Film Review
With
Train d'enfer, Algerian-born actor-turned director Roger Hanin makes an unashamed, and
justified, assault on the complacency of the French state in regard to one of the
most important issues facing this country at the present time: racial
intolerance.
Whilst intended for a French audience, the film should strike a chord with
spectators in other countries in the West, particularly the United States and the United Kingdom, where
racial hatred and discrimination remain major concerns,
with rightwing political parties gaining ever more support
from an electorate fearful of immigration.
Hanin famously described Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of France's National
Front party as a 'true Nazi', for which Le Pen filed a lawsuit
against him for defamation in 1990.
Although Hanin perhaps goes a little over the top in presenting the issue (the film features
some very improbable scenes), he does manage to get across the point very effectively,
that there is a very narrow line between national pride and xenophobia. That great
emblem of French national unity,
La Marseillaise, is unfurled and presented in
the worst light, reinforcing the impact of the atrocity that has been revealed, and almost
ridiculing the notion of nationalism when placed beside the horror which that nationalism
can inspire.
This is not a comfortable film to watch. In some ways, it is bleaker than
many of the tough gangster films that Hanin has starred in over the
preceding three decades (
La Valse du gorille (1959),
Le Grand pardon (1982)).
The murder of the young Arab at the start
of the film is very graphic and shocking - intentionally so, in order that those terrible
images remain lodged in our minds throughout the film. Almost daily, we are confronted
with new stories of similar assaults, but somehow witnessing this kind of racially motivated
attack brings home its true horror. In the film, the murder is witnessed by dozens
of train passengers who simply turn a blind eye and do nothing. The one person who
does try to intervene herself becomes the target for assault. This is a depressingly
honest painting of a sick society. Fortunately, by presenting the police and racial
communities in a predominantly positive light, the film offers some hope for the future.
Thirty years on,
Train d'enfer is still depressingly relevant.
© James Travers 1999
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Next Roger Hanin film:
La Rumba (1987)
Film Synopsis
A young Arab is attacked and killed on a high-speed train by some young thugs and a right-wing
activist. A young woman reports the crime to the police but she herself is later
killed. Someone in the police is actively stimulating racial tension and supporting
extreme right-wing activities…
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.