Le Train – Nur ein Hauch von Glück (1973)

Le Train – Nur ein Hauch von Glück: Directed by Pierre Granier-Deferre. With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Romy Schneider, Maurice Biraud, Paul Amiot. Two people, a Frenchman Julien Maroyeur and a Jewish German woman (Anna Kupfer) met on a train while escaping the German army entering France.

“In th seventies,Granier-Deferre became the u0026quot;cinema De Qualité u0026quot; director par excellence ;more accessible and less pretentious than Claude Sautet after u0026quot;Max Et Les Ferrailleurs u0026quot; ,his career really began in the early sixties with two estimable movies with Jean Gabin (u0026quot;La Horseu0026quot; and u0026quot;Le Chatu0026quot;),he continued with craftsman works such as u0026quot;La Veuve Coudercu0026quot; or u0026quot;Le Trainu0026quot; ,both Georges Simenonu0026#39;s books transferred to the screen.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt may explain the u0026quot;detective storyu0026quot; ending,which may seem a bit irrelevant in a realistic movie,but it is saved by the talent of the two principals,Schneider and Trintignant,injecting more emotion into the scene than you might think possible.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is an apt title,for most of the movie takes place on a train,a train full of people running away from the German armies in 1940 (the beginning recalls René Clémentu0026#39;s u0026quot;Jeux Interditsu0026quot; (1952).The screenwriters made no bones about criticizing French cowardliness and selfishness;it was before u0026quot;Lacombe Lucienu0026quot; to be precise ;As the character played by Maurice Biraud remarks :u0026quot;weu0026#39;re afraid,we are fleeing,so we donu0026#39;t fight each other,get it?u0026quot; On the train,the characters are stereotypes,particularly the hooker played by Regine ,probably inspired by Maupassantu0026#39;s u0026quot;Boule De Suifu0026quot;,the unwed mother (oddly portrayed by cerebral (who said tedious?) Anne Wiazemsky,two sex maniacs (u0026quot;when I look at you (the whore),I look like a beast !- even when you donu0026#39;t!);the Jewish German (Schneider),the average man (Trintignant).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAn user complained that this man in the street should leave his pregnant wife and his little girl for a while and sleep with the German woman:in a world gone mad,anything can happen ,it would never have happened,had this electrician continued his routine life .u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFollowing René Clémentu0026#39;s steps in u0026quot;Jeux Interditsu0026quot; ,GD smartly integrates black and white archives films which ,with a careful editing ,turn color when the director returns to his fiction.Which his predecessor was not able to do.”