You won't be disappointed!

Sadly Over-hyped

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

This is one of the few movies on IMDb that I just couldn't finish watching--it was THAT bad. And, this is another example of a movie with reasonably decent IMDb reviews that seems way out of proportion. Even if it's not as bad as I think, it's hard to imagine it being a great film, that's for sure. But, once again I might just be an old crank. Read along and you be the judge.This movie was directed by Louis Malle--a very well-respected director, to say the least. However, this film just doesn't show the talents that would be so evident in films like AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS. This film just looks lousy by modern standards of film making--not especially professional or polished. This is because so much in the film is telegraphed and painfully slapstick. And, at times, the camera and music speed up to let us know "it's time to laugh"--like what you might expect in a high school pageant when someone is doing a lame Charlie Chaplin impersonation. Then, when you combine this very broad humor(?) with a foul-mouthed little brat, you have the ingredients of a thoroughly unappealing,...nay, annoying film. Stupid and unfunny slapstick and an annoying brat--it's like watching a 90 minute migraine! This movie, like the French love of Jerry Lewis, is something I just don't get.

This is a screen adaptation of one of those novels they said couldn't be filmed. Raymonde Queneau is a sort of James Joyce-lite whose work is studded with word-play but Jean-Paul Rappeneau and director Louis Malle make it work. A simple premise - Zazie, played by 12 year old Catherine Demongeot, is brought to Paris by her mother and dumped on uncle (Philippe Noiret) so mom can enjoy some R and R with her latest boyfriend. Zazie has only one desire, to see and ride on the Metro but the Metro is on strike - spins out of control as foul-mouthed Zazie takes off on her own and encounters a succession of pre-Monty Python/Basil Fawlty types in nothing flat. As if this bouillabaisse needed seasoning Uncle is a drag artist though straight with it. If you don't respond to zany humour you'll find it infantile - as at least one commenter did - if not chances are you'll rejoice.

Great cinema, with a wonderful exuberance and style. Louis Malle showed his great talent and versatility in this romp of cheeky comedy. Blessed with a Zazie that (for me ) captures the essence of the character originally created by Raymond Queneau, this is a 60's French film that continues to bring naive pleasure to those to whom it is a memory of the renaissance of French cinema in the early 60's, and (hopefully) will still retain a few inspirational moments for those see this movie thirty years on and who have had the benefit of later comedic directors who learned from this well-crafted and thoroughly entertaining movie.

Frankly, in the world of corny jokes and lightweight punchlines of the Hollywood comedies I hunger for the good old French physical comedy. Malle is one of the best ju-ju men in the business and in Zazie laughs never stop. Actually, in this movie anything ever stops as people are running rather then walking and driving rather than sitting still. The story is quite simple, a little girl is sent by her mother to Paris to her uncle and the only thing she wants really is to see subway (metro). Of course she runs away, of course everybody starting after her, of course there are some dumb cops and sinister-looking strangers... Or maybe I got it all wrong for having laughed so hard I could not read the subtitles (and my French would barely guide me through a menu in some bistro). Think of it as a live action Roadrunner movie on caffeine...