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Lelouch film a clever game of truth or 'Gare'

As anyone who has seen the riveting film short "Rendesvous" can attest, Claude Lelouch loves cars, the open road and luxury.

There's no compelling rationale for the subplot that propels the comic literary mystery "Roman de Gare" to Burgundy. It's there chiefly to let the director indulge his penchant for shots of vintage sports cars, together with posh estates and the gorgeous vineyard country of Beaune. The same holds for the opulent yacht on which portions of the plot unfold on the way to Cannes. The settings are merely for vicarious pleasure. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

They provide handsome backdrops for Lelouch's various bits of (preposterous) misdirection as well as for a trio of diverting performances from Dominique Pinon ("Amelie"), the wonderfully elegant, world-weary Fanny Ardant and Audrey Dana.

Ardant plays Judith Ralitzer, a popular author of French murder mysteries who may have just penned her best novel. Or did she? After a brief scene in which she is being interviewed for a chat show on books, the film flits back in time. We meet a jaded writer searching for unconventional characters for a new best-seller. Might she be inspired by the news that a serial killer-child rapist has just escaped from a maximum-security prison?

Or is her entire reputation a ruse, built on the talents of her secretary and possible ghost writer, Pierre Laclos (Pinon). More, could she be a murderess herself?

Enter Huguette (Dana), an emotionally fragile hair dresser en route from Paris to her native village, fiance Paul (Cyrille Eldin) at the wheel. An intensifying argument results in Hugette being abandoned at a highway rest stop, without luggage or her purse. There she meets Laclos, whom Lelouch would have us believe is the killer on the lam, trolling for his next victim.

The next thing you know, Hugette has talked Laclos into impersonating the fled fiance for the weekend at her parents' home. There's much in the way of droll domestic comedy in this interlude, but it's given an edge by the audience's awareness that a fiend may be in their midst.

Laclos is the real mystery. Is he a ghost writer employed by Ralitzer? A serial killer and child rapist? Or merely a teacher trying to escape a hum-drum life in the provinces? Any of the three is plausible.

Underpinning Lelouch's crafty twists is Alex Jaffray's score, which in classic Bernard ("Psycho," "Vertigo") Herrmann fashion, leads us to think the worst will happen at any given moment. The play of light deployed by cinematographer Gerard de Battista lends still more foreshadowing.

"Roman de Gare" has its weaknesses. It is overlong and illogical, with a few too many digressions and set-pieces. Its resolution is a trifle disappointing after the promise of the middle segment. But it's still leisurely paced fun, wed to a measure of psychological range, and sold by some accomplished actors. Dana is especially fine, turning a weepy, neurotic character into someone quite sympathetic in the end.

Reach Bill Thompson at bthompson@postandcourier.com or 937-5707.

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