Film Review
L'Homme du train, Patrice Leconte's darkest and most mysterious film to date, sees
the improbable pairing of ageing French rock star Johnny Halliday and veteran popular
actor Jean Rochefort. Best summed up as a bleakly existentialist black
comedy, with some bewilderingly surreal flights of fancy,
the film belongs to the darker part of Leconte's oeuvre, which includes
Monsieur Hire (1989)
and
Le Mari de la coiffeuse
(1990). You would hardly recognise it as the work of the same
director who, in his younger days, foisted on us such wild and wacky comedies as
Les Bronzés (1978) and
Circulez y'a rien à voir (1983).
Compelling performances from the film's two stars make this a haunting and memorable piece
of cinema. Rochefort, one of France's finest character actors, now in his seventies,
shows no sign of losing his ability to captivate his audience. The film, his seventh
collaboration with Patrice Leconte, allows him to give one of his best screen performances.
Johnny Halliday, not so well known as an actor, offers a perfect contrast to Rochefort's
likeable ex-teacher, although he relies more on his "hard" image as a singer than his
talent as an actor.
With its appropriately sombre cinematography, the film draws us into the minds of its
two principal characters, Manesquier and Milan, allowing the audience to sympathise with
their sense of regret at what they perceive as wasted lives. The style of
the film is very much that of a doom-laden western, portraying its two heroes as solitary
outsiders and culminating in the latter-day equivalent of a gunfight at the last chance
saloon.
The film's unusual, surreal ending has proved to be a source of controversy, with Rochefort
himself stating that it was probably a mistake. However, it allows Leconte to pull
off the seemingly impossible feat of giving his tragic film something that may pass for
a happy ending - although what exactly he meant to say is anyone's guess.
© James Travers 2002
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Patrice Leconte film:
Rue des plaisirs (2002)
Film Synopsis
One evening, a stranger, Milan, arrives in a small French town and enters a pharmacy to
buy some aspirin. There, he meets Manesquier, a retired teacher who lives
alone in a huge house. Realising he has bought soluble aspirin by mistake, Milan
accepts Manesquier's invitation to his house. Despite their differences, the two
men are drawn together by a mutual respect. Milan, a world-weary gangster,
would willingly swap his life for Manesquier's calm retirement. In his turn,
Manesquier fancies himself in Milan's shoes, living a life of danger and adventure.
Three days from now both men have to confront death - Manesquier in a heart operation,
Milan in a bank raid. Realising how little time is left to them, the two men reflect
on the other life they could have had...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.