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One ‘Bridge’ to Romance Is Built, Another Falls

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

“The Bridge,” starring Carole Bouquet and Gerard Depardieu, who was co-director with the film’s composer, Frederic Aubertin, is a quiet, powerful tale of adultery.

You cannot watch this sophisticated, understated film without thinking of all the people who are unaware that the bloated buffoon Depardieu plays in “102 Dalmatians” also is the greatest male star of his generation in the French cinema. This film and the Disney holiday film were made close together, but Depardieu not only seems many pounds lighter here but also slimmer than he has in years.

The setting is a picture-postcard town in Normandy in 1962, a charming place but the epitome of provincial propriety. Depardieu’s Georges has been a successful enough masonry contractor to afford a sunny, spacious home on the edge of town. But he’s lost his small business and hangs out a lot in a local cafe while his beautiful wife, Mina (Bouquet), and their 15-year-old son Tommy (Stanislas Crevillen), a serious, reflective youth, go to the movies.

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One evening they’re watching “West Side Story,” and when the lights go up Mina realizes that the clean-cut man (Charles Berling) sitting next to her has been reduced to tears, as she has. Their common emotional reaction is enough to start a conversation going and then to prompt an invitation to mother and son from Berling’s suave Matthias to join him in a drink at a nightclub, where he and Mina dance up a storm.

Once home, Mina assures her son of the innocence of the evening and in fact has no plans ever to see Matthias again. But when she does, she plunges headlong into a grand, all-consuming passion and places her son in the uncomfortable position of having to cover for her. Meanwhile, Mina has taken a job as a maid in the home of her friend, Claire Daboval (Dominique Reymond), an aristocrat whose family lives in an ancient manor house nearby.

Shortly thereafter, Georges lands a job as head of a construction crew working on an immense bridge project that will take three years to complete. One evening, while preparing to serve an elaborate meal at the manor house, Mina discovers not only that Matthias is Claire’s cousin but is also the chief engineer on the bridge--and in effect, her husband’s new boss, who will be staying at the manor house for the duration. At the same time, Claire’s anti-establishment daughter Lisbeth (Melanie Laurent) is pursuing Tommy.

What’s of primary interest here is that Mina, once romance has made her realize how suffocating her existence has become, unhesitatingly follows her heart. She wants to avoid hurting her son and husband as much as possible, but she experiences no deep conflict in embracing the promise Matthias holds in opening up a whole new world for her--of wealth and privilege as well as torrid lovemaking. (There’s no talk of marriage, though, for Matthias has a wife who prefers to stay in Nice while the bridge is being built.) Georges is loving and intelligent, and as profoundly hurt as he inevitably will be, this strong man will not express his pain in violence.

Thus, “The Bridge” becomes a confrontation between a woman whose resolve will not be weakened by the excruciating emotional wound she has inflicted and the man who must cope with this painful wound as best he can. Mina’s forthrightness gradually earns our respect.

Bouquet’s Mina doesn’t ask for sympathy from us or from anyone else; she has the courage of her passion. Depardieu’s terrible calm as Georges offers an equally strong counterpoint that gives the film tension and balance; both stars could not be better, which is saying a lot for the always-estimable Bouquet as well as Depardieu.

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This elegant and beautiful film suggests that while love can be cruelly selfish in its impact on the innocent, it does not judge Mina for pursuing it at the expense of others. “The Bridge” is as compassionate as it is unsentimental.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: strongly adult themes and situations.

‘The Bridge’

or ‘Un Pont Entre Deux Rives’

(A Bridge Between Two Shores)

Carole Bouquet: Mina

Gerard Depardieu: Georges

Charles Berling: Matthias

Stanislas Crevillen: Tommy

A Phaedra Cinema release of a DD Productions/TFI Films/Roissy Films/Compagnie Cinematographique Prima production. Directors Gerard Depardieu and Frederic Aubertin. Producer Jacques Bar. Screenplay by Francoie Dupeyon; based on the novel by Alain Leblanc. Cinematographer Pascal Ridao. Editor Noelle Boisson. Music Frederic Aubertin. Costumes Tom Rand. Art director Michele Abbe. Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes.

Exclusively at the Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6869; the Playhouse 7, 673 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 844-6500; and the Town Center 4, Bristol at Anton, South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, (714) 751-4184 or (714) 777-FILM (No. 086).

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