Roman de gare

Greetings again from the darkness. Excellent bit of storytelling and film-making from French master Claude Lelouche. This one has a bit of trickery in its approach and will force you to pay attention to details as you get the story and characters straight.

With some similarities (but not quite at the level of) "Swimming Pool", this one crawls inside the mind of a novelist and we are treated to quite a ride! Magicians, Serial Killers, Runaway husbands, Suicide, Murder, Romantic affairs, Pig slaughter, Family quarrels ... well you get the idea. This one has much to offer and will keep your attention as you attempt to assemble all the pieces.

Very strong acting from Dominique Pinon as Laclos. Pinon is not in the Hollywood tradition of leading men, but he is fascinating to behold. Myriam Boyer as the female lead is very strong in her less than balanced character who tries desperately to please her mother. Fanny Ardant has the pivotal role of the famous novelist, Judith Ralitzer, whose next novel brings all the characters to the cross tracks.

If you enjoy a complicated, multi-faceted story line and some offbeat characters, then you will probably find the same level of enjoyment that I found.

The successful novelist Judith Ralitzer (Fanny Ardant) is interrogated in the police station about the disappearance of her ghost-writer. A serial-killer escapes from a prison in Paris. A missing school teacher leaves his wife and children. In the road, the annoying and stressed hairdresser Hughette (Audrey Dana) is left in a gas station by her fiancé Paul while driving to the poor farm of her family in the country. A mysterious man (Dominique Pinon) offers a ride to her and she invites him to assume the identity of Paul during 24 hours to not disappoint her mother. Who might be the unknown man and what is real and what is fiction?

"Roman de Gare" is an intriguing and suspenseful story with many twists and a reasonable resolution. The first part while the identity of the aspirant magician is unknown is great, with a good performance of the unknown and gorgeous Audrey Dana in the role of a complex character. When Pierre Laclos vanishes and Judith's novel becomes a best-seller, I really expected a better explanation for what happened in the yacht. But the movie is very entertaining and recommended. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Crimes de Autor" ("Crimes of Author")

ROMAN DE GARE has a lot going for it. Start with one of France's biggest stars, "jolie/laid" (beautiful/ugly) Fanny Ardant. Add Domique Pignon, the brilliant and quirky circus performer turned actor who starred in DELICATESSIN, CITY OF LOST CHILDREN, and AMELIE. Add Audrey Dana as Hugette, a lovely "rocker chick next door" type & hairdresser wannabe, who gives a knock-your-socks-off performance in one of the most interesting victim roles written for a woman in years. Add a fantastic, complex, multi-layered mystery-thriller script that holds your interest and is tight-as-a-drum.

Toss in a serial killer on the loose, a husband who has walked out on his job/wife/and child, a ghost writer for a famous author, a handsome policeman in love with an overweight housewife, a murder, and a brother/sister magic act. Finally, the core of this film takes us to the kind of French countryside we never see... French "hill country" that is like a ramshackle farm in West Virginia, where education is poor, and the house a modified stable.

Instead of being a mess, all of these elements pull together so simply in a way that feels everyday and natural; because ultimately this film is about the complexity of modern life.

For those who like to look deeper, we have the significant, meaningful themes of "wanting to run away from your life," and the modern inability to know who anyone really is - the essential modern mistrust. Ardant's character doesn't even know who she is herself, and it is shown in persistent yet such subtle ways throughout.

For those who don't like to look deeply, the good news is that you don't have to. ROMAN DE GARE glides along and keeps you engaged throughout. It keeps you guessing... we know we are seeing one of the books being talked about, but we don't even know for sure which book we are watching.

The film SWIMMING POOL mined similar territory in the literary world and has a mind-bending ending that alters your perception of the whole film. We are set up for that kind of ending here, and I left feeling disappointed. It is only now, several days later that I feel this is one of the most deft and well orchestrated films I've seen in years. We go from a yacht in Cannes to a highway rest stop, and there is no "comment" on the social contrasts, it just is. To have it all feel organic and natural is the real magicians art - the work of a confident and mature filmmaker.

The production values are as high as you would expect with big stars in the leads. The costuming touches say so much. The hairdresser's trashy trendy high-heeled boots, Ardan'ts frankly fake wigs and obvious foundation makeup are the touches that speak to the inner personality. The fact that "Hugette" is the smallest woman is worth noticing.

Really modern. Really complex. Really entertaining. Really Real. See it.

When I can, I try to come here shortly after having seen a movie before I can intelectualise it too much or...forget half of it. I have just watched "Roman de Gare", came home and checked IMDb! Having left France at 27 and some 40 years now. Roman de Gare pointed me in the direction of romantic story in trains or train stations. I guess I was partly on the right track but reading other's comment I do agree with "typical Novel one would buy at the station to fill time on the train journey". (I'm not familiar with "airport novel" but imagine it must be very similar) All this,though, did not prepare me much for what was to come. I did enjoy the "trip" but I had some reservation about the twists and turns it took. I do mind improvisations that mislead almost solely for the sake of misleading. Personally I would have preferred to see these improvisations done in a much smarter way instead of being there just because we are told these 'situations' are there with 'would be' links but we have to guess what is what.

I probably would have enjoy the story just as much or even better if it had been simpler but kept the main element in one direction. Instead I found we were told a fairly straight forward story with, a lot of adds on that really did not do much beside confusing the audience but to lead to a rather conventional ending. It is possible I'll have a different reaction on a second viewing, however today, I had a good time but I found there was something not quite right for me.

"Roman De Gare" is Lelouch's best movie since his good comedy/thrillers of the seventies ("Le Voyou" "LE Chat Et La Souris" "LA Bonne Année".)

It must be the screenplay:for it does not present itself as typifying a new Lelouch approach;the group of people ,some of whom having a thin connection between them is as old as the hills in Lelouch's filmography from "Toute Une Vie" to "Les Uns ET Les Autres";the reality/fiction subject was already broached in "Edith And Marcel" a forerunner of "La Mome";Lelouch's fondness for French song is also to be found here (represented by a Gilbert Becaud mini-repertoire ,which has no real connection with the plot;in the past,it was Sacha Distel,Johnny Hallyday and ,yuk ,Mireille Mathieu.)The "things are not what they seem" topic was the main interest of the 1970 effort "le Voyou" and continued with such works as "Viva La Vie" .

And yet,the impression left by the movie as a whole is a definitely more balanced ,poised and modest Lelouch.Once this would have been thought a downright incongruity ,even an impossibility -the movie was first shown as a work made by an anonymous director - ,neither desirable nor likely.But now,it seems Lelouch is on the right track again.

Gone are the pretensions of the mammoth movies ,the likes of "Les Uns Et Les Autres" ;Gone is the blandness of psychological dramas such as "Et Si C'Etait A Refaire" ;instead the viewer rejoices in the presence of wonderful lines sometimes worthy of Guitry and Jeanson.I remember TRuffaut telling Lelouch "UN Homme Et Une Femme " was the best New Wave movie;terse answer by Lelouch :"I hate N.W" ;which was rebellious at the time at least artistically.

If an influence can be felt in "Roman De Gare" ,it's that of the superior old school.Long before Lelouch ,Julien Duvivier had invented the movie made of subplots which became a seamless whole in the end .It was obvious in "Sous Le Ciel De Paris" (1951).But the movie Lelouch borrows from is arguably the overlooked and largely ignored Duvivier's "La Fete A Henriette"(1952) in which two screenwriters play a part which Dominique Pinon's role recalls.Lelouch is no match for Duvivier, he has not got his pessimism ,and he adds a detective side ,but to mention Jeanson,Guitry or Duvivier in a Lelouch review indicates that the director can age gracefully.As historian Patrick Brion wrote "LA Fete A Henriette" was plundered (and remade three times,a record for a FRench movie).Lelouch did use some elements of the movie with care and talent.

A stellar cast gives the movie much substance:Dominique Pinon is the stand-out the only French actor who is both ugly and handsome ;Myriam Boyer is the crude peasant whose only obsession is that "her son-in-law believes in God.She proves herself smarter than she first appeared,noticing that the "Jew" eats pork and that this "physician cannot stand the sight of blood" .A short-haired Fanny Ardant is cast as a writer called Judith Ralitzer (a hint at "Pulitzer" or at the "Romans De Gare" of writer Paul Loup Sulitzer?).

Witty,funny and intriguing:if someone had told me I 'd like a Lelouch movie in the naughties....