The Girl on the Train
Encyclopedia
The Girl on the Train is a 2009 French drama film directed by André Téchiné
, starring Emilie Dequenne
, Catherine Deneuve
and Michel Blanc
. The plot centers on an aimless girl who lies about being the victim of a hate crime.
On his part, Samuel Bleistein receives the visit of his son Alex, who has comes to Paris to
celebrate his son Nathan’s upcoming Bar mitzvah. Alex's encounter with his ex-wife Judith, who is Samuel’s assistant, is tense since they do no get along.
Jeanne’s job interview is a disaster. Evidently she is ill qualified and badly prepared. Unfazed by the interview, Jeanne resumes rollerblading and unexpectedly meets Franck a young wrestler, who takes an instant interest on her. A relationship ensues and the couple eventually move-in together when Franck finds a job as the caretaker in an electrical shop in the owner’s absence. The place turns out to contain hidden drugs and Franck is badly wounded in a fight with a drug dealer, who flees. The police let Jeanne go but arrest Franck, who rejects her when she visits him at the hospital. He knows she was lying the whole time during the relationship about having a job. Heartbroken and angered, she goes home to live with her mother. During the night, she wakes up from her bed and grabs a black marker. Drawing three swastikas on her body, she then grabs a knife and proceeds to cut herself. She then grabs a pair of scissors and cuts off part of her hair. She then sneaks quietly outside into the night. She alleges to have been brutally attacked by hoodlums on the RER suburban train because they thought she was Jewish. The incident becomes a huge national cause celebre. Louise, however, guesses that her daughter has been lying.
Meanwhile Alex, indisposed towards his ex wife, decides not to go to Nathan’s upcoming Bar Mitzvah. Judith begs him to reconsider. Behind their mutual apparent animosity, they still love each other. At his hotel room, they make love and reconcile.
Louise, convinced that her daughter is lying about the attack on the train, asks Samuel for help. Samuel suggests that they hear this through, and wants her to come and stay at his house for the night. Louise and Jeanne board a train and travel to meet Samuel and his family at his house country by a lake. At Samuel’s house, Nathan accuses Jeanne of lying about the whole affair. When all gather for dinner, Jeanne repeats the same story she told the police: that six youths approached her and, assuming she was Jewish (which she is not), proceeded to beat her. After some extensive questioning, she decides to call it a night, but runs away and crosses a lake.
Nathan helps Jeanne when it starts to rain hard and invites her into his little shack, a safe haven to get away from his parents once in a while. He notices she is all wet, and has her take off her clothes. Jeanne strips down and sits next to the fireplace with Nathan. She shows him her scars, as he still does not believe her story, but confesses in the end she made it up. Nathan convinces her to confess she lied. The next morning Jeanne tells the truth. Samuel has her write an apology. They travel back to Paris by train and Samuel and Louise share one more goodbye.
Jeanne goes to the police and is put in jail for 48 hours as punishment for her serious false statements. When Franck is interviewed about Jeanne, Franck says he was in love with her, despite her lying, and would do it all over again given the chance.
Samuel attends Nathan’s Bar Mitzvah, where he sees the television footage of the reporters interviewing Louise. When they asked about how her daughter knew the name of Bleistein Louise lies and says she does not know. Jeanne returns to live with her mother. She receives a postcard from Nathan, who is in love with her. Jeanne takes on rollerblading down the street.
. Marie Leonie Leblanc, a woman in her twenties, walked into a police station in Paris
on 9 July 2004 claiming she had been the victim of an antisemitic attack on a suburban RER
train. According to her account, six men of North African descent ripped her clothes, cut some of her hair and daubed a swastika
on her stomach, knocking over the pram containing her baby.
Fellow passengers did nothing to help. The case provoked national outrage for its virulent antisemitism; politicians and the media seized on the incident.
President Jacques Chirac
, condemned the "shameful act", while Israel
's prime minister Ariel Sharon
advised French Jews to emigrate to Israel to avoid " the wildest antisemitism".
Four days later Leblanc, who was not Jewish herself, admitted she had made the whole affair up. The revelation that the incident was a total invention created consternation and further outrage, particularly criticized was the media sensational exploration of the affair.
The case inspired Jean Marie Basset
's 2006 play RER which in turn was the base for Téchiné's film script. Téchiné was interested in what he calls " human truth" behind the case."
" I wanted to explore the genealogy of a lie, how it came to being. That's why I divided the film into two parts. The first is the circumstances, so you see the context under which the young woman was able to construct her lie. You see the difference elements that she takes from the context around her and puts into. Bleinstein, whose name she has taken. Its the name on the business card found in her bag, which she claims is the reason for being attacked. That was how I constructed the story."
Téchiné cast in the leading role Belgian actress Emilie Dequenne
, known intentionally for her starring role in the Cannes Film Festival
winner film Rosetta
(1999). " I didn't want Jeanne to be depressive or a melancholic character" Téchiné explained. " I wanted her to be physical and athletic, which is why we came up with the idea of her rollerblading. It's significant that she falls in love with a top class athlete, which is based on the fact that the girl's real life lover was an athlete. And alongside her athleticism, Emilie has a day dreaming quality. In real life she is about 30, but in the film she looks much younger and more childlike."
. Critics praised the performances of Emilie Dequenne. Metacritic
gave the film an average score of 68/100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". James Berardinelli
from ReelViews called the film "a compelling piece of cinema". In his review for Los Angeles Times
, Kevin Thomas wrote: " The movie seems likely to be about anti-Semitism, but that's more the occasion than the subject. Mick LaSalle
from the San Francisco Chronicle
commented that "What it's really about - and this sounds so boring, and so nothing, when in fact it's really rather wonderful - is people. Just regular people, a mother and daughter, whose lives are observed with economy and precision, and with an eye for the telling detail and the tense, revealing moment." In Variety
Ronnie Scheib said that in the Girl on the Train "Téchiné fashions a brilliantly complex, intimate multi-strander, held together but somewhat skewed by the central performance of Emilie Dequenne
."
Steven Rea
from the Philadelphia Inquirer commented that "Presented with an economy and emotional cool that add to, rather than subtract from, its dramatic impact, The Girl on the Train reverberates with a quiet, seductive power." In the New York Times
Manohla Dargis
called the film "A seductive drama."
André Téchiné
André Téchiné , is a French screenwriter and film director. He has had a long and distinguished career that places him among the best post-New Wave French film directors....
, starring Emilie Dequenne
Émilie Dequenne
Émilie Dequenne is a French-speaking Belgian actress.-Biography:She won the Best Actress award at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival for her debut film performance in the Palme d'Or-winning film Rosetta...
, Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
and Michel Blanc
Michel Blanc
Michel Blanc is a French actor and director who is noted for his roles of losers and hypochondriacs...
. The plot centers on an aimless girl who lies about being the victim of a hate crime.
Plot
Jeanne Fabre, a carefree loner, spends her time rollerblading through Paris and job-hunting, a nuisance she endures to indulge her widowed mother, Louise, who runs a day-care center out of their house. As they are watching a news program on television about anti-semitic attacks, Louise recognizes the person on TV: Samuel Bleistein, a prestigious Jewish lawyer, who was many years ago in love with her. Louise arranges a job interview for her daughter at Bleistein’s law firm.On his part, Samuel Bleistein receives the visit of his son Alex, who has comes to Paris to
celebrate his son Nathan’s upcoming Bar mitzvah. Alex's encounter with his ex-wife Judith, who is Samuel’s assistant, is tense since they do no get along.
Jeanne’s job interview is a disaster. Evidently she is ill qualified and badly prepared. Unfazed by the interview, Jeanne resumes rollerblading and unexpectedly meets Franck a young wrestler, who takes an instant interest on her. A relationship ensues and the couple eventually move-in together when Franck finds a job as the caretaker in an electrical shop in the owner’s absence. The place turns out to contain hidden drugs and Franck is badly wounded in a fight with a drug dealer, who flees. The police let Jeanne go but arrest Franck, who rejects her when she visits him at the hospital. He knows she was lying the whole time during the relationship about having a job. Heartbroken and angered, she goes home to live with her mother. During the night, she wakes up from her bed and grabs a black marker. Drawing three swastikas on her body, she then grabs a knife and proceeds to cut herself. She then grabs a pair of scissors and cuts off part of her hair. She then sneaks quietly outside into the night. She alleges to have been brutally attacked by hoodlums on the RER suburban train because they thought she was Jewish. The incident becomes a huge national cause celebre. Louise, however, guesses that her daughter has been lying.
Meanwhile Alex, indisposed towards his ex wife, decides not to go to Nathan’s upcoming Bar Mitzvah. Judith begs him to reconsider. Behind their mutual apparent animosity, they still love each other. At his hotel room, they make love and reconcile.
Louise, convinced that her daughter is lying about the attack on the train, asks Samuel for help. Samuel suggests that they hear this through, and wants her to come and stay at his house for the night. Louise and Jeanne board a train and travel to meet Samuel and his family at his house country by a lake. At Samuel’s house, Nathan accuses Jeanne of lying about the whole affair. When all gather for dinner, Jeanne repeats the same story she told the police: that six youths approached her and, assuming she was Jewish (which she is not), proceeded to beat her. After some extensive questioning, she decides to call it a night, but runs away and crosses a lake.
Nathan helps Jeanne when it starts to rain hard and invites her into his little shack, a safe haven to get away from his parents once in a while. He notices she is all wet, and has her take off her clothes. Jeanne strips down and sits next to the fireplace with Nathan. She shows him her scars, as he still does not believe her story, but confesses in the end she made it up. Nathan convinces her to confess she lied. The next morning Jeanne tells the truth. Samuel has her write an apology. They travel back to Paris by train and Samuel and Louise share one more goodbye.
Jeanne goes to the police and is put in jail for 48 hours as punishment for her serious false statements. When Franck is interviewed about Jeanne, Franck says he was in love with her, despite her lying, and would do it all over again given the chance.
Samuel attends Nathan’s Bar Mitzvah, where he sees the television footage of the reporters interviewing Louise. When they asked about how her daughter knew the name of Bleistein Louise lies and says she does not know. Jeanne returns to live with her mother. She receives a postcard from Nathan, who is in love with her. Jeanne takes on rollerblading down the street.
Cast
- Emilie DequenneÉmilie DequenneÉmilie Dequenne is a French-speaking Belgian actress.-Biography:She won the Best Actress award at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival for her debut film performance in the Palme d'Or-winning film Rosetta...
as Jeanne - Catherine DeneuveCatherine DeneuveCatherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
as Louise - Michel BlancMichel BlancMichel Blanc is a French actor and director who is noted for his roles of losers and hypochondriacs...
as Samuel Bleistein - Mathieu DemyMathieu DemyMathieu Demy is a French actor and director, born 15 October 1972 in Paris. He is the son of Agnès Varda and Jacques Demy.- Filmography :*1988 : Kung-Fu Master*1993 : À la belle étoile with Julie Gayet, Chiara Mastroianni...
as Alex - Ronit ElkabetzRonit ElkabetzRonit Elkabetz is an Israeli actress and filmmaker. She works in both Israeli and French cinema. She has won three Ophir Awards and has received a total of seven nominations.- Biography :...
as Judith - Nicolas DuvauchelleNicolas DuvauchelleNicolas Duvauchelle is a French actor.-Biography:Duvauchelle starred in numerous movies including Lightweight, À tout de suite and Le Grand Meaulnes...
as Franck - Jérémie Quaegebeur as Nathan
Production
The Girl on the Train has its genesis on a real life case that made headlines in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Marie Leonie Leblanc, a woman in her twenties, walked into a police station in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
on 9 July 2004 claiming she had been the victim of an antisemitic attack on a suburban RER
RER
The RER is a rapid transit system in France serving Paris and its suburbs. The RER is an integration of a modern city-centre underground rail and a pre-existing set of commuter rail lines. It has several connections with the Paris Métro within the city of Paris. Within the city, the RER...
train. According to her account, six men of North African descent ripped her clothes, cut some of her hair and daubed a swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
on her stomach, knocking over the pram containing her baby.
Fellow passengers did nothing to help. The case provoked national outrage for its virulent antisemitism; politicians and the media seized on the incident.
President Jacques Chirac
Jacques Chirac
Jacques René Chirac is a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He previously served as Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988 , and as Mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995.After completing his studies of the DEA's degree at the...
, condemned the "shameful act", while Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
's prime minister Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
advised French Jews to emigrate to Israel to avoid " the wildest antisemitism".
Four days later Leblanc, who was not Jewish herself, admitted she had made the whole affair up. The revelation that the incident was a total invention created consternation and further outrage, particularly criticized was the media sensational exploration of the affair.
The case inspired Jean Marie Basset
Jean-Marie Basset
Jean-Marie Basset is a French chemist, currently the director of KAUST catalysis research center.Professor Basset received his PhD in 1969 from the University of Lyon, France...
's 2006 play RER which in turn was the base for Téchiné's film script. Téchiné was interested in what he calls " human truth" behind the case."
" I wanted to explore the genealogy of a lie, how it came to being. That's why I divided the film into two parts. The first is the circumstances, so you see the context under which the young woman was able to construct her lie. You see the difference elements that she takes from the context around her and puts into. Bleinstein, whose name she has taken. Its the name on the business card found in her bag, which she claims is the reason for being attacked. That was how I constructed the story."
Téchiné cast in the leading role Belgian actress Emilie Dequenne
Émilie Dequenne
Émilie Dequenne is a French-speaking Belgian actress.-Biography:She won the Best Actress award at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival for her debut film performance in the Palme d'Or-winning film Rosetta...
, known intentionally for her starring role in the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
winner film Rosetta
Rosetta (film)
Rosetta is a 1999 French-Belgian film written and directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne. It is about a seventeen year old girl who lives in a trailer park with her alcoholic mother...
(1999). " I didn't want Jeanne to be depressive or a melancholic character" Téchiné explained. " I wanted her to be physical and athletic, which is why we came up with the idea of her rollerblading. It's significant that she falls in love with a top class athlete, which is based on the fact that the girl's real life lover was an athlete. And alongside her athleticism, Emilie has a day dreaming quality. In real life she is about 30, but in the film she looks much younger and more childlike."
Reception
The film garnered a favorable critical reaction, holding a fresh rating of 79% on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. Critics praised the performances of Emilie Dequenne. Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gave the film an average score of 68/100, indicating "generally favorable reviews". James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
from ReelViews called the film "a compelling piece of cinema". In his review for Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Kevin Thomas wrote: " The movie seems likely to be about anti-Semitism, but that's more the occasion than the subject. Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle
Mick LaSalle is an American Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] Mick LaSalle is an [[United States|American]] [[film reviewer] and the author of two books on pre-[[Motion Picture Production Code|Hays Code]] Hollywood...
from the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
commented that "What it's really about - and this sounds so boring, and so nothing, when in fact it's really rather wonderful - is people. Just regular people, a mother and daughter, whose lives are observed with economy and precision, and with an eye for the telling detail and the tense, revealing moment." In Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
Ronnie Scheib said that in the Girl on the Train "Téchiné fashions a brilliantly complex, intimate multi-strander, held together but somewhat skewed by the central performance of Emilie Dequenne
Émilie Dequenne
Émilie Dequenne is a French-speaking Belgian actress.-Biography:She won the Best Actress award at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival for her debut film performance in the Palme d'Or-winning film Rosetta...
."
Steven Rea
Steven Rea
Steven Rea is an American journalist, film critic, poet, and writer. Although at the beginning of his career he was based in Los Angeles, California, he now resides on the East Coast. Since 1982 he has written for the Philadelphia Inquirer...
from the Philadelphia Inquirer commented that "Presented with an economy and emotional cool that add to, rather than subtract from, its dramatic impact, The Girl on the Train reverberates with a quiet, seductive power." In the New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis
Manohla Dargis is a chief film critic for The New York Times, along with A.O. Scott. She was formerly a chief film critic for the Los Angeles Times, the film editor at the LA Weekly, and a film critic at The Village Voice. She has written for a variety of publications, including Film Comment and...
called the film "A seductive drama."