L'homme du train

Rating: * * * (out of 5)
Director: Patrice Leconte
Running time: 90 minutes
Language: French
Currently showing
[See Japan Times movie listings]

A lot of filmmakers like to work in a way that could best be called "cast first." That is, they decide who they want to work with, and then fashion a role with that actor in mind. This can pay off, as directors such as Jim Jarmusch, Paul Thomas Anderson, Francois Ozon and Sophia Coppola have proven in recent years.

Theoretically, a tailor-made role allows an actor to play to his strengths, but sometimes it can be too perfect: With no challenges, the actor just coasts. That seems to be the case with director Patrice Leconte's latest, his 20th film, "L'Homme du train."

Rock icon Johnny Halliday -- the "French Elvis" -- had contacted Leconte expressing his desire to appear in a film. Perhaps he was hoping to get dropped into a bordello a la "Rue de plaisirs," Leconte's previous film, but instead the director responded by casting him opposite his favorite leading man, Jean Rochefort ("Monsieur Hire," "Lost in La Mancha"). The result is a minimalist two-hander that puts Rochefort, mousy, retired teacher, bourgeois and talkative vs. Halliday as a rootless bank robber, hard-edged and brusque. It's also a contrast in performance: the quintessential actor vs. the "natural" rocker.

Our Planet

As of August 2024, the number of confirmed chagusaba farmers had fallen to 302, just over half the 582 reported in 2015, according to the Shizuoka Chagusaba Farming Method Promotion Council.
Shizuoka farmers fight to preserve sustainable tea method that’s steeped in tradition

Longform

Figure skater Akiko Suzuki was once told her ideal weight should be 47 kilograms, a number she now admits she “naively believed.” This led to her have a relationship with food that resulted in her suffering from anorexia.
The silent battle Japanese athletes fight with weight