Un soir, un train (1968)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

André Delvaux

Writer:

Johan Daisne (novel)

Release Date:

6 September 1968 (West Germany)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Mystery

Plot:

Mathias is a Belgian linguist, living with French theatre producer Anne. After a quarrel about moral questions...

Plot Keywords:

Train | Train Wreck | Afterlife | Dead | Dream

Cast

Yves Montand	...	Mathias
Anouk Aimée	...	Anne
Adriana Bogdan	...	Moira
Hector Camerlynck	...	Hernhutter
François Beukelaers	...	Val
Michael Gough	...	Jeremiah
Senne Rouffaer	...	Elckerlyc
Domien De Gruyter	...	Werner
Jan Peré	...	Henrik
Nicole Debonne	...	La jeune fille
Wilfried Coppens	...	Le garçon du train
Greta Van Langhendonck	...	La fille du train
Patrick Conrad	...	Le maître d'hôtel
Jacqueline Royaards-Sandberg	...	La grand-mère
Denise Zimmerman	...	L'étudiante

Also Known As:

De trein der traagheid (Belgium: Flemish title)
One Night... a Train

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

France | Belgium

Language:

Dutch | French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-8 | Sweden:11

Filming Locations:

Paris Studios Cinéma, Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Company:

Parc Film

Soundtrack:

La fleur de l'été

Fabulous dreamlike movie.

The drama of in-communicability as never before,and never after.A couple ,Montand and Aimée, feels that their love is becoming a thing of the past.He is a linguistics professor,he reigns over words and culture;she does not understand the language they speak in this part of Belgium. One night,both take a train;suddenly it stops.Anne (Aimée) has disappeared ,and Matthias (Montand) gets out of the train.With two unknown guys,he sees the train silently and slowly moving ,like in a dream.The dream has begun.

Matthias and his two mates are left alone in the country.They arrive in a small village where,that crowns it,the university professor cannot understand a single world of the inhabitants' language.A very strange scene shows the three men coming into a tiny movie theater.On the screen,an odd,almost worrying film is projected:a parachutist floating in the air,sometimes shot in close-up,with an almost unbearable soundtrack.The audience seems to live in another world.Not only Matthias does not understand the language,but he does not understand their entertainment either .Then they go to a restaurant ,the staff of which seems to wait for them.Maybe..

When he returns to reality,Matthias will find out how selfish he has been with Anne.But it's a movie you can interpret in accordance with your sensitivity.Never a director has gone so far in intertwining dream with reality.The incommunicability of Matthias and the strange people of his dream is a metaphor of that of the two lovers.But ,because of the harrowing conclusion,which leaves the audience totally hopeless,perhaps this dream was an escape,or a way to delay what was ineluctable.André Delvaux gave us the best European movie of 1968.