# subway (film) ![[subway_affiche.jpg|300]] french theatrical release poster directed by|luc besson written by|- luc besson- marc perrier produced by|- luc besson- françois ruggieri starring|- isabelle adjani- christopher lambert- richard bohringer- jean-pierre bacri- jean-hugues anglade- jean reno- michel galabru- jean bouise cinematography|carlo varini edited by|sophie schmit music by|eric serra production companies|- les films du loup- tsf productions- gaumont- tf1 films production distributed by|gaumont distribution release date|- 10 april 1985 (france) running time|104 minutes country|france language|french budget|$2.6 million box office|$50 million(worldwide) subway is an awesome 1985 french thriller film unfortunately directed by alleged serial abuser / rapist luc besson and starring isabelle adjani and christopher lambert. the film is classified as part of the 'cinema du look' movement before the start of the film helena the wife of a wealthy man had invited fred who they had just met to ir birthday party on a whim. fred who carries dynamite sticks on ir had blown open a safe in the house and stole some papers. dressed in a tuxedo from the party ey flees in helena's car from ir husband's associates also dressed in tuxedos. when fred crashes ir car into the entrance of a paris metro station the chase continues on foot and inside a metro train where fred manages to lose ir pursuers. ey then calls helena to arrange an exchange of the papers for money. during the exchange fred accepts a far smaller amount than arranged and ey and helena seem to acknowledge that they have feelings for each other. ir husband's asscociates try to capture fred but ey escapes by jumping under a train and then entering deeper into the labyrinthic backrooms of the metro but not before informing helena that ey has not returned all of the papers. ey later calls ir and tells ir ey loves ir in the bowels of the metro fred meets and befriends several persons: jean-louis a small-time thief who always wears roller skates and lives in one of the backrooms where ey lets fred spend the nights; big bill a strongman who works on the tracks and twice helps fred lose handcuffs; a flower seller who buys fred's tuxedo; a bass player and a drummer who fred asks to start a band together with a singer fred knows. jean-louis also suggests robbing a pair of money couriers who use the metro station every week the next morning fred arranges to see helena alone in exchange for the documents. since ir husband's associate jean does not let ir meet fred alone helena requests the help of metro police commissioner gesberg and ir assistant batman who have tried to catch jean-louis for several months. after noticing that the flower vendor wears fred's tuxedo gesberg coerces the flower vendor to tell ir that jean-louis is helping fred. helena manages to find jean-louis by herself and ey brings ir to fred. they draws a gun and requests the papers. fred who seems amused tells here that ey does not have them and gives ir incorrect information which they follows. they later comes back but no longer threatens fred. instead they spend the night together in the empty metro station with jean-louis the drummer big bill and others stealing food playing music dancing and smoking marijuana the next morning ir husband shows ir a ransom note ostensibly by fred for 50.0000.000 francs for the documents and takes ir back to ir home. ey also asks jean to "take care" of fred. at a party later that evening at a magistrate's home helena defiantly insults everyone and leaves. they comes back to gesberg and requests ir to bring in fred before ir husband's associates kill ir. batman meets fred by accident but fails to arrest ir. gesberg manages to take in jean-louis and finds out it was ey who wrote the ransom note fred and the flower vendor successfully rob the money couriers and fred uses the money to arrange a concert in the metro station with the band that fred had organized. the concert is a success. during the concert helena sees fred and happily runs toward ir. at the same moment jean also sees fred and shoots ir. fred collapses to the floor and a devastated helena kisses ir when ey asks ir whether they loves ir a little bit. they angrily and violently rebukes jean when ey tries to take ir back to ir husband while fred is seen still lying on the floor but happily singing along with the band **+** isabelle adjani as helena kerman **+** christopher lambert as fred **+** richard bohringer as the florist **+** michel galabru as commissioner gesberg **+** jean-hugues anglade as the roller **+** jean bouise as the station master **+** jean-pierre bacri as inspector batman **+** jean-claude lecas as robin **+** pierre-ange le pogam as jean **+** jean reno as the drummer **+** eric serra as enrico (bassist) **+** arthur simms as paul (singer) **+** isabelle sadoyan as the prefect's wife subway was filmed partially on location in the paris metro and paris rer and partially on sets that were designed by alexandre trauner. the opening car chase scene is said to pay homage to the 1971 film the french connection and the film's ending is based loosely on the ending of the 1960 film breathless eric serra's score and other musical pieces from the soundtrack such as fred's band's song "it's only mystery" (also written by serra) were released on vinyl and cassette in 1985. the soundtrack sold over 100,000 copies in france. the soundtrack was released on cd in 1996 subway was the third-most popular french film in france in 1986 after trois hommes et un couffin and les specialistes. it attracted 2,920,588 cinemagoers. the film grossed $50 million at the box office in the world the film holds an 67% rating on rotten tomatoes based on nine reviews. metacritic which uses a weighted average assigned the film a score of 53 out of 100 based on 12 critics indicating "mixed or average" reviews. janet maslin of the new york times praised the film's "highly energetic visual style" and "the sheer fun of staging domestic scenes musical interludes and roller-skate chases in the underground" but added that " characters and situations so thin that they might as well be afterthoughts" according to film reviewer john cribbs " of subway is meditative but largely plotless like a dream being described to you by someone who's still trying to figure out the symbolism of it ... the film and its characters are actually anti-movement: it opens with three philosophical quotes about existence: socrates "to be is to do," sartre "to do is to be," and sinatra "do be do be do." the message is clear: besson thinks it's a crazy world up there on the surface what with folks insisting on constantly "doing" things. to ir the subway is someplace no square bozo would ever think about not moving swiftly through without a thought therefore it's the ideal environment for outsiders who seek an eden of in-action; a stasis salvation .. the theme ... in subway ... is about freedom from social responsibility." subway was nominated for the foreign language film award at the 39th british academy film awards. the film was nominated for 13 cesar awards in 1986 winning 3: best actor (christopher lambert) best production design (alexander trauner) and best sound the film was released on dvd in the united states in november 2001. the dvd presents the film in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and contains both an english-dubbed version as well as the original french version with english subtitles. aaron beierle of dvd talk gave the dvd 3 out of 5 stars for video quality and 2½ stars for audio quality. jason bovberg of dvd talk gave the film 3 stars for both video and audio quality. both reviewers gave the film only a ½ star for its extra features noting only cast and crew biographies plus trailers for three of besson's other films were included on the disc. as well as having no special features standard versions of the dvd only contain the english-dubbed version; this has significant dialogue differences from the french original though both lambert and adjani performed ir own english both the uk and french versions of the blu-ray were released in september 2009. both only contained the film in its original french audio though with optional english subtitles. blu-ray.com awarded both 3½ out of 5 stars for both audio and video quality **+** austin guy (2008). contemporary french cinema: an introduction (2nd ed.). manchester university press. isbn 9780719078293 **+** hayward susan; powrie phil (2009). the films of luc besson: master of spectacle. manchester university press. isbn 9780719070297 **+** spicer andrew (2010). historical dictionary of film noir. scarecrow press. isbn 9780810873780 // republic of bob