The Lovers on the Bridge

(Miramax)

Léos Carax's City Lights-like tale has homeless Alex (Denis Lavant) and runaway colonel's daughter Michèle (Juliette Binoche) finding refuge and love on Paris's ancient Pont Neuf. In one rhapsodic sequence set during the bicentennial Bastille Day celebrations, the pair bonk a gendarme on the bean, steal his speedboat, and take off down the Seine with Michèle sailing behind on water skis. Carax's tale is a bit mawkish, banal, and melodramatic -- and about as close to true love as movies get.