The story of the film may seem a little far-fetched but the music by Philippe Sarde, re-utilized countless times and even in other films (c.f. les Egarés) will haunt your mind for ever.Certain scenes are reminiscent of Jeux Interdits from the 1950's but the story is different. The decors and costumes are magnificent and we have the famous steam locomotive C253 playing its rôle with brio.
The film contains black and white sequences from WW2 with the theme music playing but no other sound. These sequences are skilfully merged into the colour sequences using a very gradual change of colour. From what I can gather, the atmosphere of the time seems to have been extremely well portrayed, even down to the accents of the characters ( The typical French accent of today is very different from that of the 1940's).
Some of the scenes are unbearable to watch, notably towards the end of the film and when the train is attacked from the air with a significant proportion of its occupants being quickly whisked from this world to the next thanks to a rafale of bullets !
Some of the scenes also made me feel uncomfortable, notably those filmed in the railway carriage where several different couples are copulating in a confined space !! Talk about promisuity and lack of privacy ! However in spite of these sordid surroundings, the love that grows ( admittedly rather too quickly to be true, but this IS only CINEMA ) between Trintignant and Schneider is quite convincing and we want it to succeed despite the fact that Maroyeur already has a wife and child ! Paul Le Person is excellent and extremely unnerving as the interrogator in the final scene where Trintignant is confronted with Schneider and cannot hide his feelings ......... ça va tourner très mal pour vous, M. Maroyeur, très mal !! A guaranteed watery-eyes and lump-in-the-throat ending !
The film has recently been issued on dvd in France but I doubt whether it is known internationally ! A bit of a shame as it is one of the few French films dealing successfully with WW2 themes and merits far more international renown.
The film contains black and white sequences from WW2 with the theme music playing but no other sound. These sequences are skilfully merged into the colour sequences using a very gradual change of colour. From what I can gather, the atmosphere of the time seems to have been extremely well portrayed, even down to the accents of the characters ( The typical French accent of today is very different from that of the 1940's).
Some of the scenes are unbearable to watch, notably towards the end of the film and when the train is attacked from the air with a significant proportion of its occupants being quickly whisked from this world to the next thanks to a rafale of bullets !
Some of the scenes also made me feel uncomfortable, notably those filmed in the railway carriage where several different couples are copulating in a confined space !! Talk about promisuity and lack of privacy ! However in spite of these sordid surroundings, the love that grows ( admittedly rather too quickly to be true, but this IS only CINEMA ) between Trintignant and Schneider is quite convincing and we want it to succeed despite the fact that Maroyeur already has a wife and child ! Paul Le Person is excellent and extremely unnerving as the interrogator in the final scene where Trintignant is confronted with Schneider and cannot hide his feelings ......... ça va tourner très mal pour vous, M. Maroyeur, très mal !! A guaranteed watery-eyes and lump-in-the-throat ending !
The film has recently been issued on dvd in France but I doubt whether it is known internationally ! A bit of a shame as it is one of the few French films dealing successfully with WW2 themes and merits far more international renown.