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Alain E The second film directed by Robbe-Grillet is principally the means to create images that he wants to see. Realism is destroyed from the beginning, as we are told that a trio of filmmakers traveling on the train of the title imagine the protagonist, played by Trintignant, given an assignment to illegally transport heroin or maybe diamonds. He meets and kills women, tries to evade the police and eventually loses his life, only to reappear at the very end. The black and white cinematography is expertly restored. There is elaborate framing throughout with many points of view in every scene. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 06/01/25 Full Review david f This film features three filmmakers riding on a train, plotting out the film, as actors act it out. This frame gives it the flavour of a student film, highly experimental, while the conventional drug smuggling plot that is acted out by the actors doesn't quite have enough tensions and suspense to keep it interesting with the parallel movie about making a movie that's going on. Apart from some mid-century stylishness and a couple of funny in-jokes there isn't much to love about this film. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member This is an experimental film that may have pushed boundaries at the time but has lost all relevance to a contemporary audience. Slow and ponderous, with seemingly only two ideas to hang it's hat on, with no depth to the characters, there just isn't any reason to care about what happens. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Perverse, playful, and ultimately rather boring, Alain Robbe-Grillet's second film is less interesting than his first (L'Immortelle) or his script for Resnais's Last Year at Marienbad. Possibly this is because, its conceit - a writer, director, and script girl brainstorm a film while riding on the train, a film that we actually see - feels rather half-assed. Jean-Louis Trintignant gives a winking performance but Robbe-Grillet's efforts to confuse the audience seem to have confused him too. He is a drug courier between Paris and Antwerp - but who is he working for? More worrisome is the introduction of S&M content that, although seeming consensual, also feels misogynistic and accepting of violence toward women. I can't get down with that and it feels rather jarring when the rest of the film wants to be light-hearted. The end stare at a naked girl in chains on stage at a club is symptomatic of this problem - the film stops dead in its tracks and fortunately ends. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/23 Full Review Audience Member A screenwriter pitches a complicated story about a cocaine smuggling caper to a producer during a train ride, and the audience watches the results play out, revisions and all. Very dry, very French crime spoof with a hint of perversion (the film-inside-the-film protagonist is obsessed with bondage). Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member My first taste of Alain Robbe Grillet and I have to say that I definitely look forward to more. Not even sure what to classify it as: a thriller or film noir? There was something I really liked about this though, that it was paying homage (or maybe sarcastically) to a couple of the new wave films that I had seen before. The actress who plays the prostitute Eva is a stunning resemblance to Anna Karina from the hair to make up and even physique. Not sure if that was intentional or not. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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