Lulu on the Bridge. 1998. Directed by Paul Auster.

(1/27/01-1/29/01)

The film seemed pointless in that it all turned out to be the fantasy or delirium of a dying man. That was a big letdown because a lot of the questions in the film never get answered--don't have to be answered. What is the strange object that glows in the dark? Who are the people who are so anxious to retrieve it and what do they plan to do with it? Why does the heroine leap from the bridge--what does she think that will gain for her?

The fact that it is a dying man's fantasy works as far as his relationship to the young woman is concerned and gives it a special poignancy. I don't know whether I like Harvey Keitel's performance; it sometimes seems mannered and at other moments seems genuine and intense. I liked Mira Sorvino very much. I really liked the first scene that they do together--where Keitel comes to Sorvino's apartment to question her about the mysterious object. He is so intense and she doesn't know if he is a maniac she has allowed into her home--or what. We--the audience--know what this is all about, but she doesn't. That scene had quite an impact.

Keitel is kidnapped and held prisoner where he is questioned by a man who is there to find the object, but becomes a sort of psychiatrist to Keitel, reviewing his life with him, knowing everything--or almost everything--about him. This part of the film is like something thought up by Kafka.

Sorvino gets the starring role in a remake of Pabst's Pandora's Box. One would expect that the film she is involved in making would have some relation to the events of the film we are watching, but I don't see any relationship. There is one great moment, though, when at a dinner Sorvino discusses her interpretation of Lulu with Vanessa Redgrave, who is going to direct it. She disagrees with Redgrave's thoughts and when Redgrave cites a comment by Frank Wedekind, author of the original play, Sorvino tells her matter-of-factly that he was wrong. This from a young actress with practically no credentials who has just landed her first major part. She is just so ingenuous.

Lulu on the Bridge is a bizarre film with some really interesting moments, but I found it unsatisfying in the long run.