Girl On The Train (2010) [DVD]

This film is a character study of the mysteries of several lives. It is fiction, based on a true to life case of a young French woman who said she had been attacked on a train by neo-Nazi antisemites. After a bit she confessed she had made the whole thing up. It seems it is much easier to tell a lie than to maintain it.

Emilie Dequenne is Jeanne, who lives in the outskirts of Paris and is looking for a job as a secretary. Her mother Louise, played by Catherine Deneuve, cares for children. Louise understands the resumes written by Jeanne are full of spelling errors and badly written. But, Jeanne is independent and wants to find a job on her own. Her daily life consists of rollerblading and we are led to this exercise throughout the film. On one occasion, Jeanne meets a young tough man who is a wrestler.. They move in together and under secretive circumstances make a living. Jeanne is treated badly by this young man and left to find her own way. She is emotionally unable to handle the rejection and makes a tragic mistake.

The film is divided into two parts, circumstances and consequences, each has overlapping characters and themes. The first half describes Jeanne's relationship with her mother and her young man. The second half shows us a Jewish family, the Bleisteins. They become part of the story, as a background into Louise's young life. Mr. Bleistein is a lawyer and had a crush on Louise when she was a young married woman. Louise involves the family when she needs legal assistance for Jeanne. The Bleisteins are a complex, Jewish family with issues of their own. But they are helpful to Jeanne and Louise and in the process come to understand themselves a little more fully.

This is a film of psychological trauma and how we deal with our lot in life. The people who love us and those who care. As Jeanne said after she admitted lying, "I wanted my parents to take care of me, my boyfriend to take care of me." Her solution was to find a scapegoat that French officials could embrace even as they gave her the attention she so clearly craved." Guardian UK

Recommended. prisrob 06-06-10

Rosetta [VHS]

Belle de Jour

In this story set in Paris, we get to know two very different families and see them eventually connect. The first is that of Jeanne, a rather aimless and unmotivated young woman who lives with her mother (Catherine Deneuve) and spends her time roller blading. The second is that of successful lawyer Nathan who is about to celebrate his grandson's bar mitzvah. When Jeanne becomes involved with a low-life creep and does something very foolish, it is Nathan who comes to the rescue.

The movie is based on the true story of a girl who claimed she was attacked on a train because she was Jewish. The nation was shocked and even more outraged when it turned out she made it all up. The movie is made in a pseudo-New Wave style with unsympathetic, isolated characters, abrupt scene cuts, unresolved storylines and the constant blaring of passing trains. Jeanne's lie was a huge event in France, but here it is merely a part of her outsider's psyche.

If you like stories about complex, non-mainstream characters, this is the movie for you. It is blunt and unapologetic, fascinating and above all, very real. In French with English subtitles.

When browsing for another good foreign movie at my local library the other day, I fell upon this movie. Of course the name of legendary Catherine Deneuve caught my attention, but the DVD box had plenty of great praise plastered from various media all over it, so I of course picked it up.

"The Girl on the Train" (La Fille du RER) (105 min; originally released in 2009) brings the story of Jeanne who lives with her mother (played by Catherine Deneuve). By happenstance while rollerblading she meets a guy who courts her and eventually the two fall for each other. While the two of them are house-sitting, the boyfriend gets attacked, and from there the movie changes tracks completely. Jeanne makes up a story about being attacked herself in a train station in what she portrays to be an anti-Jewish act. The movie goes on from there, and I was simply bewildered. It seems that the first hour of the movie (Jeanne and her boyfriend) are completely forgotten or dissed of, for no apparent reason. The conclusion of the movie left me scratching my head as well.

I was astounded to read in the movie's final credits that this is based on actual events. The entire movie made little sense to me, and it was a huge let-down for me. The girl playing Jeanne brought a good performance but it didn't eliminate the sense to my that I had just wasted my time watching this. Buyer/watcher beware.