A serial killer is on the loose in the vicinity of Paris, described on radio broadcasts as a magician who lures young women with magic tricks. Meanwhile, a young woman, Huguette (Audrey Dana), is dumped at a gas station by her fiancé on the way to her parent's farm in the French Alps. Stalked by an intriguing older man (Dominique Pinon) who is also a magician, she accepts a ride with him to the South of France. Who is this strange-looking unshaven man whose eyes are unreadable? Is he the serial killer?, a lonely man looking for a pickup?, the teacher whose distraught wife has notified the police about his disappearance?, or perhaps a writer in search of a character and a plot? And why is Judith Ralitzer (Fanny Ardant), a phenomenally successful novelist, being questioned by the French police about the disappearance of her secretary. These questions and many more tantalize us in Claude Lelouch's playfully intense thriller Roman de Gare, a film with more twists and turns than California Highway 1 at Big Sur. Our first impressions of Huguette (Dana) are not positive, though Audrey Dana is quite impressive in her first starring role. After a very slow fade out, we find ourselves speeding along a French highway. Traveling with her excitable fiancé Paul (Cyrille Eldin) to visit her parents and teenage daughter, the young woman, who is either a hairdresser or a hooker or both, makes life miserable for her lover.
Smoking non-stop, self-pitying, whiny, and, in her own descriptive phrase, acting like an "airhead", Huguette drives Paul to the snapping point. Though he tries to remain calm, he finally abandons her at a gas station and unceremoniously drives off. Huguette is now subject to the whims of Pierre Laclos (Pinon), the mysterious stranger who asks her repeatedly if she wants a ride even though she tells him to please leave her alone. After many hours, the young woman relents and asks him to drive her to her parent's farm in the French Alps and, to save face, to pretend to be the fiancé who dumped her. The scenes in which Pierre attempts to convince her mother (Myriam Boyer) that he is a doctor and they are in fact lovers expecting to be married (there is a trumped up sex scene with a lot of heavy breathing) are very funny especially since the mother is a suspicious sort who questions everything including why she does not know her supposed fiancé's cellphone number.
Roman de Gare translates as "airport novel," a book you might read on a trip and then toss when you arrive at your destination, but the film is more than just lighthearted fluff. It is a smart and very enjoyable suspense caper that is about pretenses and appearances and who we really are behind our masks. (Lelouche states in an interview that we put too much emphasis on looks in relating to one another). In the film no one is who they seem to be. Pierre tells Huguette that he is Judith Ralitzer's ghostwriter then denies it, though he claims to be driving her car. Although as in most films of this ilk, when all the pieces of the puzzle are in place, the end result is not half as intriguing as the process of trying to fit it together. Yet, Lelouch, Oscar winner for A Man and a Woman, has fashioned a tale of intrigue and deceit that has a vibrant energy that bubbles along with the style of a plot-driven Hitchcockian film of the sixties. I was half expecting Cary Grant or Grace Kelly to show up.
Smoking non-stop, self-pitying, whiny, and, in her own descriptive phrase, acting like an "airhead", Huguette drives Paul to the snapping point. Though he tries to remain calm, he finally abandons her at a gas station and unceremoniously drives off. Huguette is now subject to the whims of Pierre Laclos (Pinon), the mysterious stranger who asks her repeatedly if she wants a ride even though she tells him to please leave her alone. After many hours, the young woman relents and asks him to drive her to her parent's farm in the French Alps and, to save face, to pretend to be the fiancé who dumped her. The scenes in which Pierre attempts to convince her mother (Myriam Boyer) that he is a doctor and they are in fact lovers expecting to be married (there is a trumped up sex scene with a lot of heavy breathing) are very funny especially since the mother is a suspicious sort who questions everything including why she does not know her supposed fiancé's cellphone number.
Roman de Gare translates as "airport novel," a book you might read on a trip and then toss when you arrive at your destination, but the film is more than just lighthearted fluff. It is a smart and very enjoyable suspense caper that is about pretenses and appearances and who we really are behind our masks. (Lelouche states in an interview that we put too much emphasis on looks in relating to one another). In the film no one is who they seem to be. Pierre tells Huguette that he is Judith Ralitzer's ghostwriter then denies it, though he claims to be driving her car. Although as in most films of this ilk, when all the pieces of the puzzle are in place, the end result is not half as intriguing as the process of trying to fit it together. Yet, Lelouch, Oscar winner for A Man and a Woman, has fashioned a tale of intrigue and deceit that has a vibrant energy that bubbles along with the style of a plot-driven Hitchcockian film of the sixties. I was half expecting Cary Grant or Grace Kelly to show up.