Stylish film. “The Killer in the Sleeping Car” is an adaptation of the novel by the French writer Sebastian Japrizo (“Death Coupe”). The film in 1965 was awarded the prize of the National Council of Film Critics of the United States, and also nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award.
Based on the name, we can assume that there is a crime on the train during the trip and it may seem that the plot is quite simple, but this is far from the case. You are waiting for a real detective with a twisted plot and an unexpected turn. You’ll be surprised who the perpetrator really is, only at the end of the film.
One of the advantages of the film is the original script with smart dialogue. The scene in the phone booth between Inspector Graziani (Yves Montand) and Daniel (Jacques Perrin) can be safely considered the benchmark of French cinema.
- Do you want to chain yourself like a tiger?
- Don't, it's not so serious! - said the inspector.
The police station sometimes resembles a balcony. Police with a serious face discuss crimes, then, like a basketball throw each other detained criminal. Inspector Graziani, suffering from a cold, listens indifferently to Commissioner Tarken (Pierre Mond), who gives out errands and scolding. On the background flashes a chalk board with a car pattern and passengers. Various versions of the crime are being built, while witnesses die one by one.
This film can be called the full debut of the director Costa Gavras, in which the shots turned out stylish and expressive, like photographs. I especially liked how the killer was filmed with a gun and in a leather black cloak with a high collar, behind which there was no visible face.
The film shows Paris in its true beauty: crowded streets, noisy cafes, elegant architecture interspersed with Gothic; vintage stairs of houses; luxurious elevators.
The cast of this film is a real “dream team”, especially I want to note Simone Signoret, playing the role of an actress and an insecure woman, Jean-Louis Trentignan her lover and Michelle Piccoli, who skillfully plays a neurotic.