|
Man on the Train (L'Homme du Train)Rating:
Release Date: 01 March, 2004 Retail Price: $19.99 OUR Price: $17.99 You SAVE: $2.00! Cast: |
Man on the Train (L'Homme du Train) Reviews
EXCELLENT FOR UNDERSTANDING THE HEROIC AND GREAT WEARY FRENCH INTELLECT
I discovered this film on a rack in a liquor store in Mexico and brought it home for viewing. It builds much more slowly and subtly than the vast majority of American disposable blockbusters. In fact it withstands and demands and rewards several viewings, like re-reading James Joyce all of your life. I have used it very well in French One classes, and the students ask to see it again, despite the undeserved R ratiing. I cannot see anything in this film which merits the Restricted rating, except perhaps it does not make fun of the French, except in a very subtle and wry manner. If the R is for language, hey, it's in French! And I do not see any obscenities. Heck, Shreck has more obscenities. Rather this film is filled with poetry, including declaimed by a ruffian to his former poetry professor who confronts him as a means of ending his old and sad life and only comes out a hero. This film is way to subtle for the average American viewer trained on blast-and-crash movies, but please live with it awhile until you can perceive its intricate gossamer invisible webs and resonance. The forsaken robber who speaks only one line of original poetry at ten o'clock each morning is inexplicably gripping and poignant and exposing the harsh light of speaking about him only destroys the compelling effect. This gentle film builds slowly to the bright day of a fulfilling and illuminating and revelatory ending like great films as Grand Illusion or Babette's Feast. I highly recommend it, as one who lived in France over thirty years ago. Its American R rating is incomprehensible.
A Lasting Impact
A teacher and a lifelong criminal meet in a pharmacy in a small, out of season French town. The hotel is closed, the thief and his headache wind up at the teacher's big old family house. Days pass. One laconic, one loquacious, each is ever more drawn to the other's life. Saturday approaches; each prepares and subtly prepares the other for the approaching personal crossroads. And for both Saturday goes terribly wrong but brings one last shared miraculous moment and vision to move each man beyond what his life before has been. Meticulously acted by Jean Rochefort and a weary Johnny Halladay and tensely quiet until its jarring conclusion, Man on a Train retains its grip long after the final credits.
More Customer Reviews (18 total)
You like Man on the Train (L'Homme du Train)?
|
© 2004, 2005, 2006 DVD Booty | Don't Plunder Our Cache of Booty, Matey!
Hosting made possible by donations from cash advance, debt relief clearinghouse, and Debt Management Department
