The Bridge (1999) User Reviews

Symbolic "Bridge"

[rosscinema · 7/10 · 6 May 2003]

Gerard Depardieu can sometimes come off on screen as an oaf and other times he can be smooth and charming. I think his direction in this film can be described as the latter. This film starts out in 1962 in a small French city where Georges (Depardieu) is looking for work and decides to apply with a construction company that is going to be building a bridge. Georges wife Mina (Carole Bouquet) is bored with her life and goes to the cinema as often as she can with her son Tommy (Stanislas Crevillen). One day at the cinema Mina notices a man near her crying during the film. After the film they talk and he introduces himself as Mathias (Charles Berling) and it turns out he is her husbands foreman at work. Soon Mina and Mathias are having an affair while Georges is away with the work crew. I liked the pedestrian pace that Depardieu sets for the film and the cinematography is very well handled. Its a very good looking film and it surprised me that Depardieu could be so impressive directing. They're is a lot of symbolism in this film and of course its apparent that the bridge that Georges is lending his hand to build represents an exit out of their relationship. Another thing that I found interesting was the tomato plants that Georges seems preoccupied with, they seem to also symbolize George and Mina's marriage and when George knows his marriage is in trouble he spends his time tending to the tomato plants.

*****SPOILER ALERT***** The last scene pretty much sums up where both characters are headed in life. They both meet by accident at a gas station and both of their cars are pointed in different directions. Film is written with a very mature focus to it and when Georges finds out about his wife he's not violent and doesn't make a big scene. He seems to understand it. No, he doesn't like what has happened. But he's such a level headed lug that it would be wrong to argue. Some viewers complained about the slow pace, but I found it refreshing. The characters stand out even more when a film is paced this way. Hollywood, are you listening?

Carole Bouquet is a revelation, film is not

[gonz30 · 7/10 · 25 April 1999]

Carole Bouquet is a revelation as a woman approaching middle age (a long way from her Bond girl origins), and Charles Berling and Gerard Depardieu are in their usual top form. But the screenplay, adapted from a French best seller, but with a radically changed ending, is not the French BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY as some claimed. The screenplay tells an all too familiar story that even its excellent actors and technical team cannot overcome. In its fourth week of release, the public and the critics reflect these sentiments.

yet another French film about adultery

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 22 March 2006]

Hmm,....I've seen a lot of French films in the last year and have found that quite a few of them concern adultery. So, I found myself a bit tired of the plot line already before I even began watching this film.

Carole Bouquet is a middle-aged woman married to Gerard Depardieu. She's an awfully pretty lady who's a housewife and he's a very traditional working man. Unknown to him, she wants more out of life. She never tells him anything so he assumes the marriage is fine. Well, he's out of work and needs a job so he has to work several hours away and only come home on the weekends. Since she is bored, she doesn't try very hard not to become involved with another married man. During all this, she does a lousy job of concealing it from her teenage son--eventually this selfish and carefree approach towards her son will result in consequences (the best part of the film I think because it actually shows the damage this behavior can have on the kids). Depardieu finds out but doesn't respond like a clod--in fact, he's very quick to forgive her and take her back. His character is just too decent about it. He also vows that if she's bored, he'll do anything to change things. But, she's extremely self-centered and runs off with her lover.

I actually liked the film better than most of the French "adultery movies" because you can see negative consequences. I think for those who think adultery is an evil, there's enough there to prevent the movie from glorifying it. And, interestingly enough, I could also see the movie being taken as a "do it if it makes you feel good" film by those who think adultery is a legitimate alternative. It's interesting, though, how often in films the message appears to be that it is your partner's job to make you happy--and isn't YOUR responsibility to make yourself happy. That's just my "two cents worth". I would have liked it if the film had focused more on this, but this is only a minor quibble.

Well-acted and interesting, but not a great film.

Adultery medium rare sans jus

[=G= · 7/10 · 15 July 2001]

"The Bridge" is a slice-of-French-life flick which, like many French films, is fatalistic, character-driven, and an almost plotless film about life. The film tells of a middle class housewife and mother who has an affair. The adulterous relationship is treated cooly by the husband (Depardieu), the wife (Boquet), and her lover (Berling) in this film in which, beyond the principals, everything else is just so much window dressing. Well acted, not particularly artistic but technically okay, "The Bridge" will appeal most to aficionados of French cinema while other will miss the sex, nudity, melodrama, and other appurtenances of a typical Hollywood product.

A Bridge Too Weak

[cestmoi · 22 December 2000]

Despite the wonderfully wrenching performance of the boy (Stanislas Crevillen) this Bridge lacks foundation to support the relationship that turns on a tear. Motive matters. And a thoughtless and irresponsible and unsympathetic role Bouquet is saddled with, besides a 16th arrondissement visage in a maid's role, does not allow the viewer to ultimately care, though the sympathies do lie with the boy and the dad. This tranche de la vie is a bit stale, n'est-ce pas?

In reality....there is no happy ending for CHEATING..

[afterdarkpak · 7/10 · 12 July 2020]

First of all, i watched this fast forward because this movie has no english subtitle (as i dont understand french). but still its understandable easily.

i like foreign movies (non English) about "cheating spouse" , because it does have strong plot n drama. hollywood or american "cheating spouse" mostly about weird plot mostly sex n Erotic style.

But anyhow, this movie. wife n husband n son who is like 15 or 16 years old. so they must be married that many years long , and then wife feels BORE or think husband is loser or no fun ? .. and then she falls for another MARRIED man who can or made her dreams true , good n happy life. so she n her lover both cheated their spouse to be together.

According to the review, most people thinks its about Life of two different people who are together by mistake or no fate or future. even they didnt think about the son who left them both. means they lost the son .

no wonder the divorce rate in France is extremely high , its in top 10 countries.

A bridge between two shores

[jotix100 · 8/10 · 5 April 2006]

The title of this film is appropriate and describes well what the outcome of the conflict will be. Gerard Depardieu, working with co-director Frederic Auburtin, take us back to a not too distant past to an easier time. The flavor of the film is typically French.

It's easy to see why Mina, the ravishing looking young woman at the center of the story, seems bored with her present situation. She has married a man that is, in some ways, a loser, to her eyes. Georges doesn't seem to share the same interests Mina, especially for the movies. Georges, an unemployed man, prefers to spend his time at the local pub, playing cards and drinking. As a couple, one wonders what has kept them together so long. She is a beautiful woman and it's hard to see what attracted her to Georges.

Mina, on the other hand, jumps at the offer she gets from Claire, a wealthy woman in her town, who offers her a job as a housekeeper. When she meets Matthias, Mina loses all inhibitions and becomes involved with this man that is the opposite of her husband. Tommy, the son, plays a significant part in the affair. Mina has involved him from the start; this young man, instead of being horrified by what his mother is doing, shows a perverse side when he goes along in keeping his mother' secret.

The last scene of the film offers a poignant reflection on the movie in that Mina and Georges' separation is permanent, as their lives have taken them in different directions.

Carole Bouquet is a gorgeous woman. By pairing her opposite Gerard Depardieu, the contrast is even more evident. Despite of the costumes she is made to wear, one can see in her Mina an elegance that tells us she does not belong in this marriage, or this town. Mr. Depardieu's Georges is a man that reacts with resignation to the break up. By being philosophical, after trying to reason with Mina, he conveys to us that he knew this would come as their relationship went nowhere.

Charles Berling, is seen as Matthias, an engineer who is in charge of the construction of the bridge. He is a married man, who will probably will end the affair and go back to his wife, as most of these romances have a certain time span. Stanislas Crevillen, plays young Tommy. This boy shows a cruel side toward his father, although nothing seems to be wrong in their relationship.

This film has elicited some negative comments in this forum, but in spite of that reaction, the movie will be appreciated for the frankness in which these people tell one another where they stand and for not beating around the bush in denying or hiding the truth. Adultery, after all, is a fact of life that shows its ugly face in all types of society.

Possibly the worst movie I have ever seen.

[salsbury · 1/10 · 22 November 2000]

I had the misfortune of being on a 7 and a half hour flight with this movie as one of my only forms of entertainment. I have seen and liked Gerard Depardieu in the past, so this is not an anti-French or anti-foreign film bias, just to get that out of the way. The plots was horribly weak, and gave no explanations for the events that took place or why the characters did what they did. The characters themselves were as shallow as a puddle in the Sahara. The main character has an affair for no other apparent reason than the fact that the man in the movie theater next to her cried. She fights with her son over the affair, they are in the heat of the argument, and she says "I just want you to be happy", and just like that the argument is over and everything's fine between them again. Perhaps things get lost in translation, as it was dubbed, but it would have to be just about the entire script that was lost in translation. The ending is a giant non-sequiter, and if possible, even more of a disappointment than the rest of the film. I was better entertained by the airline's "external temperature update" screen than by this film.

A joy to watch

[Bill-163 · 9/10 · 27 July 2001]

I really enjoyed this movie when I saw it recently on the Sundance Channel. I really dislike about 95% of the films provided by Hollywood and I wish we could have more films like this.

I have always liked Depardieu films and this is just one more example of why I like him as an actor. It is just a character study of how several people try to get through life. In fact, it is probably how most of us get through life and you rarely see it portrayed in films from Hollywood.

I know that most people that I know would not like a film like this, but I am sure thankful that I get to see them.