Robert J. Maxwell A visual cartoon. It's colorful, filled with speeded-up action and absurdities, sometimes almost frantic, and seems to combine M. Hulot with Richard Lester's treatment of the Beatles yet to come.There's nothing much to the story. Nine year old Zazie, a shrill little girl, meets odd people in Paris and impossible things happen. As shocking as it must have seemed at the time, it's more charming than amusing now, after the technique has been anatomized and splayed across the screen so often since then.And to think this comes from Louis Malle, director of quiet, sensitive, understated tales with an abundance of humanity. Also Candace Bergen as a wife.Of all the silly characters, Philippe Noiret is the most appealing. He was the same mope then that he is now except so much younger.It occurs to me that if you're fond of silent comedies with Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, you'll probably like this. It goes beyond the silent comics into the absurdist ionosphere but still --

gavin6942 When the mother of Zazie comes to Paris to meet her lover, she leaves her daughter with her uncle Gabriel. However the reckless and uncontrollable niece leaves Gabriel's apartment and decides to visit Paris by subway.Some reviewers see in this film the roots of "Amelie". Others may see a very French version of "Catcher in the Rye", albeit nowhere near as dark. What we certainly have is a fast-paced slapstick screwball film of a little girl in a big city where nothing goes right. And also a sheep or a dog or something.While the film is not heavily structured in any narrative sense, it is quite fun in how it uses stream of consciousness to tell its tale. In a way, the sum is greater than its parts because the story is the experience itself.

Rindiana This has to be seen to be believed! Malle seems just as well to be the victim of Zazie's dark whirlwind surrealism as the audience themselves. Never again achieved an adolescent movie character such an anarchic quality. Despite all the displays of technical outrageousness and pure buffoonery, the pic never feels as superficially sketch-like as many of Dick Lester's works. And the complete lack of warmheartedness is a relief in a picture featuring a young girl! Now that's a truly original way to declass French bourgeoisie and throw an anti-Fascist pie in their faces! And it's one of the few hommages to silent comedy (amongst sundry allusions to cinema and social topics) that really work. And it's one of Malle's best.9 out of 10 polar bears

sm.starman Raymond Queneau is my favorite writer. He was one of the rare giants of french litterature who could make you really laugh out loud while you were reading one of his classics.ZAZIE DANS LE MÉTRO was his funniest novel, but if you are not fluent in french, you will miss a lot of the jokes; Queneau loved to play with the language.Fortunately, Louis Malle has done a good job in adapting the humor of Queneau, translating the novel into a more visual, slapstick, cartoon-like movie. An intelligent comedy that is it's own unique category.