Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train

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Product Description ------------------- Winner of the Best Director and four other French Cesar awards, Patrice Chereau's Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train is a beautiful and moving celebration of new life blossoming from tragic loss. With it's talented cast headed by Vincent Perez, Pascal Greggory and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, all among France's top young actors, brilliant cinema photography and a rich soundtrack featuring music by the Doors, Bjork and Portishead, Train has become a landmark of new French cinema. At the same time it is a film which depicts aspects of the contemporary gay experience with rare confidence and maturity, causing critics to hail it as breakthrough filmmaking. Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train derives it's enigmatic title from the response of the charismatic yet tyrannical painter Jean-Baptiste (Jean Louis Trintignant) to protests that the journey from Paris to the grand cemetery at Limoges for his funeral will be too far. A great teacher, Jean-Baptiste loved his students, who adored him. Fascinating to, and desired by, both men and women, his life was sexually charged and filled with intrigue. One of France's most highly accled stage and opera directors, Chereau, (Queen Margot) has now achieved similar re for his work in cinema. .com ---- Patrice Chereau, the accled French director of opera and theater, follows his grand period drama Queen Margot with this gorgeous but jagged portrait of dysfunctional adults and broken relationships in contemporary Paris. A group of old acquaintances whose friendships have become strained over the years reunite for the funeral of their mentor. Chereau drops us in the midst of things from the opening moments, leaving us to sort out the layered editing and rich soundtrack while catching up with a story that keeps leaping forward. The widescreen film is with a handheld camera, and the jittery, nervous energy and abrupt editing wind up the already tense atmosphere. But even as Chereau eases up from the uncomfortably in-your-face intimacy of the claustrophobic opening scenes on the train, emotions ooze like open wounds and unresolved conflicts bubble over. Former French idol Jean-Louis Trintignant, who has aged into an awesomely understated performer and a fascinating screen presence, leads a cast of edgy young actors, including Queen Margot stars Vincent Perez (as a depressed transsexual) and Pascal Greggory (as the group's tentative spokesman). It's a sharp, intelligent, restless film that recalls such recent French dramas as Late August, Early September and My Sex Life (or How I Got into an Argument). It doesn't offer any clear story or easy resolution, just a messy but potent portrait of the crossed lives of adults still looking for themselves. --Sean Axmaker