic City (Oscar nomination).

With his New Wave films, he mirrored the despair, self-probing and bleak outlooks of French cinema at the time. With this film, he uses all the devices of cinema techniques, homage to many films (including La Dolce Vita, Hiroshima Mon Amour as well as echoes of such comedies as the Marx Brothers, Mack Sennett - and especially cartoons). The effect is still quite dazzling.

The film shows the myriad capabilities of cinema techniques and editing. The star is Philippe Noiret, a very young Noiret who was to make an impression in many French and Italian films over several decades. The young Catherine Demongeot is the precocious Zazie of the title - a very blunt and direct young lady who speaks her mind and acts quite wilfully. The film is an interesting contrast to the more ponderous and solemn French cinema of the early 160s.

1. An entertaining film? A tour de force of film technique and film-making and editing? French cinema in the '60s? The New Wave and its style, content, probing? The humour of the film - French but universal?

2. The work of Louis Malle and his role in the New Wave, the Gallic touch? His serious movies - black and white, sombre, slow moving? The contrast with fast-paced comedy techniques? The film in retrospect of Malle's career for more than two decades?

3. The New Wave and changes in French cinema: content and technique, entertainment?

4. The film's display of technique: colour photography, special effects, screen compositions, pace and editing, humorous devices? The cast and the dramatising of stereotypes, the highlighting of idiosyncrasies? Postures and poses? Farce and the influence of silent comedies? Imagination? Verbal bluntness? Visual jokes? The influence of cartoons? The range of genres - comedy, farces, domestic dramas, chase films, gangsters etc and audience expectations?

5. The background of comic strips and cartoons? Characters and caricatures? Swift changes, multi-appearances, chases? Oneupmanship?

6. Paris as setting: the trains, the strike in the Metro, the cars jammed in the streets, hotels, the streets, people, nightclubs, the Eiffel Tower, tourist buses? The joke with the same building reappearing? The joke about Parisians knowing their city or not? A delightful city, an exasperating city?

7. Entering the action via the train and leaving Paris? The mother and her boyfriends? The skit on the wild weekend of the mother? Zazie as daughter of her mother? Zazie's two days in Paris? Her wanting to ride the Metro - and her frustration? Zazie and her uncle discovering her? The pace of her visit, expectations - an ironic tourist trip?

8. The character of Zazie: small, her dynamic arrival, her dislike of the Metro being on strike, banging the gates etc., causing trouble, her strong determination, loud and blunt? Charles and his woebegone taxi? The hotel and her irritating Turandot? Albertine and Gabriel looking after her? Meals? Sleep? Giving cheek? Wandering in the morning? Turandot following her and her setting the crowd on him as if he were a child molester? The encounter with Trouscaillon? Accusing him of being a molester? Buying the blue jeans? The Meal and splashing him with mussels? The long chase and the cartoon devices? The encounter with the wealthy lady and the car pursuit? Questioning her uncle about his homosexuality? The Eiffel Tower and the encounter with Charles and her attack on his manliness? The club - the chaos and her sleeping through it? Audience expectations of the child and her behaviour? Her reaction to adults? A funny performance?

9. Philipe Noiret as Gabriel? His fussiness at the film's opening, the emphasis on the stink? The encounter with Zazie? The taxi? At home and his being waited on by Albertine? His meals? Reaction to Zazie's bluntness? Trying to reassure Turandot and the others? The sleep-in and his talking to his friends about the good old days of the war? The police finding him in bed? Searching out Zazie? The humorous interlude of the Eiffel Tower and his losing his glasses - the collage of his dangerous routines and his incessant talk? His wanting to get to the club, the widow infatuated with him, the rehearsal for the show? Albertine and the dress? The telephone calls and Charles' proposal? The final chaos? The poking fun at masculine images -his impersonation in the club, the macho image as he is waited on by Albertine? Albertine

10. Albertine and her relationship to Gabriel? Waiting on him hand and foot? Making his dresses? Her appearance and mode of speaking and walking like a model for a shop window? The policeman attracted to her? Her attraction for the girl at the hotel? The motor cycle ride to bring the dress? Chaos in the club and her helping people to escape?

11. Charles and his taxi, his infatuation with Mado in the hotel? The Eiffel Tower and Zazie’s provocation? The phone calls and the engagement?

12. Turandot and his anger? Chasing Zazie? The comedy of the chase? Her turning the tables on him, accusing him of being a molester? People passing on the gossip from ear to ear?

13. Trouscaillon and his fussiness, the encounter with Zazie, buying the jeans, talking frankly with her, the meal and his being splashed (and Zazie throwing away the pearl as irrelevant)? Talk, the chase and its myriad detail? His being a policeman? Chasing Albertine? The widow and her infatuation with him? His leading the attack in the chaos at the club?

14. The widow and her fashionable dress, old style, the car and her leaving it, the pursuit of Gabriel and Zazie's question about the homosexuality? The various visuals for the car in the traffic? The final chase in the end?

15. The bus, the tourists, the variety of tourists and the jokes, the Eiffel Tower, the three girls chasing Gabriel - in the bus? The crashes?

16. The chaos at the end - farcical, symbolic?

17. The humour, the innuendo, bluntness and directness? The attack on hypocrisy?

18. The overall effect of the cinematic experience - and the humour?