An impressionistic essay on the Paris metro, more the above-ground section than the underground part. Franju and Langlois shot it with a fixed-focus lens, on three rolls of 16mm reversible film paid for by Langlois’ mother. (Langlois soon declared that he mustn’t touch the camera, because it would bring bad luck.) The camera stares up at passengers as they charge down stairs. Women in skirts and businessmen rush past, seen from feet to waist. Tracking shots show a metro train flying above the river between Bir-Hakeim Station and Passy. The Eiffel Tower, the Seine and sweeping pans across trees and buildings follow. A young man is seen on a platform, then seated in a carriage. Elevators, shafts, escalators, steam, a map of the Metro, railings… More steam rises off trains as they enter and leave a station. The film was discovered and preserved in 1985.

Bernard Eisenschitz, based on Glenn Myrent, in Tirages et restaurations de la Cinémathèque française II,
La Cinémathèque française, Paris 1987