A Parisian night on the Pont Neuf. A woman bereft attempts suicide. Fate intervenes as a young man, new to town, stops her. An ordinary love story begins. Yet through Bresson, this well-worn tale is rewoven from the Dostoyevsky original into a cinematic meditation on both romanticism and the ultimate subjectivity of love. Intimacy begun in a dramatic moment of life and death continues as Marthe and Jacques pursue dreams, each enmeshed in his or her own romantic reality. Bresson's lean, austere style deeply etches their interlude: they are heard almost removed from context, and only what they see is seen. Bresson's philosophical concerns with transcendence play out in each lover's romantic reveries-Marthe's mind is full of sensual impressions of her longed-for lover while Jacques tape-records his obsessive projections of nearly every woman he sees. The director's trademark somber atmosphere is lightened by his use of color-and a pop/bossa nova beat.