Catherine Demongeot, Phillipe Noiret, Hubert Deschamps, the striking-looking Carla Marlier.
It's as though Malle saw what the New Wave were doing (referenced in the film), then threw away the rule book. The dazzling tricks and colour (ph. Henri Raichi) seem to have influenced Amelie, or closer in time, Dick Lester's Beatles films and the swinging sixties, though the hilarious chase sequence is pure Warner Bros. cartoon. Zazie's coarse language also makes us think of Paper Moon.
But it's all too much - needs a chill-out section, which it nears in a night scene with a great jazz-pop score - and the end punch-up in the restaurant is just silly (though even here there's a very Godardy device of background images being bigger than the foreground). The scenes atop the Eiffel Tower are terrifying.
Richard Ayowade reckons he watches this film once a month.
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