Event

Trans-Europ Express

A "parody of the old New Wave crime eroticism movies" (The New York Times), TRANS-EUROP-EXPRESS is a self- referential, neo-noir thriller, with heavy doses of sado-masochism, from the mind of Alain Robbe-Grillet (Last Year at Marienbad).

On the train from Paris to Antwerp, a director (Robbe-Grillet) and his production team hash out the plot of a crime movie. Their story is enacted by Jean Louis- Trintignant (Amour), who plays Elias, a cocaine smuggler seduced by Eva (Marie- France Pisier, Celine and Julie Go Boating), who may be working for a rival gang. But as the director keeps changing the story, Elias becomes lost in a labyrinth of false leads and shifting allegiances.

"Returning throughout to the films simple framing device briefly gives the audience a chance to come up for air, but the real pleasure lies in being thrown, headlong, into the erotic cat-and-mouse pas de deux. Alternating between Continental decorum and sexual depravity, Trans-Europ-Express proves that, where erotic thrillers are concerned, sometimes a good mindfuck is the best kind of foreplay." - Screen Slate

"Think of it as [Alain Robbe-Grillet's] Breathless, a pulp story refracted with his own distinctive take on narrative deconstruction and sexual perversity." Sean Axmaker

"Perhaps the only Robbe-Grillet film that could be called a "romp". This goofiest entry in the New Wave takes place in a realm where artists and their creations share the same reality, exploring the link between our world (where story ideas are born in bullshit spit-balling sessions) and the world of genre fantasy. A bit too self-satisfied at times, but also brain-tickling & a wicked satire of James Bond's 60s." - Duncan Gray, MUBI