Take a journey...
The Art of bondage... and vice-versa.
Dangerous reading....
Alain Robbe-Grillet: creator of literary/cinematic ambiguity...
Elias (Jean-Louis Trintignant) examines a pistol which has been hidden in a book. Such are the linguistic challenges of the films directed by the late Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922-2008). Exactly one of his directed films, LA BELLE CAPTIVE (1984) has had a R1 DVD presentation. But given their mixture of transgressive eroticism, literary/mythological subtexts and cinematic experimentation, that's simply not acceptable. There's a certain market for these films out there. Most important of all, his films, especially TEE, are teasing, highly intelligent, artistically adventurous entertainment.
I actually took the TEE from Paris to Antwerp, when I visited a friend in Belgium in 1973, with Robbe Grillet's elusive film [I hadn't yet seen it] very much on my mind. In fact I might have lounged in that very train car seen in the above shot. Who knows? Ambiguity is at the center of ARG's work, emotional/stylistic/ontological ambiguity. It's between the lines of his prose and behind the imagery in his films. TEE is a crime thriller wrapped in an enigma. An S&M journey into a put-on, deconstructionist adventure, like THE FRENCH CONNECTION as if directed by Jean Cocteau! The opening and closing shots bracket it as another ARG game within a film, leaving us delightfully mystified as the auteur flashes his somewhat chilling smile. Take a ride on the Trans Europ Express, but don't let down your guard...
You really can't describe this film, you have to see it. Is Severin listening?
(c) Robert Monell, 2009
