Women,
children, and the well-to-do sit up front.
Prostitutes, ruffians, and the socially marginalized hunker down in the
cattle cars bringing up the rear. Of
course, they were Georges Simenon’s kind of people and they turn out to be more
fun to travel with in Pierre Granier-Deferre’s The Last Train, an adaptation of Simenon’s tragic romance set amid WWII
evacuation chaos, which screens during the Anthology Film Archives’ Cine-Simenon retrospective.
Julien
Maroyeur is a shy radio repairman in a sleepy French village on the Belgian
border. His out-of-his-league wife is probably the only notable thing about
him. Given her very pregnant state, they are reluctant to leave home, but news
of the advancing German army convinces them.
The nuns find a place for Madame Maroyeur and their young daughter in a
respectable compartment, but he will be stuck in the back of the train. However, along with the dregs of society, he
will share his car with the mysterious Anna.
Initially,
the beautiful woman says very little.
The knuckleheads seem to think her accent sounds German, but she seems
more anxious than anyone to avoid the National Socialists. Effectively segregated from his family,
Maroyeur takes a protective interest in the woman that quickly evolves into
something far deeper.
Considering
Simenon’s controversial wartime years, The
Train is a bit of an oddity in his oeuvre.
Nonetheless, it is wholly fitting Granier-Deferre, the Simenon
specialist, would be represented in Cine-Simenon. Incorporating archival WWII newsreel footage
into the film, he keeps viewers fully cognizant of the wider geopolitical
horrors throughout what is admittedly at times a rather melodramatic story.
Indeed,
Granier-Deferre vividly captures the strange nature of the flight. With everyone losing sight of previous responsibilities,
it becomes almost a madcap vacation, punctuated by moments of abject
terror. Tellingly Maroyeur himself
admits they have all “lost perspective.”
Last Train might have an
odd tonal shift here or there, but it is hard to go too far wrong with
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Romy Schneider as the not-so secret lovers. Their chemistry is quite convincing, because
it is clearly rooted in their respective characters’ personalities. The quiet moments shared by the screen
legends have affectionate warmth beyond mere erotic heat.
