Summary
Before he dies, a celebrated artist, Jean-Baptiste, asks to be buried in the famous cemetery
at Limoges (a town reputed for housing more dead than living), in a distant corner of
France. His relatives, he insists, must take the train to attend his funeral.
Sure enough, after his death, Jean-Baptiste’s enormous family pour onto a high speed train
bound for Limoges. Relatives who have not met for ages, who have never got
on well in the past, are forced into close confinement, unleashing a torrent of emotions.
Review
A dizzying roller-coaster of a ride, with its enormous cast and stylish, arcing camera
movements, this is a striking work from the director of the acclaimed La Reine Margot
, yet it is, for all that, not entirely satisfying.
The quality of the acting cannot be faulted, Chéreau getting the best out some
of France’s finest at the time he made the film, most notably Charles Berling and Dominique
Blanc. Most entertaining is Vincent Perez’s outrageous performance as a transsexual
with a major insecurity problem, although Jean-Louis Trintignant’s melancholic Lucien
very nearly steals the show in the second half of the film.
The presence of so many characters makes the film very difficult to follow, and it is
the fragmented nature of the film, which tries to pursue so many strands, which ultimately
works against it. Some of the story ideas are not developed fully enough and the
film has a tendency to feel excessively arty and superficial at times. It is also
mildly annoying that many of the characters conform to stereotypical patterns of behaviour
(particularly the three gay characters), implying a lack of imagination on the part of
the writers.
Despite this, if you do not look to closely, the film looks very good, benefiting from
some very impressive and moody photography. Consciously or not, the film mirrors
the style of a contemporary abstract painting – a frenzied collage of ideas, full of colour
end energy, yet eternally perplexing and probably destined to be truly appreciated by
a select minority.
© James Travers 1999
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