The Train

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The Train
The Train (1964) DVD cover
Directed by	John Frankenheimer
Produced by	Jules Bricken
Written by	Rose Valland (book Le front de l'art) Franklin Coen Frank Davis Albert Husson (French version-uncredited)
Starring	Burt Lancaster Paul Scofield Jeanne Moreau
Music by	Maurice Jarre
Release date(s)	1964 (UK release)
Running time	US: 133 min / UK:140 min
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Train is a 1964 war movie written by Franklin Coen and Frank Davis, and directed by John Frankenheimer. It starred Burt Lancaster and Paul Scofield. The film is based on the factual 1961 book Le front de l'art by Rose Valland, the art historian at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume who documented the works of art placed in storage there that had been looted by the Germans from museums and private art collections throughout France and were being sorted for shipment to Germany.

Contents 1 Synopsis 2 Production Details 3 Reception 4 Production Anecdotes 5 Artists 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Synopsis

Set at the end of World War II, the film essentially details the efforts of the French Resistance to prevent a trainload of French art reaching Germany. The art, having been looted by the German Army from French museums, is supposedly being shipped to Germany for its monetary value; however, the officer in charge of the operation, Colonel von Waldheim (Paul Scofield), is clearly captivated by the art and wants it for his own enjoyment.

After the Germans clear out the Jeu de Paume museum where the art is stored, the museum keeper Mlle. Villard seeks help from the French Resistance. Given the imminent liberation of Paris by the Allies, they need only delay the train and prevent it reaching German soil for a few days — still an extremely dangerous operation in German-occupied France. However, this must be done without any risk to the cargo.

Although the Resistance initially reject the plan ("We won’t waste lives on paintings"; "Don’t you have copies of them?"), the men have a change of heart after an elderly engineer, Papa Boule (Michel Simon), is killed for trying to sabotage the train. It falls to French railroad area inspector Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster) and his small band of well-connected men who gradually devise increasingly elaborate ruses to divert, reroute, interrupt and incapacitate the train, all the while hoping against hope each day will bring the Allies and liberation. Every attempt generally results in varying numbers of executions as von Waldheim becomes increasingly frustrated and maddened by Labiche’s efforts.

[edit] Production Details

The film is a blend of drama and action and includes a number of sequences involving long tracking shots and real locations — a style of filmmaking rarely seen today. Much of the film is photographed using wide-angle lenses, allowing both foreground and background action to be in focus simultaneously.

Standout scenes include the Vaires railyard bombing sequence; Labiche’s poignant confrontation with Jeanne Moreau’s pragmatic hotelier; the daytime run delivering the engine; and of course the exhilarating night run where the Resistance divert the train while duping the Germans into believing that they are progressing east into Germany, eventually climaxing in a spectacular crash of actual locomotives.

Noteworthy tracking shots include:

• Lancaster attempting to flag down a train, then sliding down a ladder, running along the tracks and jumping onto a moving locomotive;
• Lancaster in the railroad workshops casting main connecting rod bearings from molten babbit metal right through to installing the finished product on the engine;
• A scene in which the camera wanders around Nazi offices which are hastily being cleared, eventually focusing on von Waldheim and following him back through the office;
• A long dolly shot of von Waldheim travelling through a railyard at high speed on a motorbike;
• Lancaster rolling down a mountain, across a road and staggering down to the railroad track. Frankenheimer notes on his DVD commentary that Lancaster performed the entire roll down the mountain himself, filmed by several cameras at various points along the hillside.

Throughout the film, Frankenheimer often juxtaposes the value of art (or money) versus the value of life and this is what the viewer is left to ponder at the end of an exhaustive journey.

The film is often referred to as “The last great black & white action film”^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Reception

• Nominated for the 1964 film award of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts [1]
• Nominated for the 1965 Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award for Writing (story and screenplay written directly for the screen) [2]
• Included in the second edition of "The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made", published 2004 [3]
• Rated 4-stars by Leonard Maltin's 1997 Movie & Video Guide, Signet Books, ISBN 0451188888

[edit] Production Anecdotes

During an interview with History Channel, the director, John Frankenheimer, revealed:

• The railyard attacked during the Allied bombing raid sequence was in fact demolished, by special arrangement with the French railway agency, which had been looking to demolish the railyard but had lacked adequate funding.

• The sequence in which Paul Labiche is shot and wounded by German soldiers while fleeing across a pedestrian bridge was necessitated by a knee injury Burt Lancaster suffered during filming. According to Frankenheimer, Lancaster stepped in a hole while playing golf, spraining his knee so severely that he could not walk without limping. The scene thus provides the reason for Labiche limping throughout the rest of the film.

• When told that the actor Michel Simon, playing the dour engineer Papa Boule, would be unable to complete scenes scripted for his character as a result of prior contractual obligations, Frankenheimer devised the sequence wherein Papa Boule is made to stand in front of a locomotive shop wall and is executed by German soldiers.

[edit] Artists

At the start of the film, while the credits are running, the boxes of paintings are being loaded. The names of the following artists are stenciled on them, in this order: Gauguin, Renoir, Van Gogh, Manet, Picasso, Degas, Miro, Cezanne, Matisse, Braque, Seurat, Utrillo. The director's credit for John Frankenheimer follows immediately after the sequence.

[edit] See also

• The Train (video game), a video game themed on the movie and released in 1988 on several 8-bit computer platforms

[edit] External links

• The Train at the Internet Movie Database