André Téchiné's GIRL ON THE TRAIN opens; Deneuve, Dequenne and Blanc shine

It's been ten months since TrustMovies first viewed André Téchiné's THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (the original review is here; click and scroll down), yet the film, as do most from this director, contin-
ues to haunt his thoughts.

Téchiné (shown just below) is a movie-maker who seldom spells things out:
not the theme nor the moral nor even sometimes the plot itself.

The latter is true this time around, as the key event happens late in the film, yet it packs such a wallop that, were it to occur in any other filmmaker's movie, it would set the entire tone as well as our view of title character.  That this does not happen here is due to the director and co-writer (with Odile Barksy and Jean-Marie Besset) having earlier pre-
sented such a rich and full view of the young woman of the title -- played well, as she does all her roles, by Émilie Dequenne (below) -- and of her world. Consequently, we viewers cannot perform the usual rush-to-judgment done by the media, politicians, even some of those people close to the girl and the event.

Téchiné gives us perspective -- plus the links we need to family, society, politics and the like. Dequenne's mother is played by the great actress Catherine Deneuve, who continues to find, with the help of some of France's best directors (Téchiné, Desplechin, Ozon) interesting and varied roles to play well into her senior years.

Deneuve is aided by actors like Michel Blanc, Mathieu Demy, Ronit Elkabetz, and especially Nicolas Duvauchelle (shown at right, who plays Dequenne's boy-
friend). They all help make Girl on the Train one of the more unusual -- and troubling about the way we live now -- foreign language films in some time.

Thanks to Strand Releasing, the movie opens Friday, January 22, in New York City at the IFC Center and at City Cinemas 1 2 3. A national rollout will follow, so you may get this one in or near your city.