In building a replica of the famed Parisian Pont-Neuf bridge, Carax's film became the most expensive French film ever produced, up to that point. This budget controversy threatened to overshadow the film itself, which has slowly begun to garner the proper recognition it deserves (thanks to Martin Scorsese and Miramax's American rerelease in the summer of '99). Lavant portrays Alex, a drug-addicted, fire eating homeless man who lives on the deserted bridge, which is being restored for the French Revolution Bicentennial Celebration. When Michele stumbles into his life, a desperate, passionate relationship unfolds. Michele is an artist who is losing her eyesight due to a bizarre disease. But plot isn't the issue here. The sheer visual spectacle is. Shifting from brutal documentary to romantic melodrama to surrealism, Carax's THE LOVERS ON THE BRIDGE is an electric, powerful, poetic picture.