L'homme Du Train (aka The Man On The Train) (2002)

A mysterious stranger (Johnny Hallyday) is the sole passenger disembarking from a train in a sleepy French village. He is befriended by a retired poetry teacher (Jean Rochefort). The few days they spend together gives them the opportunity to reflect on their dashed hopes and unfulfilled dreams. Directed by Patrice Leconte (MONSIEUR HIRE), this is a poignant look at an unlikely friendship (if knowing someone briefly for a few days can be called a friendship) with an aura of fatalism though some may view the film's end as ambiguous rather than fatal. Both Rochefort and Hallyday (a famous French pop singer) give excellent lowkey performances yet with enough depth that allows us to see how both men have led lives of "quiet desperation) to quote Thoreau. Although well received at the time (it won the Los Angeles film critics award as the year's best foreign film), it doesn't seem to be remembered much today. Worth seeking out. With Edith Scob, Jean Francois Stevenin and Isabelle Petit Jacques.