The Criterion Collection

Louis Malle has a well-deserved reputation for eclecticism, having made documentaries, comedies, tragedies, romances, and more. But his captivatingly strange Alice in Wonderland-esque movie siblings Zazie dans le métro (1960) and Black Moon (1975) will still take aback anyone who knows Malle primarily as the director of, say, My Dinner with André. Critics are having fun unraveling these oddball works, now out on Blu-ray and DVD from Criterion. A review at Mondo Digital does a good job putting the slapstick Zazie into context: “The same year directors François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard fired a powerful shot for the French New Wave with their black-and-white masterpieces Shoot the Piano Player and Breathless, Louis Malle was turning Paris into a giant colorful playground as seen through the eyes of a potty-mouthed, cheerful twelve-year-old girl.” The article continues: “The eye-popping colors, priceless snapshots of late '50s Paris, and infectious enthusiasm are all a pure joy to behold.” Matt Hough, reviewing Zazie for Home Theater Forum, also name-checks the New Wave, but cartoons as well: “Malle jumps head first into the French New Wave movement with a movie that breaks all of the rules and does so with relish . . . It’s a mixture of Mack Sennett farce with Tom and Jerry hijinks, all with a modern (for 1960, that is) sass and a take-no-prisoners attitude that dares the audience not to like it.” And DVD Talk’s Jamie S. Rich calls it “a pure blast of chaos and charm, with a winning young star.”

As for the more sedate but no less screwy Black Moon, about a young woman’s fantastical journey through a landscape of fairy-tale imagery, Sara Michelle Fetters of moviefreak.com writes, “This is a movie that challenges the audience, forces them to question who they are, what they are witnessing, and what they see the world as being. It is a vital, breathlessly alive effort.” Josef Braun of The Phantom Country calls it “a sumptuously photographed (by Ingmar Bergman’s longtime collaborator Sven Nykvist) work that greatly rewards those viewers inclined to shrug off things like narrative logic in favor of sustained fascination, beauty, and mystery” and “one of the most beguiling weirdo-discoveries on home video this year.” And Digitally Obsessed’s Chuck Aliaga says it’s a “wholly original masterpiece” and that Criterion’s edition is “a near-must-see event of a release.”