"Roman de Gare" *** (out of ****)
When the French New Wave exploded on the cinematic scene in the 60s the world was introduced to Godard, Truffaut, Rohmer and Chabrol. But Claude Lelouch and to some extent Rohmer, never seemed to fully fit into the club. Lelouch is generally not as highly regarded as some of his contemporaries. A shame.
"Roman de Gare" is roughly translated in English as "airport novel". Now, while I've never read what could be described as an "airport novel", I have read novels while flying. I think both probably serve the same purpose. The main idea behind reading a book while traveling is to divert the time. To occupy two or three hours of our time with some light, fluffy silly diversion. That is more or less how one could describe Claude Lelouch's latest cinematic offering. A two hour piece of fluff.
But not many are looking at it in that perspective. Critic Roger Ebert didn't care for the film very much, giving it only two and a half stars. But, if you pardon the expression, who really cares what Ebert thinks? He has not been very kind to Lelouch in the past. He has little admiration for this extremely gifted filmmaker. Now of course some will say, but Mr. Udvary, that's not fair! Clearly you like Lelouch. Yes. I'm guilty as charged. I like to compliment talented directors. It's a silly habit I have, wanting to appreciate good films directed by good directors.
"Roman de Gare" is not one of Claude Lelouch's great films. I almost decided to give the film two and a half stars but decided against it. I first had to figure out what I felt the film was about.
What were Lelouch's intentions? How well did he get his point across? After spending some time thinking the film over, I decided to recommend it.
The film follows three stories all which seem to connect. First we have a famous novelist, Judith Ralitzer (Fanny Ardent, the former Mrs. Truaffaut) who has written her latest book, "God, the Other". It is seen as a comeback for her after her previous novel was seen as a disappointment. The second story revolves around Pierre Laclos (Dominique Pinon) who may or may not be a serial killer/rapist or a secretary to miss Ralitzer or an innocent man merely looking to escape his past and his family travelling on the road. He picks up a woman, Huguette (Audrey Dana) who was just dumped by a man who stole her car and left her stranded at a gas station. And finally we have a Florence (Michele Bernier) whose husbands has mysteriously left her and she reports to the police on a daily basis only to find she no longer cares if her husband returns or not as she has fallen in love with the police commissioner (Zinedine Soualem).
I am not, under any circumstances, going to reveal one more bit of information. I won't explain how, if at all, the stories connect or why. A film such as "Roman de Gare" works best when the viewer knows little to nothing about it. The film must in a sense trap you and catch you by surprise. If you walk into a movie such as this knowing all the plot twist the film will be boring. You could argue that makes "Roman de Gare" a gimmick movie and you may be right. This is not a great piece of lasting cinema. It is a light diversion.
Having just reviewed Woody Allen's "Scoop" I now find myself discussing another movie dealing with the rich, murder and magic. The structure of "Roman de Gare" is all over the place. The film switches time frames going from flash backs to present day frequently. It is like a puzzle where we are missing a few of the pieces but because we have the cover on the box, we know how it should look.
Given such a lose structure one would have to be a magician to string this all together. And that is where credit must be given to Lelouch. Like Harry Houndini, Lelouch pulls the wool over our eyes and somehow makes us care about some of these characters and adds some plausible explanation for these series of events.
In an interview Lelouch says, when describing this film, "I think it is a film that is a result of 50 years of work. I tried to mix know-how with spontaneity. I am fascinated by the spectacle of life, and by the strength of lies, because I'm afraid the world is being led by lies." There is definitely a element of deception and lies working its way through-out this films but another theme came to mind while watching it which Lelouch doesn't go into much detail in his interview.
The books written by Judith Ralitzer are seen to reflect her life. So much so that they are used strongly against her later in the film. This leads one to wonder how closely does the artist's art imitate their life. More importantly, how close does "Roman de Gare" reflect Claude Lelouch's life. Lelouch says he actually saw a woman get dumped by a gas station, which provided the inspiration to make this film. But, what else could he have drawn inspiration from?
Lelouch has made other mystery films dealing with crooks and love. Two of my favorites are "Happy New Year" and "The Crook". "Roman de Gare" isn't quite as fascinating to watch as those two other films. But there is clearly a craft to what Lelouch is doing.
For those who don't know much about the filmmaker, he started directing in the 1960s and gained international fame with the 1966 film "A Man and A Woman". Some critics, such as Roger Ebert, have claimed Lelouch's career from that point on has mostly consisted of many retreads of that particularly film. That is simply not true, though Lelouch did make a sequel to that film in 1986 "A Man and A Woman:20 Years Later". He has also directed "And Now My Love", a terrific adaptation of "Les Miserables" and "And Now...Ladies & Gentlemen".
While all of his films may not work for some viewers and "Roman de Gare" may not help win over new fans, you have to give Lelouch credit for trying. At a time when most films seem only contented with providing us with the familiar Lelouch as least takes a few chances. Bravo!
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