Film Review
Marriages are made in Heaven but families are forged in Hell, and
director Patrice Chéreau leaves us in no doubt about the latter
in
Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le
train, his daring follow-up to his internationally acclaimed
La Reine Margot (1994).
Right from the start of the film, which shows the mutually antagonistic
members of a wildly dysfunctional family piling onto a TGV so that they
can attend a funeral in some remote backwater (Limoges, as it turns
out), we can feel the impending storm. Sure enough, the train has
barely pulled out of the station before the hostilities begin and old
enmities threaten to derail the family outing, more spectacularly than
any fringe terrorist organisation could ever hope to derail the train
itself.
Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train
is Chéreau's tour de force, a visually compelling drama that is
absolutely drenched in cynicism and yet so deliciously true to life
that it has more of a visceral than an emotional impact. The
camera barely seems to stop for a moment as it strays from one
explosive confrontation to another, avoiding editing cuts and thereby
locking the spectator into the seemingly endless cycle of heartbreak
and rancour. The impression is operatic (perhaps not
surprisingly, as Chéreau was also an experienced director of
staged operas), the emotions distorted and amplified as much by the
heavily laid on soundtrack as by the virtuoso camerawork, but this does
not distract from the intimacy that is at the core of the drama, the
brutal intimacy that leads the characters into conflict with one
another and brings further disfigurement to their already shattered
lives.
The finely chiselled screenplay (written by Chéreau in
collaboration with old hand Danièle Thompson) is admirably
well-served by a cast of mind-blowing proportions. There is
certainly no shortage of talent in the dizzying ensemble that
Chéreau has thrown into his bubbling cauldron of hate and
recrimination. At the heart of the drama are tensions over
inheritance (the usual point of conflict at any funeral), but this is
pretty incidental to the peripheral crises that flare up around it -
failing relationships, sibling rivalry and a case of botched
paternity. In this frenetic patchwork psychodrama, there is not
one actor who fails to give his or her best, imbuing the characters' slices of
life with shards of truth that are as poignant as they are cruel.
Dominique Blanc may have won a César for her contribution but
hers is just one of an astonishing array of perfectly judged
performances, with some equally impressive turns from Pascal Greggory,
Bruno Todeschini and Charles Berling. Vincent Perez virtually
steals the film in its viciously intense second half, harrowingly
convincing as a transsexual burdened with crippling insecurities,
although Jean-Louis Trintignant gives him a good run for his money as
the film's most fully developed and intriguing character, the solitary
outsider who has most to lose from the death of his brother (who,
incidentally, he also plays in a series of flashbacks).
La Reine Margot was a hard act
to follow but Patrice Chéreau rose to the challenge and
delivered a film that is every bit as imaginative and adventurous
(although not all the critics were convinced of its merits at the
time).
Ceux qui m'aiment
prendront le train is a superb example of a kind of film that
has become increasingly popular in French cinema over the past two
decades, the so-called 'choral drama' in which multiple stories
involving many characters are interwoven, but rarely with the delicacy
and sophistication that Chéreau achieves in his film.
Nominated for eleven Césars in 1999 (in categories that included
Best Film and Best Actor), the film won three awards, for its
cinematography, direction and supporting actress (Dominique
Blanc). One of the highlights of Chéreau's modest but
impactful career as a film director, it brought something fresh and
invigorating to French cinema in the late 1990s and remains one of the
decade's most inspired films.
© James Travers 2013
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Next Patrice Chéreau film:
Intimacy (2001)
Film Synopsis
Before his death, a world-famous painter, Jean-Baptiste, requests that he be buried in the cemetery
at Limoges, a town that is reputed for accommodating more dead people than living. He insists that
his relatives, whom he mostly despises, must take the train to attend his funeral.
Once he has shuffled off his mortal coil, Jean-Baptiste's huge family pour onto a high speed train
bound for the remote French town. Relatives who have not met for ages, and have never got
on well in the past, are forced into close proximity, and it is not long before
petty disputes and mutual loathing threaten to ruin the occasion....
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.