L'homme du train (2002)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Patrice Leconte

Writer:

Claude Klotz (writer)

Release Date:

2 October 2002 (Belgium)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

A poet. A thief. Two strangers with nothing in common are about to trade their lives for a chance to cheat their destinies.

Plot:

At a deserted train station, a teacher and a gangster meet and realize that each might have been better suited to the other man's way of life...

Plot Keywords:

Train | Opposites | Teacher | Human Relationship | Heart Disease

Awards:

6 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Jean Rochefort	...	Monsieur Manesquier
Johnny Hallyday	...	Milan
Jean-François Stévenin	...	Luigi
Charlie Nelson	...	Max
Pascal Parmentier	...	Sadko
Isabelle Petit-Jacques	...	Viviane
Edith Scob	...	Manesquier's Sister
Maurice Chevit	...	Hairdresser
Riton Liebman	...	Burly Guy
Olivier Fauron	...	Schoolboy
Véronique Kapoyan	...	Baker
Elsa Duclot	...	Waitress
Armand Chagot	...	Gardener
Michel Laforest	...	Pharmacist
Alain Guellaff	...	Surgeon

Also Known As:

The Man on the Train (International: English title) (UK) (USA)
Das zweite Leben des Monsieur Manesquier (Germany)
Man on the Train (USA)

MPAA:

Rated R for some language and brief violence.

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

France | Germany | UK | Switzerland

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Germany:12 | Spain:T | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:A | Denmark:11 | France:U | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12A | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Annonay, Ardèche, France

Company:

Ciné B

Quotes:

Milan: One guy can't take two on, except in the movies.

Movie Connections:

Remade as Man on the Train (2009)

A Great French Western

We know this film from childhood, but the child has grown. Here we are in a provincial French city when the cowboy rides in on the iron train to transform the life of a citizen, unexpectedly, profoundly.

Jean Rochefort, with his great face of character, about to go for major surgery, a three vessel bypass, a wifeless man of regrets, a retired teacher of literature to secondary students, is about to meet his fantasy: Johnny Hollyday (the Elvis of France?) who plays a bank robber about to perform his retirement job. Meeting by apparent chance, though clearly pre-ordained, the fantasies of the lonely, anxious teacher whose love of poetry might be his most tender trait in an otherwise ruthlessly real view of the world, are set in motion. Hollyday becomes his unexpected guest...the lone hotel is closed for the season...and an excitement comes to Rochefort's life. The man has guns. There is a picture of him looking terribly western in his leather jacket, the enigmatic stranger/cowboy in the mythos of his host. Ah, to be that man, to fire that gun, to live that life of dark adventure.

It goes on to its meaningful end, not told here except to say that the last scene may be an error, a prolongation that was unnecessary and added nothing to the power of the film, nor detracted from the marvelous performance of Rochefort, who can do no wrong with any role, or Hollyday, whose acting turn here is perfect in the Robert Mitchum noir sense, but tinged with an old-world tiredness that is quite moving. All this with fine subsidiary acting, a perfectly murky Simenonoish setting, and Schubert's melancholic sounds. Ah, bon. Tres, tres bon.