Train de nuit pour Lisbonne
Comboio Noturno Para Lisboa
Directed by:
Bille AugustCinematography:
Filip ZumbrunnComposer:
Annette FocksCast:
Jeremy Irons, Jack Huston, Martina Gedeck, Tom Courtenay, August Diehl, Bruno Ganz, Lena Olin, Marco D'Almeida, Burghart Klaußner, Charlotte Rampling (more)Plots(1)
Swiss professor Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons) saves a young woman from jumping off a bridge and committing suicide. She leaves before he gets the chance to talk to her but in her haste forgets her coat and a book - a memoir written by Amadeu do Prado (Jack Huston) - inside which is a train ticket to Lisbon. Hoping it will lead him to the woman, Raimund boards the train to Lisbon and goes on a search to discover more about the author's life, which is seen in flashbacks. He learns of Amadeu's time as a resistance fighter during the Salazar dictatorship and his relationship with his friends and the woman he loved, Estefânia (Mélanie Laurent). Along the way Raimund meets and befriends an optician, Mariana (Martina Gedeck), and comes to some realisations about his own life. (Bulldog Film Distribution)
(more)Reviews (2)
Recently, I managed to run into movies that take place in Portugal a lot, mainly Lisbon. I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence, but I’d be happy to see even more of those. Lisbon seems like an amazing city chock-full of history and there can’t possibly be a better setting for a drama. It’s very fresh. I certainly didn’t have an issue with the atmosphere in this movie. What was worse was the storytelling style which intertwined the past and the present. The past could be very boring at times and Jeremy Irons didn’t appear as often as I’d like him to. But just for Lisbon alone, I can’t rate it any lower than three stars.
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Jeremy Irons excels in a film in which he suddenly changes his whole life as a teacher by starting to search for an unknown author. It only took encountering a suicidal woman and an unknown book. The story of searching for an interesting human destiny, but also oneself, begins. The biggest positive are the interesting actors, otherwise unfortunately the film lacks a bit in the plot, which doesn't really present such a great story.
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