France is a country where every person thinks of himself/herself as a writer or a writer in making as intellectualism runs high in French society.This is one of the reasons why book publishing industry is a major business in France which can give severe headaches to other leading traditional businesses such as cheese,wine and tourism.It does not matter to some writers that their books are not read extensively. It is precisely this artistic predicament French author Claude Lelouch has attempted to depict in his latest film "Roman De Gare"/Crossed Tracks.It is a pity that such a film with some cogent inventive elements falls flat primarily due to its technical as well as artistic shortcomings. One of the plausible reasons could be the fact that "Roman De Gare" is very much French in nature. A viewer should have a fairly good idea of French culture and language in order to comprehend hidden sub-themes.There are no many non Francophones who would be aware of culturally relevant facts such as : a) Gilbert Bécaud is a famous french singer, b) Pierre Ambroise François Choderlos De Laclos wrote "Les Liaisons Dangereuses", c) Serge Moati is not effective when he parodies French talk show host Michel Drucker's famous "Vivement Dimanche" show. Is it a mere coincidence that Claude Lelouch has decided to name his film's protagonist as Pierre Laclos ? A thriller is bound to fail if it does not have universal appeal.A glaring example of Frenchiness in "Roman De Gare" is revealed in scenes where we behold writers drafting their books on a luxury yacht sipping champagne unlike great writers of the past who toiled enormously in order to get their works acclaimed. In the past, Claude Lelouch has made better works. His film "La Belle Histoire" is a great exercise in occult film-making. It is rather unfortunate that "Roman De Gare" could not turn out to be a piece of cake for Mr. Claude Lelouch as he is no Alfred Hitchcock of France. A word about casting which is a downright disaster. It is great that Dominique Pinon has bagged the biggest role of his career but it is wasted as "Roman De Gare" is full of banal dialogs. Fanny Ardant acts so badly that one can easily hazard a guess that her mentor Monsieur Truffaut must be shamelessly groveling in his grave. She appears more as a boring jet-set socialite who does not know anything about writing. There is some air of crime,wine,book and cinema which would surely keep audiences on edge of their seats but after a while everything would become plain. This is something which audiences must keep in mind when they go to watch this film.
Review of Roman de gare
