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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

La Fille Du RER (aka Girl On The Train) (2009)

It’s hard to warm up to Jeanne (Emilie Dequenne), the heroine of this Andre Techine film. She seems to be an aimless drifter without any passion, making stupid unrealistic decisions and a habitual liar to boot, eventually telling a lie with horrendous social ramifications. But by the film’s end, we get a clearer insight into her particular psychosis and she gets our empathy. Jeanne has a opposite counterpart in the film, a wiser than his years 13 year old Jewish boy (Jeremie Quaegebeur) but who seems to have a healthier grasp of the pressures of life and more specifically, parental pressures. It’s unclear if Techine is suggesting that the parents and grandparents in the film are responsible for damage done to their children. Jeanne’s mother (Catherine Deneuve) seems like a loving parent as does Nathan’s even if they unintentionally seem to be using him as a weapon. All in all, a very disturbing but provocative film. The discreet score is by Philippe Sarde. With Michel Blanc, Mathieu Demy, Ronit Elkabetz and as the film’s most intriguing character Nicolas Duvauchelle as Jeanne’s drug dealing wrestler boyfriend.

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