The Man on the Train (L'Homme du train)

Released 2002
Stars Jean Rochefort, Johnny Hallyday
Directed by Patrice Leconte

This is a beautifully elegiac film about two older men who meet by chance and find themselves quietly lamenting the paths their lives followed. It's set in a small village in France where Monsieur Manesquier (Jean Rochefort) is a retired poetry teacher and Milan (Johnny Hallyday) is a bank robber who arrives by train. Milan finds the Inn closed for the winter, and Manesquier invites him to stay in his decaying Victorian house. They quickly become quiet friends and wait for their 10:00 Saturday appointments--one is a triple bypass surgery, and the other is a bank robbery. As you would expect with such a movie, it's not about the plot. It's about the critical choices we all make in our lives, and about the sad lament that we may have made the wrong ones. 

Summary by Bill Alward, January 14, 2004