Rollerblading GIRL (ON THE TRAIN)
I came out of André Téchiné’s latest film THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, haunted by the images of twenty-one-year-old Jeanne (Émilie Dequenne) rollerblading through the streets of Paris. Her beauty and physical strength come towards us in shots that are so close they give us the sensation of being her partner in motion. This power is in contrast to the rest of what we learn about her. She seems, for the most part, intellectually vacant and even her boyfriend, a possessive and aggressive aspiring wrestler (Nicolas Duvauchelle) calls her “an airhead.” Yet the images she occupies give her character weight and the film a level of tension not achieved in any of the dialogue scenes that surround them. By the time Jeanne pretends to be the victim of an anti-Semitic attack, we don’t really mind that we don’t understand. We are fascinated as we watch her speed forward like an empty train hurtling through space. Unable to take our eyes away, we watch with trepidation and awe as she heads for a crash…
In GIRL ON THE TRAIN, the images are more suspenseful than the narrative. The story is loose, its narrative weaving between two main threads involving two families with Jeanne and her worried mother (Cathernine Deneuve) and the family of a Jewish lawyer Samuel Bleistein (Michel Blanc), eventually bringing them all together at the end. Many of the scenes between Bleistein’s son and ex-daughter-in-law struggled to hold my interest. It was hard to care about their seemingly petty arguments in hotel rooms or in their luxury homes. Maybe if they had taken out their rollarblades… Even thematically it seemed a bit muddled. Deception? Lies? Religion? What we do to be loved? The strongest emotional thread of the film comes back to youth and taking responsibility for ones actions. Bleistein’s grandson Nathan (Jérémy Quaegebeur) is rebellious and critical of his parents. He speaks the truth that no one wants to hear and by doing exactly that, acts as a kind of savior for Jeanne in her lowest moment. The film ends with his bar mitzvah and Jeanne’s arrest, both of them propelled towards adulthood in very different ways.
Here’s the trailer:
-LR
