''Subway'' is a 1985 French
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
directed by
Luc Besson
Luc Paul Maurice Besson (; born 18 March 1959) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He directed or produced the films '' Subway'' (1985), ''The Big Blue'' (1988), and '' La Femme Nikita'' (1990). Besson is associated with the ' ...
and starring
Isabelle Adjani
Isabelle Yasmina Adjani ; born 27 June 1955) is a French actress and singer of Algerian and German descent. She is the only performer in history to win five César Awards for acting; she won the Best Actress award for '' Possession'' (1981), '' ...
and
Christopher Lambert
Christophe Guy Denis "Christopher" Lambert (; ; born March 29, 1957) is a French-American actor, producer, and novelist. He started his career playing supporting parts in several French films, and became internationally famous for portraying Ta ...
. The film is classified as part of the
cinéma du look movement.
Plot
Having stolen some compromising documents from a powerful and successful
entrepreneur
Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...
/
gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...
at a party, a man known as Fred escapes from the police and takes refuge in the underground world of the
Paris Métro
The Paris Métro (french: Métro de Paris ; short for Métropolitain ) is a rapid transit system in the Paris metropolitan area, France. A symbol of the Paris, city, it is known for its density within the capital's territorial limits, uniform ar ...
stations and tunnels. There he joins the dwellers and befriends several colourful characters, including others who are living under the subway to avoid police arrest. While the gangster's
henchmen
A henchman (''vernacular:'' "hencher"), is a loyal employee, supporter, or aide to some powerful figure engaged in nefarious or criminal enterprises. Henchmen are typically relatively unimportant in the organization: minions whose value lies pri ...
try to find Fred, he develops a romance with the gangster's young
trophy wife
A trophy wife is a wife who is regarded as a status symbol for the husband. The term is often used in a derogatory or disparaging way, implying that the wife in question has little personal merit besides her physical attractiveness, requires sub ...
, Héléna. She had originally invited Fred to the party featured at the opening of the film, and is bored with her gilded-caged life.
Fred forms a
pop band
A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two gui ...
with some of his friends, such as "The Drummer" and Enrico, who compose the songs. While Fred is working on this project, Héléna's powerful husband pressures the police to find the fugitive. One of Fred's sidekicks, The Rollerskater, who has been wanted by the police for a long time, is captured by Commissioner Gesberg. Fred and his friend The Florist rob a train carrying money; The Florist escapes, leaving Fred with the loot.
Fred uses money from the robbery to pay off a chamber-music ensemble scheduled to perform in the subway station. His new band replaces them but, at their performance, Fred is searched for by both the police and a henchman of Héléna's husband. The henchman shoots Fred while Héléna is running towards him to warn him of the danger. The film ends with Héléna kneeling beside Fred, who is lying on his back, looking content and singing along with the band. They are playing and being applauded by the audience in the background.
Cast
*
Isabelle Adjani
Isabelle Yasmina Adjani ; born 27 June 1955) is a French actress and singer of Algerian and German descent. She is the only performer in history to win five César Awards for acting; she won the Best Actress award for '' Possession'' (1981), '' ...
as Héléna Kerman
*
Christopher Lambert
Christophe Guy Denis "Christopher" Lambert (; ; born March 29, 1957) is a French-American actor, producer, and novelist. He started his career playing supporting parts in several French films, and became internationally famous for portraying Ta ...
(as Christophe Lambert) as Fred
*
Richard Bohringer
Richard Bohringer (born 16 January 1942) is a French actor.
Personal life
Bohringer was born in Moulins, Allier, to a French mother and a German father. He is the father of actress Romane Bohringer, and has three other children, Mathieu, Richa ...
as The Florist
*
Michel Galabru
Michel Louis Edmond Galabru (27 October 19224 January 2016) was a French actor.
Career
Galabru appeared in more than 250 films and worked with directors such as Bertrand Blier, Costa-Gavras, Luc Besson (for '' Subway''), and Jean-Luc Godard. ...
as Commissioner Gesberg
*
Jean-Hugues Anglade
Jean-Hugues Anglade (born 29 July 1955) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, known for his roles as Eric in ''Killing Zoe'', Zorg in ''Betty Blue'' and Marco, the boyfriend of Nikita in '' Nikita''.
Personal life
Anglade was born ...
as The Roller
*
Jean Bouise
Jean Bouise (3 June 1929 – 6 July 1989) was a French actor.
He was born in Le Havre. In the 1950s he helped to found Théâtre de la Cité, and was a player in the company. He entered films in the 1960s, and played a supporting roles in ...
as The Station Master
*
Jean-Pierre Bacri
Jean-Pierre Bacri (24 May 1951 – 18 January 2021) was a French actor and screenwriter.
He frequently worked in collaboration with Agnès Jaoui.
Life and career
One of Bacri's earliest film appearances was '' Subway''. He co-wrote with Jaoui ...
as Inspector Batman
*
Jean-Claude Lecas as Robin
*
Pierre-Ange Le Pogam as Jean
*
Jean Reno
Jean Reno () (born 30 July 1948), is a French actor. He has worked in American, French, English, Japanese, Spanish and Italian movie productions; Reno appeared in films such as ''Crimson Rivers'', ''Godzilla'', ''The Da Vinci Code'', '' Mission: ...
as The Drummer
*
Éric Serra
Éric Serra (; born 9 September 1959) is a French composer. He is a frequent collaborator of film director Luc Besson.
Early life
Serra was born in Saint-Mandé. His father Claude was a famous French songwriter in the 1950s and '60s, and so ...
as Enrico (bassist)
*
Arthur Simms as Paul (singer)
Production
''Subway'' was filmed partially on location in the
Paris Métro
The Paris Métro (french: Métro de Paris ; short for Métropolitain ) is a rapid transit system in the Paris metropolitan area, France. A symbol of the Paris, city, it is known for its density within the capital's territorial limits, uniform ar ...
and
Paris RER
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
, and partially on sets that were designed by
Alexandre Trauner
Alexandre Trauner (born Sándor Trau; 3 August 1906 in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary, Hungary – 5 December 1993 in Omonville-la-Petite, France) was a Hungarian film production designer.
After studying painting at Hungarian University of Fin ...
. 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''.
Soundtrack
Éric Serra
Éric Serra (; born 9 September 1959) is a French composer. He is a frequent collaborator of film director Luc Besson.
Early life
Serra was born in Saint-Mandé. His father Claude was a famous French songwriter in the 1950s and '60s, and so ...
'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
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl m ...
and
cassette
Cassette may refer to:
Technology
* Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback
** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in th ...
in 1985. The soundtrack sold over 100,000 copies in France. The soundtrack was released on
CD in 1996.
Reception
''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 $390,659 at the box office in the United States.
[
The film holds an 75% rating on ]Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, based on eight reviews. Janet Maslin
Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...
of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' 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 " hecharacters and situations reso thin that they might as well be afterthoughts".
Accolades
''Subway'' was nominated for the Foreign Language Film award at the 40th British Academy Film Awards. The film was nominated for 13 César Award Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol
* ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt
* César Award, a French film award
Places
* Cesar, Portugal
* C ...
s in 1986, winning 3: Best Actor (Christopher Lambert), Best Production Design (Alexander Trauner) and Best Sound.
Home media
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
DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman.
History
Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...
'' 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 their 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.
References
Bibliography
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Subway
1985 films
1985 thriller films
Films directed by Luc Besson
Films featuring a Best Actor César Award-winning performance
Films produced by Luc Besson
Films scored by Éric Serra
Films set in Paris
Films shot in Paris
Films with screenplays by Luc Besson
French thriller films
Gaumont Film Company films
Rail transport films
1980s French films