Night Train to Lisbon

07 December 2023

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Once, when this film was just released, he caught my eye, wanted to see it, but then forgot, and then again saw it somewhere on the network and still decided to watch this time. This is a film directed by Dane Bille August, who is known for many good films, based on Pascal Mercier’s novel of the same name, Night Train to Lisbon, 2013. Starring Jeremy Irons, who I like, and the cast in the film is very international, there, for example, are engaged Melanie Laurent, Charlotte Rampling, Bruno Gantz, Martina Gedek and others, the film is shot in English.
It all starts in Switzerland. Professor Raymond Gregorius in bad weather rushes to school, where he teaches philosophy, when he suddenly notices on the bridge a girl in a red coat, about to jump down. Having thrown all his things, he runs to her, pulls her off the railing, she kind of came to her senses, helps him pack up, only the umbrella flew away and asks for permission to go with him, as a result, he brings her to school, to class, but after a while she suddenly rises from the chair and leaves, leaving her coat. He tries to catch up with her, but he fails. After examining the pockets of his coat, he finds a small book in Portuguese and a train ticket to Lisbon. After reading a little, he suddenly begins to feel a great interest in the character, and the book is autobiographical, finds a store in which the seller confirms that the girl bought the book in a coat that the professor holds. In the evening, he goes to the station, hoping to find the girl there, she is not, and then under the influence of impulse, he boards the train himself. All the way he reads the book, the further, the more interest and a sense of inner kinship arises with the author. When he arrived in Lisbon, he began his search. Along the way, he manages to meet and communicate with the author’s sister and his former friends, whose youth fell on those years when Salazar ruled in Portugal. We will find out the reason why the girl tried to kill herself, she searched for him in Lisbon. He learns a lot of new and interesting things for himself, what is happening quite obviously can affect his future life. So will he choose to return to Switzerland and continue, or start from scratch and stay in Portugal? We will never know, leaving the hero with his newfound friend optometrist, who made him new glasses, whose uncle turned out to be a friend of the author of the book and Raymond met him several times, who clearly has sympathy for him, in front of the train at the station.
I must say, despite the leisurely narrative, the film looks good, of course, the actors are good and the director did not disappoint. I liked the film, although I guess not everyone would like it, some thought it was boring, but not me.

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