Man on the Train (2002)

A bank robber arrives to do a job in a small French town and strikes up a friendship with a retired poetry teacher.

Director:

Patrice Leconte

Writer:

Claude Klotz

Stars:

Jean Rochefort, Johnny Hallyday, Jean-François Stévenin

7 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jean Rochefort	...	Monsieur Manesquier
Johnny Hallyday	...	Milan
Jean-François Stévenin	...	Luigi
Charlie Nelson	...	Max
Pascal Parmentier	...	Sadko
Isabelle Petit-Jacques	...	Viviane
Edith Scob	...	La soeur de Manesquier
Maurice Chevit	...	Le coiffeur
Riton Liebman	...	Le costaud
Olivier Fauron	...	Le collégien
Véronique Kapoyan	...	Le boulngère
Elsa Duclot	...	La serveuse
Armand Chagot	...	Le jardinier
Michel Laforest	...	Le pharmacien
Alain Guellaff	...	Le chirugien

Storyline

A teacher and a gangster meet by chance in a small town pharmacy. As a friendship of sorts develops between these opposite personalities, each starts to envy the other and by the week's end, everything will change for both of them.

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Plot Keywords:

teacher | criminal | poetry | opposites | small town | 

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Taglines:

A poet. A thief. Two strangers with nothing in common are about to trade their lives for a chance to cheat their destinies.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some language and brief violence

Details

Official Sites:

Pathé / 1000 Films (French)

Country:

France UK Germany Japan

Language:

French

Release Date:

20 June 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

Man on the Train

Filming Locations:

Annonay, Ardèche, France

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$659,820 (France), 4 October 2002

Opening Weekend USA:

$41,138, 11 May 2003, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$2,541,320, 23 November 2003

Company Credits

Production Co:

Ciné B,Zoulou Films,Rhône-Alpes Cinéma

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jean Rochefort died in October 2017. Two months later, Johnny Hallyday died.

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Quotes

Monsieur Manesquier: After playing a piece on the piano, turns to Johnny Hallyday and asks: "And you, Monsieur, are you musical? Ironic, because Hallyday was probably the top rock and roller of his generation in France...

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Connections

Remade as Man on the Train (2011)

User Reviews

Trading places always a dodgy business

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.