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Boring

Better Late Then Never

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons) is a teacher in Bern, Switzerland. He saves a young woman from jumping off a bridge. She disappears leaving behind her red coat. The coat leads to a book and a train ticket. Hoping to find the woman at the train station, he abandons his class. When she doesn't show up, he decides to use the train ticket to Lisbon. There he finds the book's late author Amadeu do Prado's sister (Charlotte Rampling). He follows the story of Amadeu's rebellion against his father and society during the revolutionary 70's.Granted, there are great veteran actors in this movie. Most of whom are in the present day story but most of the drama happens in the past. This dichotomy leaves a hollowness to the story telling. It's hard to understand Raimund's motives. He doesn't seem to care about the young woman from the bridge or at least, he rarely mentions her until she literally tracks him down. Quite frankly, the character doesn't really understand himself. The movie is better off abandoning all the flashbacks and simply go back to the 70's to tell Amadeu's story. This is structurally flawed. His search should be as much about the girl as it is about a long dead author.

Having just returned from Lisbon by air, I thought I should return immediately by night train, so I watched this wonderful film again. The film is based upon the brilliantly-plotted best-selling novel of the same title by Pascal Mercier, the pen name of a Swiss writer from Bern, whose real name is Peter Bieri. It is the only novel of his which has yet been filmed. This film is a complete and total success. It was directed by the Danish director Bille August, and the studio work was done in Hamburg, but the location work, of which there is plenty, was done in Lisbon with some in Bern (and I thought I glimpsed a scene in Peniche). The film contains actors from several European countries. The film is therefore what in the business is described affectionately (and sometimes derisively) as 'a Euro-pudding'. But this is a truly delicious pudding, just as good as any Portuguese custard tart (known as a pastel in Portuguese, where the 's' is pronounced 'sh' and the accent is on the second syllable; my Portuguese lessons are available at one million pounds an hour: any takers?). Greg Latter and Ulrich Herrmann did the screenplay. Director, novel, screenplay, and cast, are all superb. There are several excellent cameo roles by famous actors. Tom Courtenay, Charlotte Rampling, Christopher Lee, and Bruno Ganz are all scintillating, and I don't believe I have ever seen Tom Courtenay do a better job on screen than he does here playing one of the key characters when older. As for Charlotte Rampling, is there anything she cannot do? Really, one gasps at these old pros at work. And if anyone ever wondered about Jack Huston, here is the concrete proof that he is at the top of his profession, sheer perfection itself as the lead young man, Amadeu. But the film as a whole is held together by the main actor in the story, Jeremy Irons. I don't believe I have ever seen him do a better job either. When he was younger I occasionally found him annoying, as I did the one time I met him at a mutual friend's 50th birthday party. (I won't say who was the woman with bright red glistening lips and a practiced backwards lean when snogging whom he would not stop kissing in front of everyone, but I found it significantly slobbery.) But here Jeremy Irons atones for all previous annoyances by being inspired and moving. Frankly, he makes a better middle-aged and aging actor than he ever did as a young man. And he genuinely 'makes' the film. So hats off to you Jeremy, as your acting irons have never been hotter. As for the pulchritude contingent ('pulchritude' being Charlie Chaplin's favourite euphemism, by the way, so it has a cinematic pedigree), we have both the ravishingly beautiful Mélanie Laurent and the warm and beneficently smiling Martina Gedeck to stimulate all of our male hormones (those of us who have them), and to deliver superb and moving performances. Yes, this film has something to offer anyone, not least the intricate and emotional story. Also, the final scene is a classic. The story commences in Bern, Switzerland, where the author of the novel lives. Irons is a teacher at the university, divorced for five and a half years, demoralised, who believes himself to be boring (and with some justification), whose life is uneventful and who lives as a dry stick. He is walking across the high bridge at Bern when an unexpected and highly dramatic event occurs which changes his life entirely. A girl is standing on the edge, about to throw herself off and commit suicide. He saves her. From that moment on, nothing is the same. She is a mysterious Portuguese girl whose identity he does not know. He fortunately knows Portuguese himself and later in the film we realize that he can even quote Fernando Pessoa's poetry, which is my view is the qualification for being a true gentleman. The girl flees and leaves her coat behind. He impulsively takes the night train to Lisbon to try to find her. In the pocket of the coat he discovers a rare book of poetry by an unknown Portuguese poet, whom he also tries to find, as the poetry is so beautiful. He then becomes involved in an unimaginably complex web of intrigue and events of the past, culminating in the revolution of April 25, 1974, 'the Red Carnation Revolution', when the horrible dictator Salazar was overthrown by rebellious soldiers who stuck red carnations in the barrels of their guns. The story is extremely intricate, the pieces of a gigantic puzzle fitting together in the most unexpected ways, and Irons discovers, as a result of his spectacles being crushed by a motorbike, that he is not boring after all. The tale is uplifting, profound, and moving. This film is worthwhile for anyone.

The title of this leads you to think it might be a film noir, but in fact it is about a man's search for meaning later in life. That man is Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons), a Latin teacher in Bern, Switzerland. As the movie opens the time is contemporary (2013). In a unique way Gregorius comes by a book of poetry that has a great effect on him. This book was written by one Amadeu de Almeida Prado, a Portuguese poet, medical doctor, and philosopher who lived in Lisbon from the early 1930s to 1974. Outside the fact that Amadeu's story plays out against the historical facts of the dictatorial regime in Portugal during his lifetime, all else is fiction, including the existence of Amadeu himself.Gregorius is so taken with what he reads in Amadeu's book that he feels compelled to meet the author and drops everything and goes to Lisbon to see if he can find him. Once he arrives in Lisbon the main thrust of the story follows his detective work in trying to piece together Amadeu's short life that came to an end on April 25, 1974, the day the dictatorship fell. The story alternates between Gregorius' life in Lisbon and Amadeu's life during the 1970s. We get to know a lot about Amadeu and his friends; most of what Gregorius finds out comes from talking with people still living, mainly from two of Amadeu's friends and his sister (all obviously much older by 2013).The main insight into Amadeu's character comes from his writings. During the course of the movie Irons reads over a half dozen selections from Amadeu's book. He does a wonderful job in these readings using an expressive emotional tone. The readings are cleverly made to apply to what Gregorius is experiencing at the time of his reading them. I can see why Gregorius was so taken with Amadeu's book--the readings presented are quite elegant and I re-watched the movie so I could better appreciate them. For example, here is one:"In youth we live as if we were immortal. Knowledge of mortality dances around us like a brittle paper ribbon that barely touches our skin. When in life does that change? When does the ribbon tighten ... until finally it strangles us?"I felt that there was ambiguity in how Amadeu met his end, based on the comment Jorge made to Estefania at Amadeu's funeral, "You didn't really think I would do it did you?"Irons is perfect for this role. All the actors appearing in both time periods are well cast in this well-acted, complex, captivating movie.

In Bern, Switzerland, the teacher Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons) saves a young woman from committing suicide jumping off a bridge and brings her to the school where he works. During his class, she leaves the building and Raimund unsuccessfully runs after her to give her coat back. He finds a book, "Um Ourives das Palavras" (A Goldsmith of the Words) written by the Portuguese Amadeu de Almeida Prado (Jack Huston) in the pocket and he goes to the bookstore stamped on the first page and discovers that the book was sold on the previous day to the woman. He finds a train ticket to Lisbon that will departure in fifteen minutes inside the book and he goes to the Central Station expecting to find the woman. He embarks in the train to Lisbon and reads the book, becoming fascinated with the story. When he arrives in Lisbon, Raimund decides to stay in the city to meet Amadeu. He finds his house, where his sister Adriana (Charlotte Rampling) lives, and soon he discovers that Amadeu is dead. Raimund decides to research the life of Amadeu, who was a doctor and writer that belonged to the resistance against the dictator Salazar, and his discoveries affect his own boring life. "Night Train to Lisbon" is a movie with a tedious beginning, when the lead character leaves his students in their classroom and travels to Lisbon in a senseless situation. Then there is serendipity, when he has an accident and breaks his glasses, and the doctor introduces him to her uncle that was a friend of Amadeu. But the development of the plot like a puzzle and the open conclusion are excellent and makes worthwhile watching this movie. The excellent European cast is another great attraction. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Trem Noturno para Lisboa" ("Night Train to Lisbon")