Trans-Europ-Express

Written and directed by the high priest of the French nouveau roman, this now looks considerably more literary than cinematic. Robbe-Grillet himself plays the focal character, the author-within-the-film, dreaming up a surreal melodrama involving a man (Trintignant) who boards the same train, during a journey through Europe: dope-pushing, gangsterism, bondage fantasies. Trintignant's cool is as unshakeable as ever, but the vague 'modernism' of the project can't conceal an underlying pomposity.