Mountain FogROMAN DE GARE: A TRICK TOO MANY
April 23rd 2009 07:10
Dominique Pinon as Pierrre and Audrey Dana as Huguette in the flawed Roman de Gare.
In the middle of the night on a French country highway, Huguette (Audrey Dana) is on her way to her family’s country property with her fiancé, Paul (Cyrille Eldin). The couple bicker incessantly and while their fight is ostensibly about her chain smoking, it’s really about their entire relationship, which ends when Paul abandons her at a highway service station. Watching the argument reach exploding point at the gas pumps is Pierre (Dominique Pinon). After Huguette’s voice messages fail to convince Paul to come back for her, Pierre approaches the stranded damsel and offers her a ride. As Pierre and Huguette steam along the highway the next day, he tells her that he is the ghost writer of famous novelist Judith Ralitzer (Fanny Ardant), but his obtuse behaviour makes him an enigma that is all the more unnerving given an infamous paedophile has escaped from prison and is on the run in the same area. On a whim, Huguette asks Pierre to come to her family’s home and pretend he’s her fiancé for a night so as not to disappoint her parents, unaware of the prison break and the possible danger she could be inviting into her life.
As the gears click into life at the start of Roman de Gare, it is easy to become entranced in the intricate rhythms of Lelouch’s story. He drops hints, double-crosses the plot and throws character curve balls that whiz around the confused viewer. It’s clever stuff, and you can imagine Lelouch and fellow scriptwriter Pierre Uytterhoeven gleefully tossing ideas back and forth across the table. Unfortunately, all the nefarious plotting eventually comes at the expense of character, and halfway through, the film pulls a right-angle turn that busts the story’s impetus and leaves the most involving character wallowing on the scrap heap. It’s a maddening move that leaves the audience feeling cheated, the hypnotic cadence of the movie’s first half disappearing like a junior magician’s clunkiest of tricks.
It’s a shame, because there’s some fine work going on in Roman De Gare. Gerard de Battista’s stunning cinematography adds a beautiful crispness to the film, making it all the easier to fall into the bewitching early reels, while Jean Gargonne and Stephane Mazalaigue’s editing keeps everything running at a pace, even when they are forced to lay off slightly in the final third as shallow mysteries are carefully explained. And while many of the characters are light on, some of the players are excellent. Dominique Pinon is fascinating to watch, released from the confines of the freakish characters he often plays, while Audrey Dana obviously knows when she has the best drawn character of the bunch, making the most of it in a beguiling performance.
Just about everybody is not who they say they are in Roman de Gare.
A movie like Roman de Gare is a frustrating experience. It does so much so well early on, only to throw it away in an inexcusable bonfire of character. It’s a film that aims to trick the audience, but what it really does is cheat the audience. There’s a lot of dazzling to-ing and fro-ing, a thousand ruses rattled off in quickfire succession, but ultimately Roman de Gare exhausts its bag of contrivances far too early, leaving a weak shell of a film without anything up its sleeve.
Check out the trailer for Roman de Gare below:
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Comment by Cibbuano
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Comment by David O'Connell
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I didn't mind it, though admittedly the final twist is a bit weak. I loved Pinon and especially Dana, and that whole scene with her family is a highlight; it has a peculiar pace to it too which is quite off-putting somehow.
I have a friend in France who's told me in the past that Lelouch is considered a bit of a joke over there and always has been, but this was practically the only favourably reviewed film he's had in donkey's years.
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Cheers
Comment by Matt Shea
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