Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train

Released Aug 27, 1998

2 hr. 2 min.

Drama

List

59%

17 Reviews

Tomatometer

72%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

French painter Jean-Baptiste Emmerich (Jean-Louis Trintignant) dies, and a collection of his friends and lovers take the train to his funeral. Climbing aboard for the long trip are, among others, pill-popper Claire (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) ; art historian François (Pascal Greggory) ; François' lover, Louis (Bruno Todeschini) ; and a teenager (Sylvain Jacques) who comes between the couple. The passengers mourn, fight and romance while reminiscing on the enigmatic man they're about to bury.

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Audience Member

Son Frere gave me the impression of an observant, clinically distant filmmaker, so this is a big surprise.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Exceedingly long and boring with a dash of prentention added to the mix.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Mené par une excellente et hallucinante réalisation, en plus d'une direction photo à tout cassé soutenue par une trame musicale soignée et des interprètes fabuleux, Chéreau dirige son film de mains maîtresses en avançant dans d'inévitables, tout autant que violents, face à face, en faisant tournoyer les nombreux conflits de tous ces gens reliés par un seul homme, aujourd'hui mort. Sublime et délicieux.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/18/23

Full Review

Audience Member

One stereotype of European films holds that they will tackle challenging intellectual material from absurd angles that, in the long run, render them largely unintelligible to mouth-breathing American audiences. Those Who Love Me Will Take the Train, France's latest gift to American movie theaters, probably won't help the situation too much. Those Who Love Me... follows a band of friends, family and lovers as they travel by train from Paris to Limoges to attend the funeral of a painter whose artistic and emotional legacy still looms over their lives. While the concept certainly packs the capacity for an enormous emotional wallop, its characters emerge as a hodgepodge of disparate, fragile archetypes instead of a believable extended family. It's easy to draw parallels between "Those Who Love Me..." and Thomas Vinterberg's Celebration, another European film that earnestly wrestles with the fallout created when a traumatic event rocks the gathering of an extended family. But where Celebration has a vivid and compelling moral purpose and relatively well-defined relationships between its characters, "Those Who Love Me..." is regrettably tangled and blurry. While the film has plenty of emotional fuel to burn, its characters frequent outbursts and fits of hysterics seem random at times. To its credit, the material it wrestles with is substantial, and some of director Patrice Chéreau's cinematography (particularly that of the jaw-droppingly enormous necropolis that is the Limoges cemetary) is terrific. In the long run, however, its easy to walk out of the theater feeling confused and slightly tired, rather than challenged and engaged. Two and a half stars, with a minus.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Monsieur Patrice, you made too much effort to ruin a film with great premise.Someday i'll steal it, and i won't give you any credit.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

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Audience Member

Okay, so admittedly I am not sure if there are supposed to be jokes in this movie (but what else am I supposed to think about: "I love him."/"How long has it been going on?"/"Since the station.") HOWEVER it's still weirdly funny - like Pinter - and kind of redeems Chereau for La reine Margot. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT MOVIE, M Chereau? I was worried that this one would also be A Mess, and . . . it comes close. But mostly it is brilliant instead. Although it could have used more Pascal Greggory. By which I mean, EVEN MORE Pascal Greggory.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

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Patrice Chéreau

Director

Pascal Greggory

François

Jean-Louis Trintignant

Lucien Emmerich

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

Claire

Charles Berling

Jean-Marie

Bruno Todeschini

Louis

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BBC.com

Rated: 3/5

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Peter Stack

San Francisco Chronicle

Rated: 3/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Marc Savlov

Austin Chronicle

Rated: 3/5

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

John A. Nesbit

Old School Reviews

intensified examination of the eternal human comedy

Rated: B

Jan 28, 2012

Full Review

Ken Hanke

Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

A wholly rewarding work for those with the patience for its unhurried pace.

Rated: 4/5

Feb 1, 2007

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

There's little substance to the dialogue or the plotless narrative, but the intense actors seem to put everything into their performance and give it an air that something big is taking place.

Rated: C

Dec 29, 2005

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Synopsis

French painter Jean-Baptiste Emmerich (Jean-Louis Trintignant) dies, and a collection of his friends and lovers take the train to his funeral. Climbing aboard for the long trip are, among others, pill-popper Claire (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) ; art historian François (Pascal Greggory) ; François' lover, Louis (Bruno Todeschini) ; and a teenager (Sylvain Jacques) who comes between the couple. The passengers mourn, fight and romance while reminiscing on the enigmatic man they're about to bury.

Director: Patrice Chéreau
Executive Producer: Jacques Hinstin
Screenwriter: Danièle Thompson, Patrice Chéreau, Pierre Trividic
Distributor: Kino Video
Genre: Drama
Original Language: French (Canada)
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 27, 1998, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 1, 2007
Box Office (Gross USA): $74.7K