What's especially clever about the plotting is that anything that proves to be merely a red herring is then incorporated into another storyline.
Roman de Gare (2008)
Runtime: 1 hr 43 mins
Synopsis: True to its title, ROMAN DE GARE (CROSSED TRACKS) finds famed French director Claude Lelouch (UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME) jumping between time and loyalties in this suspenseful mystery about fate and fatal secrets. As the film opens, popular crime novelist Judith Ralitzer (Fanny Ardant) finds... True to its title, ROMAN DE GARE (CROSSED TRACKS) finds famed French director Claude Lelouch (UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME) jumping between time and loyalties in this suspenseful mystery about fate and fatal secrets. As the film opens, popular crime novelist Judith Ralitzer (Fanny Ardant) finds herself at the receiving end of a police interrogation for two murders. We then learn about the escape of an actual serial killer known as "The Magician," who may already be lurking on the roads leading out of Paris. The road is where we find Huguette (Audrey Dana), a high-strung hairdresser who is soon abandoned by her enraged fiancé at a highway service station. Huguette is rescued by the unassuming Pierre (Dominique Pinon), who may or may not actually be the ghost writer responsible for Judith Ralitzer's success. Pierre pretends to be Huguette's fiancé so that her provincial parents and alienated daughter will think that Huguette has put her life in order. But even as Pierre wins the affection of Huguette and her family, his reliance on magic tricks may hint at a much darker secret. And when Pierre is reunited with the celebrity-absorbed Ralitzer, his intention to come out from her shadow and be his own author may force the star to construct a novel demise for her servant. Taking advantage of a superb cast and gorgeous French locations, Lelouch's veteran touch deftly manages ROMAN DE GARE's multiple layers of mystery and romance. The result is a pleasingly chic thriller grounded in a very human belief in the surprising possibilities that come from love. [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Dominique Pinon, Fanny Ardant, Audrey Dana, Zinedine Soualem, Michèle Bernier
Screenwriter: Claude Lelouch, Pierre Uytterhoeven
Producer: Claude Lelouch
Composer: Gilbert Becaud, Alex Jaffray
Reviews
If this kind of storytelling is your cup of absinthe, Claude Lelouch makes it easy to sip appreciatively.
In many ways, Lelouch's film is -- in its somewhat old-fashioned way (which isn't a pejorative) -- the most bracing dose of cinema I've seen all year.
Provides one of the year's more memorable movie moments: a simple shot of a barn, overlaid with both the soothing crooning of a Gilbert Becaud pop song and the terrified squeals of a hog being slaughtered.
Even if the game isn't entirely successful, it's fun to play along.
It's intellectually cagey, potentially romantic, and, above all, an entertaining puzzle box of duplicitous people doing mysterious things, men and women.
Roman de Gare is a sleek, attractive package made even more appealing by a trio of exquisite performers.
As fizzy and non-nutritive as a glass of sparkling wine, Roman de Gare is a crowd-pleasing blend of romance, farce and mystery that plays out a little like a Ruth Rendell mystery novel with Rendell herself as the chief suspect.
Forty years after his breakout success as a filmmaker, Claude Lelouch makes something of a comeback with his playful and sexy whodunit, Roman de Gare.
Roman de Gare is the rare trick film in which all the tricks reveal something amusing, involving or poignant about its characters.
Claude Lelouch's 'Roman de gare'('Crossed Tracks'): A seductive, compulsively watchable little cat-and-mouse game
With elements of road movie, thriller and comedy as well as other genres, Tracks possesses a freewheeling appeal.
Lelouch and his longtime writing partner, Pierre Uytterhoeven, slyly exploit and subvert audience expectations.
You'll be wondering if you've inadvertently stumbled into a David Mamet movie, it's that well done.
I think I understand the alternative realities of the plot, and I concede the loose ends are tied up, sort of, but I didn't care.
Don't go to the theater expecting too much and you can't help but leave with a smile on your face.
Lelouch's deft touch with various cinematic styles, however surface, enables him to interweave pastoral elegy, quirky social comedy and thriller with fluid ease.
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