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36 out of 39 people found the following review useful: The best film of 2003, 7 January 2004 Author: kristinealain from New York City USA
"Man on the train", directed by Patrice Leconte is "intimiste" French cinema at its best. It tells the story of a chance encounter and ensuing friendship between Milan, a gangster who is coming to a small French town to rob a bank and Manesquier, a retired professor of poetry who has lived there his whole life. The two protagonists could not be more different and yet, each one becomes fascinated by the other's life. Soon, Milan tries on slippers and Manesquier is shooting a gun at soda cans. Was Milan's life wasted because he never had the strength to fill his life with the structure he so desires? Was Manesquier's life wasted because he never had the strength to escape the structured life he so loathes? Will they go all the way and actually exchange lives? The movie is extremely well directed and photographed, with grainy blueish colors that support each character's melancholy. The script is tight and leaves room for silent moments which are as important to the story as the dialogue (a concept unknown in Hollywood). Every word has a deeper meaning than its litteral one. In one of the best scenes of the movie, the elegant poetry professor Manesquier puts on Milan's leather jacket and stands in front of the mirror saying in English: "The name is Earp...Wyatt Earp". But in the end, what makes the movie such a gem is the talent of the two lead actors who, like their characters, are such extreme opposites that their screen relationship could easily have ended up devoid of any chemestry. Jean Rochefort is an intellectual and one of France's greatest and most subtle living actors. Johnny Hallyday is the uneducated, over-the-top rock'n roll singer and social icon who has monopolized the #1 spot in French music charts since 1960 and who has been derided by the French intelligentsia ever since. Until the movie, Rochefort himself was no fan of Hallyday, though he likes to say with a grin: "Madame Rochefort, on the other hand...". They have since become friends. It, reportedly, took a lot of effort by Rochefort and Leconte to make Hallyday comfortable enough to act opposite Rochefort whom he saw as a towering icon. They most certainly succeeded since, in the end, it is the surprising subtelty of Hallyday's performance that makes the movie so poignant. Despite the botox injections and the face lifts, his Mount Rushmore face looks like that of a man who has been to hell and back a few hundred times. He has such presence and charisma that you can't take your eyes off him whenever he appears on the screen. Though he plays Milan with a minimalist approach, both in demeanor and delivery, he manages to display the most intense emotions in a simple grin, a gesture or a stare. The way he smokes Manesquier's pipe while explaining Balzac's "Eugenie Grandet" (which he has obviously never read) to a private student of Manesquier will make you chuckle. The way he looks at Manesquier when he leaves his house at the end of the movie will simply break your heart... "Man on the train" is a gentle, tender film which asks big questions in little ways. Let's pray it never gets remade in Hollywood...
28 out of 30 people found the following review useful: Interesting and beautiful, 8 February 2004 Author: rbverhoef (rbverhoef@hotmail.com) from The Hague, Netherlands
'The Man on the Train' is a beautiful movie about two man later in life. One of them is a bank robber, the other is a teacher. They meet by accident and become friends. Slowly they both start wishing they would have been the other man.The teacher (Jean Rochefort) knows what the bank robber (Johnny Hallyday) does for his money. He even offers to help, but the day the bank will be robbed he has to go into surgery. We see how the teacher pretends to be a cool guy, even changes his looks to that. We also see how the bank robber pretends to be a teacher when the real teacher is out.All this leads to an ending that closes things in one way, but leaves things open in another. We feel an ending like this coming, but it still works. It is beautiful and fits the rest of the movie perfectly.If your favorite movies are like 'The Fast and the Furious' you will probably not like this. It is a real European movie, sometimes slow, most of the time very quiet, but if you can appreciate this kind of film making you will like 'The Man on the Train'.
20 out of 22 people found the following review useful: Wonderful drama about two men who want to switch places..., 10 August 2003 Author: dwpollar from Bothell, Washington
1st watched 8/9/2003 - 7 out of 10(Dir-Patrice Leconte): Wonderful drama about two men who want to switch places in life because each is bored of what their life has become. One is a bank robber, and the other is a retired poetry teacher. The bank robber is plain tired of the excitement and the other wants excitement in his life. The retired poetry teacher also has an upcoming triple-bypass heart surgery that lends to his aggressiveness about trying out the other lifestyle. Like many French dramas, this movie takes it's time and explores the characters and let's us get to know them. This is `so' lacking in most American films these days and therefore this is a breath of fresh air for those who are okay with reading subtitles. While watching this movie you get the feeling that you're watching two `real' people interacting despite their differences. Do they ever switch places? Well, sort of but like other French dramas `reality' is where the film stays for the most part. The ability for the characters to understand and accept each other is `just' wonderful and makes a wonderful statement about how we should `all' interact and I think this is what makes this film remarkable.
17 out of 17 people found the following review useful: A Great French Western, 23 May 2003 Author: cestmoi from United States
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.
8 out of 8 people found the following review useful: A surprising intersection of two contrasting lives, 31 May 2003 Author: noralee from Queens, NY
"Man on the Train (L'Homme du train)" is a small story of cumulative details done exceedingly well that could simply not be done by Hollywood. The excellent leads, each charismatic in his own way, talky Jean Rochefort and taciturn Johnny Hallyday (who brings none of his pop star baggage to an American audience), are past middle age. There is a lot of Rohmer-like sitting around talking over a bottle of wine. The emphasis is on very gradual, internal realizations by each character that are revealed by a subtle accretion of surprising little decisions, such as wearing slippers or getting a new haircut, culminating in an unpredictable, yet beautifully satisfying conclusion. Photographed in a shades of gray palette that is almost in black-and-white, a small town and its interconnections and personalities are beautifully evoked. The women in their lives are ancillary, which is just as well, as they are not completely believable. The poetry teacher is too sophisticated to quote John Greenleaf Whittier, but I will, on the theme: "Of all the words of tongue or pen/the saddest are these/It might have been."
9 out of 10 people found the following review useful: Again...Europe; France, 29 June 2005 Author: jpschapira from Argentina
European cinema again; again originality, again stuff almost unique that I'm afraid I'll never find something similar. Here, the story about two people, and those two alone, and it is not easy two keep up ninety minutes developing their experiences. You need to have a good eye, pace, and respect for your characters.These characters are Milan (Johnny Hallyday), a thief; and Monsieur Manesquier (Jean Rochefort), a retired literature professor. Their differences make their encounters scary. One, an old man who likes to talk and is fascinated by this mysterious obscure man in strange clothes; Manesquier enters Milan's room and imagines to be in a fantasy world he couldn't live in.Milan is quiet and soft talking, but induces the old man into the drinking again, into excitement and adventures; and after meeting his pals he even doubts about carrying on with the only thing he came to do to this town: rob a bank. He reaches the limit of giving a literature lesson to one of Manesquier's pupils.The camera is in love with them both, and presents each one in an original way when they are on screen. Different colors, postures, followings. Each one might hide something; there's a past, but that's not what this story that wanders through coincidences and casualties of life wants to show.A simple aspirin, a glass of water; what can that lead to. The anxiety of a man to be part of something he never lived, on one side. On the other side the silence and intrigue of the little conversation. The glasses of wine, the lunches that seem to say much but are saying almost nothing about the characters.The music, by Pacscal Estève, is very important to the film; giving to it a touch of Westerns style, playing to represent the state of mind and humor of the characters when we see them, or simply, not playing at all; and that's very good sometimes. Ivan Maussion's production design is also a good point for that matter, with his deserted streets and lonely places.The screenplay results to be cultured and very intelligent. Patrice Leconte's frequent writing collaborator leaves everything in his character's hands; because the words are his. Also frequently cast by Leconte, Jean Rochefort's delivery is impressing in his measured role, that requires little but well done. It's Johnny Hallyday, however, the one who steals, or shines in his loneliness. With all those looks and his face, always full of hidden things.Metaphors join us again, in the movie; for us to interpret. I tried, and everyone will, but I say: thank Europe for these movies; it's worth and more a kind of pleasure to watch them!
12 out of 18 people found the following review useful: This slow burner may be two insignificant for many, but its a delightfully realised little film., 7 August 2004 Author: Ben_Cheshire from Oz
The great Jean Rochefort plays a mild-mannered old man who's so lonely that as soon as mopey bank robber Johnny Hallyday lets a room in his empty mansion, he simply won't stop talking to him, no matter how little Hallyday says back! Both men are bored with their current lives but are intrigued by the other's.This slow burner may not be interesting enough for many, certainly not quick enough for most. But its nevertheless a fascinating "little" film and character study. It works in the play between these two men from different worlds, who grow to aspire to see what its like to be the other person. There's no giant twist, no supernatural catch at the end, so don't be expecting it - just enjoy it for the wry, vivid look into the rapport between these two men with nothing in common.3.5/5. A treat.
5 out of 5 people found the following review useful: Excellent!Well directed, perfectly acted, fantasticly ironic., 22 November 2002 Author: csara80 from Vicenza, Italy
This movie must be seen! Too many people think about French films as too slow, boring and too "intellectual". L'Homme du Train is the opposite: ironic, funny without being obvious or foreseen. Two protagonists and a director: a perfect alchemy between the three.Leconte uses the camera "inside" the characters, Rochefort and Hallyday are superb in their roles. Moreover everyone can identify with one of the two: everyone dreamt at least once to be someone else! Leconte makes the dream true!
6 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Facing destiny, 7 June 2003 Author: rosscinema (rosscinema@cox.net) from Oceanside, Ca.
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
This is a film that could be asking a question but which one? Can we change our destiny or does destiny change us? The film starts with a mysterious man on a train who comes to a small French town to meet some others for a planned bank heist and in a small shop meets an older man who is instantly drawn to him. Johnny Hallyday plays Milan who doesn't say much and the great Jean Rochefort is the retired teacher of poetry Monsieur Manesquier. Milan cannot find a place to stay and Manesquier is more than happy to have him stay with him. Both men are the opposite of each other. Milan is a tough ex-con type that has been down a tough road in his life and seems very tired of his life and appreciates his hosts simple life. Manesquier is a dreamer that does jigsaw puzzles and eats the same meal in the same diner every day. But he dreams of being a cowboy or a gangster type. He asks Milan if he has any tattoos and ultimately asks if he can be in on the heist. Milan is street wise and says no. During the course of the film we watch each character try and become each other. Milan borrows some old comfortable slippers to wear and wears his mustache like Manesquire. At one point he helps a young boy who is being tutored in poetry. Manesquire on the other hand gets his hair cut short like some of the younger men and has Milan show him how to shoot pistols. *****SPOILER ALERT***** Towards the end of the film Manesquire is having a heart operation at the same time Milan and his cohorts rob a bank. During the robbery Milan discovers someone has tipped off the police and they are surrounded by a swat team. Manesquire dies on the operation table at the exact same time as Milan is gunned down. The film has lots of symbolism like the ending when both trade spots and become each other even though its to late. There is on scene in the film where the bank robbers are in a stolen car at a red light and on the other side of the intersection in another car is the surgeon who is going to perform the operation the next day. When the light turns green both cars pass each other and this scene reflects what the film really is about. Two men with destinies that can't be changed passing each other in different directions. Hallyday is quite effective as the burnt out thief and he gives a performance that reminds me of a younger Charles Bronson. His quietness is the key to his character. He's seen a lot and is burnt out, what more is their to say? And Rochefort is a marvel to watch. He seems perfectly cast as a retired teacher who craves excitement in his dwindling life. Listening to him ramble on with his stories adds so much to the film that you can understand why he wants to change his life. The film is shot in a hazy gray tone and there is no sunshine at all in this film. It made me think that maybe these two doomed characters were in all essence dead already and they were just to lost souls walking around in limbo until their fate catches up to them. Patrice Leconte has shown to be a good story teller and this is arguably Leconte's best film beside "The Hairdressers Husband". Well made with two excellent performances make this a memorable film.
7 out of 9 people found the following review useful: Trading places always a dodgy business, 7 September 2003 Author: Philby-3 from Sydney, Australia
As we left the theatre someone inevitably said, `that was very French.' And so it was, or at least it was a movie that Hollywood would never have made. Washed-up bank robber meets retired French teacher and they become friends, each hankering after the other's lifestyle. The teacher is facing open-heart surgery, the robber the prospect of a dangerous bank job with three unreliable associates. All this set in a really boring small town in the Rhone Valley (filmed mainly in Annonoy with funding of course from the local Film Commission).Yet it works. Watching the two principals, Jean Rochefort as the teacher and Johnny Hallyday as the robber is like watching Torvill and Dean – perfect synchronisation, but with humour added. There's not a false move and the script is seamless – it seems quite inevitable that such an improbable relationship could develop. Somehow we don't notice the improbabilities, such as the gang stealing a huge (by French standards) and rare BMW 740 for use as a getaway car the evening before the robbery from a car park in the centre of town, and making no effort to conceal it until the robbery at 10 heurs the next day. Perhaps the relationship can be explained on the basis that Jean likes to talk and Johnny is content to listen. As they get to know each other Jean becomes quite concerned about his guest and Johnny, for his part, comes to admire his host. He even upbraids Jean's quite pleasant mistress for boring Jean with talk of her children's misdemeanours. The film ends in a flurry of `maybe things might have been different if…'. You can choose the alternative ending you like in fact, though the fantasy is more palatable that reality. Unlike Hollywood, French filmmakers trust their audience, and it is unlikely too many viewers will feel cheated here.
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