Trans-Europ Express (1966)
As Alain Robbe-Grillet’s 1966 film Trans-Europ Express opens a group of travelers on the train in question are discussing an idea for a movie, to be set partly on the train. The bulk of the movie is the story they come up with. At various times they interrupt this story to make changes, and in some cases to eliminate from the plot events that we’ve already seen.
Their story concerns a criminal, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant. Initially he’s a cocaine smuggler, but about halfway through the three travelers decide this isn’t working, so he becomes a diamond smuggler. He is involved in complicated transactions involving suitcases and keys, and has a series of meetings with other members of the smuggling gang, some of whom may or may not be undercover cops. He also has a series of sado-masochistic sexual encounters with a prostitute, who may be a member of the gang, or of a rival gang, or be working for the police.
This is typical Robbe-Grillet stuff, with the plot at times looping back on itself, and with reality and fiction hopelessly confused. In fact the whole thing is a puzzle, a game in which the rules are subject to change at any time. If this sounds like an arid intellectual exercise, it isn’t it. There’s more than a hint of black comedy, and while the ever-changing plot can be disconcerting it’s also rather amusing. At times it’s a bit reminiscent of the Harry Palmer spy movies of the 60s, with the same kind of cynicism and played in a similar style - played very very straight but becoming so absurd and so convoluted that it becomes comic. There’s an element of surrealism, but this is not the extravagant and outrageous Spanish-style surrealism of a Bũnuel or a Dali. This is an intellectual French-style surrealism, and the surface realism makes it more effectively disturbing.
It’s also significant that all the erotic encounters in the movie involve game-playing and role-playing. This is clearly sex as a game. The danger makes the game more interesting. Sex is a game, and so too is crime. And murder. And crime and murder are games that have to be played by the same rules as sado-masochistic sex - they have to be intricately planned and stage-managed, they require the correct sets, the aesthetics have to be perfect, and like S&M sex they’re essentially intellectual acts. It’s the mind that is most actively engaged.
This is also a very 60s film, with a very 60s visual style. Not the hippie style of the late 60s, but the cool and chic style of the early 60s. No-one works up a sweat, everyone is immaculately groomed. Everything is sharp-edged and clean, this is the style of modernism, of the city, of technology. All of which contrasts nicely with the absurdity of the plot, with the fact that nothing is real, and everything we see is somebody’s fantasy.
Unfortunately Alain Robbe-Grillet’s movies are exceptionally difficult to get hold of. This is only the second that I’ve seen (or the third, if you count Last Year at Marienbad, for which he wrote the script). The other Robbe-Grillet film I’ve seen is La Belle Captive, which I also highly recommend (and it’s actually available on DVD). Trans-Europ Express is a fascinating blend of the intellectual and the erotic, done with exquisite taste and a good deal of flair. A great movie.
Their story concerns a criminal, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant. Initially he’s a cocaine smuggler, but about halfway through the three travelers decide this isn’t working, so he becomes a diamond smuggler. He is involved in complicated transactions involving suitcases and keys, and has a series of meetings with other members of the smuggling gang, some of whom may or may not be undercover cops. He also has a series of sado-masochistic sexual encounters with a prostitute, who may be a member of the gang, or of a rival gang, or be working for the police.
This is typical Robbe-Grillet stuff, with the plot at times looping back on itself, and with reality and fiction hopelessly confused. In fact the whole thing is a puzzle, a game in which the rules are subject to change at any time. If this sounds like an arid intellectual exercise, it isn’t it. There’s more than a hint of black comedy, and while the ever-changing plot can be disconcerting it’s also rather amusing. At times it’s a bit reminiscent of the Harry Palmer spy movies of the 60s, with the same kind of cynicism and played in a similar style - played very very straight but becoming so absurd and so convoluted that it becomes comic. There’s an element of surrealism, but this is not the extravagant and outrageous Spanish-style surrealism of a Bũnuel or a Dali. This is an intellectual French-style surrealism, and the surface realism makes it more effectively disturbing.
It’s also significant that all the erotic encounters in the movie involve game-playing and role-playing. This is clearly sex as a game. The danger makes the game more interesting. Sex is a game, and so too is crime. And murder. And crime and murder are games that have to be played by the same rules as sado-masochistic sex - they have to be intricately planned and stage-managed, they require the correct sets, the aesthetics have to be perfect, and like S&M sex they’re essentially intellectual acts. It’s the mind that is most actively engaged.
This is also a very 60s film, with a very 60s visual style. Not the hippie style of the late 60s, but the cool and chic style of the early 60s. No-one works up a sweat, everyone is immaculately groomed. Everything is sharp-edged and clean, this is the style of modernism, of the city, of technology. All of which contrasts nicely with the absurdity of the plot, with the fact that nothing is real, and everything we see is somebody’s fantasy.
Unfortunately Alain Robbe-Grillet’s movies are exceptionally difficult to get hold of. This is only the second that I’ve seen (or the third, if you count Last Year at Marienbad, for which he wrote the script). The other Robbe-Grillet film I’ve seen is La Belle Captive, which I also highly recommend (and it’s actually available on DVD). Trans-Europ Express is a fascinating blend of the intellectual and the erotic, done with exquisite taste and a good deal of flair. A great movie.