Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (1998)

the audience applauded

Strong and Moving!

How sad is this?

Fresh and Exciting

Jean-Baptiste Emmerich, "a minor master of the mid-twentieth century," seems confident that his friends and admirers won't mind an overnight trip to Limoges—site of Europe's largest cemetery, we're told—to see him get a proper sendoff. Director Chéreau and screenwriter Danièle Thompson seem to feel that the inconvenience of a fidgety camera, murky lighting and an often baffling screenplay, especially in the opening scenes, won't detract from the pleasures of this excursion. Thompson doesn't believe in expository dialogue, so the only backstory we get is a brief recorded interview with the deceased and a few scraps of gossip exchanged by the travelers ("she raped him once in a hotel in Madrid in 1952"). Many of the characters, as noted, are brusque and unpleasant; two of them are strung-out junkies. This film reminded me of an Iris Murdoch novel, where I'd have to reread the first 30 pages once I'd gotten straight who all these people were. Having said all that, the second time through (this isn't one for the "I want the last two hours of my life back!" crowd), I found the storyline fascinating. And luckily there's some relief in the second half of the film, when Trintignant turns up as the deceased's twin brother, a kindly old gentleman who bonds with two of his more intriguing visitors—a manga-obsessed little girl and a striking pre-op tranny played by Vincent Perez. I wasn't too taken with the brittle gay couple who are (more or less) the principal characters, but all in all I'd recommend this film to anyone who's enjoyed serious French ensemble dramas like "Summer Hours" and "Va Savoir." Great pop-music soundtrack, from the Doors to Jeff Buckley to some kind of Andalusian marching band.

They all loved him. Jean Louis Trintignat is the focus of their love. He is dead. Love is not. The shape, light and nature of one's love for another changes from character to character. I was riveted by that puzzle that love usually implies. And Vincent Perez? Where is he? I kept waiting for him to appear in all its unbearable beauty. The film was almost over and no sign of Perez. But, I was rapidly falling in love with a young woman I had never seen before on the screen. She is not just a superb actress but a monumental beauty. Hold on a minute. I think I've seen her before. God almighty! It's Vincent Perez! Among the many delightful, thoughtful surprises of this, unusual, french import is Vincent Perez as a girl. If you let the film happen and you don't fight it. You are going to have a wonderful experience.

No recent film starts better than this one; it out-Altmans Altman with its stunning fragmented introduction of a large cast in a confused situation as they hurriedly board the train taking them away to the funeral in the provinces. It's even helped for an Anglo-Saxon audience in that we don't know who the hell any of these French actors are. (But aren't they terrific?) The first 45 mins or thereabouts are a breathtaking hand-held roller-coaster ride more exhilarating than... well, than more or less anything you can think of. Unfortunately the train journey ends, and we settle down into another hour of vie de chateau banalities, in one of those big old houses no-one can afford to light properly. All of the usual plots raise their tired old heads: gay and straight infidelities, dotty old women and sinister old men, ravishing rent boys with HIV, abortion, drugs, inheritances, you name it and who cares? To cap it all when the missing guest finally arrives, as he was bound to - guess what? He's transgendered. Please!!! As a film director Chereau is every bit as astounding as he used to be working on stage. Please though, Patrice - try working with a script next time. (I know, there's been a next time already, and 'Intimacy' is just about opening in London, vastly famous already for 10 seconds or something of non-simulated heterosexual oral sex. I can wait.)

Having previously seen "La reine Margot", I suspected something as good as that from a film by the same director and with some of the same actors. But what I did get was one of the worst films I ever saw. The same-gender attracted men in the movie fell into nearly every stereotype possible (most notoriously the effeminate behaviour, that one boy even looked like a girl!), and to see the main actor from "la reine margot" in woman's clothes was simply disgusting for me (also because I don't like transvesite movies and the connection the movie made beetween transexual/effeminate behaviour and same-gender attraction anyway). The story was some ultra-tearful boring melodrama, but not because something that bad happened, but simply because the effeminate men had to make such a tearful fuss. How pathetic. The music was also bad. This movie is an insult to every sane viewer, in my opinion.