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Roman de Gare (2008)
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Reviews Counted: 60
Fresh: 53
Rotten:7
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Consensus: Claude Lelouch has crafted an engaging thriller about murder and romance with plenty of stylistic panache.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for brief language and sexual references
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Theatrical Release: Apr 25, 2008 Limited
Box Office: $1,735,301
Synopsis: True to its title, ROMAN DE GARE (CROSSED TRACKS) finds famed French director Claude Lelouch (UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME) jumping between time and loyalties in this suspenseful mystery about fate and fatal secrets. As the film opens, popular... True to its title, ROMAN DE GARE (CROSSED TRACKS) finds famed French director Claude Lelouch (UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME) jumping between time and loyalties in this suspenseful mystery about fate and fatal secrets. As the film opens, popular crime novelist Judith Ralitzer (Fanny Ardant) finds herself at the receiving end of a police interrogation for two murders. We then learn about the escape of an actual serial killer known as "The Magician," who may already be lurking on the roads leading out of Paris. The road is where we find Huguette (Audrey Dana), a high-strung hairdresser who is soon abandoned by her enraged fiancé at a highway service station. Huguette is rescued by the unassuming Pierre (Dominique Pinon), who may or may not actually be the ghost writer responsible for Judith Ralitzer's success. Pierre pretends to be Huguette's fiancé so that her provincial parents and alienated daughter will think that Huguette has put her life in order. But even as Pierre wins the affection of Huguette and her family, his reliance on magic tricks may hint at a much darker secret. And when Pierre is reunited with the celebrity-absorbed Ralitzer, his intention to come out from her shadow and be his own author may force the star to construct a novel demise for her servant. Taking advantage of a superb cast and gorgeous French locations, Lelouch's veteran touch deftly manages ROMAN DE GARE's multiple layers of mystery and romance. The result is a pleasingly chic thriller grounded in a very human belief in the surprising possibilities that come from love. [More]
Starring: Dominique Pinon, Fanny Ardant, Audrey Dana, Zinedine Soualem
Starring: Dominique Pinon, Fanny Ardant, Audrey Dana, Zinedine Soualem, Michèle Bernier, Myriam Boyer, Boris Ventura Diaz, Marc Rioufol, Thomas Le Douarec
Director: Claude Lelouch
Director: Claude Lelouch
Screenwriter: Claude Lelouch, Pierre Uytterhoeven
Producer: Claude Lelouch
Composer: Gilbert Becaud, Alex Jaffray
Studio: Samuel Goldwyn Films
Reviews for Roman de Gare
Lelouch is now 71 years old, and I bet he's never had as much fun with a film. Roman de Gare threads plots and characters and twists together like a demented weaver.
... about the creation of fiction, the way we spin lies together into a simulacrum of life - if there's any philosophical point of view beyond that it's that every narrative is necessarily an abridgment of truth.
What's especially clever about the plotting is that anything that proves to be merely a red herring is then incorporated into another storyline.
If this kind of storytelling is your cup of absinthe, Claude Lelouch makes it easy to sip appreciatively.
In many ways, Lelouch's film is -- in its somewhat old-fashioned way (which isn't a pejorative) -- the most bracing dose of cinema I've seen all year.
Provides one of the year's more memorable movie moments: a simple shot of a barn, overlaid with both the soothing crooning of a Gilbert Becaud pop song and the terrified squeals of a hog being slaughtered.
It's intellectually cagey, potentially romantic, and, above all, an entertaining puzzle box of duplicitous people doing mysterious things, men and women.
Roman de Gare is a sleek, attractive package made even more appealing by a trio of exquisite performers.
As fizzy and non-nutritive as a glass of sparkling wine, Roman de Gare is a crowd-pleasing blend of romance, farce and mystery that plays out a little like a Ruth Rendell mystery novel with Rendell herself as the chief suspect.
Forty years after his breakout success as a filmmaker, Claude Lelouch makes something of a comeback with his playful and sexy whodunit, Roman de Gare.
Roman de Gare is the rare trick film in which all the tricks reveal something amusing, involving or poignant about its characters.
Claude Lelouch's 'Roman de gare'('Crossed Tracks'): A seductive, compulsively watchable little cat-and-mouse game
With elements of road movie, thriller and comedy as well as other genres, Tracks possesses a freewheeling appeal.
Lelouch and his longtime writing partner, Pierre Uytterhoeven, slyly exploit and subvert audience expectations.
You'll be wondering if you've inadvertently stumbled into a David Mamet movie, it's that well done.
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February 17, 2008:
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