Subway
Short description
Fred is a safecracker who steals documents from a wealthy businessman and then hides from the people pursuing him in the tunnels and service passages of the Paris Metro. There he discovers an underground community of eccentrics and small-time criminals who have made their own world beneath the city, and he meets Helena, the elegant wife of the man he robbed, whose secrets draw her after him. A manhunt involving both criminals and police unfolds through the Metro's maze as the relationship between the thief and his victim develops.
Subway was released in 1985 and runs 104 minutes. It is Luc Besson's first feature as director, the earliest of the 20 films he has directed to date and the one that precedes The Big Blue; he also wrote the screenplay with Alain Le Henry and Pierre Jolivet and produced the film. The cast is led by Christophe Lambert as Fred and Isabelle Adjani as Helena, with Richard Bohringer, Michel Galabru, Jean-Hugues Anglade and Jean-Pierre Bacri among the supporting roles. It was made on an estimated budget of 17 million USD, with 53 credited cast members and 76 credited crew.
The film has a rating of 6.5 out of 10 on IMDb from around 18,000 votes and 6.5 out of 10 on TMDB from about 530 votes. A critics' rating of 5.7 out of 10 from eight reviews places professional assessments slightly below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Luc Besson made a traditional “happy ending” where Elina meets Fred, who is in prison. However, these scenes, like many others, were cut during the final editing of the film.
- Director Luc Besson was criticized by some for using the plotline of "Breathless" (1960).
- Initially, Sting and Charlotte Rampling were supposed to play the two main characters. The stars' refusal forced Luc Besson to cast Isabelle Adjani and Christopher Lambert in these roles.
- The film's script was the result of a “collective effort” by five friends of Luc Besson, including the director himself. The performer of the main role – the role of Fred – also contributed to it. The image created by Lambert combined traits of “The Little Prince and Mad Max,” hence the motivation behind his actions. To commemorate the original image of the protagonist, they kept the blonde punk hairstyle and his obsession with music.
- The complete runtime of the film was 40 minutes longer, but producers forced it to be shortened for release. As it turned out, this did not affect the artistic value of the picture, but some plot lines were left unfinished or insufficiently developed.
- The film was shot for almost five months at twelve Paris Metro stations during off-peak hours and at night.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
