''Trans-Europ-Express'' is a 1966

experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

written and directed by

Alain Robbe-Grillet Alain Robbe-Grillet (; 18 August 1922 – 18 February 2008) was a French writer and filmmaker. He was one of the figures most associated with the '' Nouveau Roman'' (new novel) trend of the 1960s, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and ...

and starring

Jean-Louis Trintignant Jean-Louis Xavier Trintignant (; 11 December 1930 – 17 June 2022) was a French actor. He made his theatrical debut in 1951, and went on to be regarded as one of the best French dramatic actors of the post-war era. He starred in many classic fi ...

and

Marie-France Pisier Marie-France Pisier (10 May 194424 April 2011) was a French actress, screenwriter, and director. She appeared in numerous films of the French New Wave and twice earned the national César Award for Best Supporting Actress. Early life Pisier was ...

. The title refers to the

Trans Europ Express The Trans Europ Express, or Trans-Europe Express (TEE), was an international first-class railway service in western and central Europe that was founded in 1957 and ceased in 1995. At the height of its operations, in 1974, the TEE network compri ...

, at the time an international rail network in Europe. A frame story shows a creative team devising a film plot during a train journey to Antwerp, intercut with a film-within-the-film about a novice cocaine smuggler and a prostitute that enacts their outline imperfectly.

Plot

The film-within-the-film features a Frenchman named Elias who takes his first consignment of cocaine from Paris to Antwerp on the Trans Europ Express. There he is passed from one mysterious intermediary to another and, with some time to spare, enacts a rape fantasy with a prostitute called Eva. Eventually he reaches his top contact, who reveals that his cargo was powdered sugar and the whole exercise was a test of his loyalty. Told that his next assignment will be to take a shipment back to Paris, he looks up Eva for another session and discovers there that she has betrayed him to the police. Initiating a bondage fantasy, he strangles her and immediately goes into hiding. Slipping out to buy a newspaper he sees a report of the murder above an advertisement for a strip club where the star performer in a bondage fantasy looks very like Eva. On arriving there he is surrounded by police but, before they can arrest him, he is shot dead by his contact. When the characters in the frame story return to Paris and buy a newspaper, behind them in the crowd one can see Elias and Eva embracing.

Cast

as Elias *

as Eva * Christian Barbier as Lorentz * Charles Millot as Franck *

Daniel Emilfork Daniel Emilfork (7 April 1924 – 17 October 2006) was a Chilean stage and film actor who made his career in France. Biography Emilfork was born in San Felipe, Chile after his Jewish socialist parents from Kiev fled a pogrom in Odessa. A ...

as policeman * Henri Lambert as police inspector *

as Jean, the film director * Catherine Robbe-Grillet as Lucette * Virginie Vignon as shop assistant * Gérard Palaprat as waiter * Nadine Verdier as chambermaid *

Jess Hahn Jesse Beryle Hahn (October 29, 1921June 29, 1998) was an American-French character actor who mostly starred in French films. Biography After serving with the Marines in the Second World War, he moved to France in 1949 and took French citizen ...

as police inspector (uncredited) * Prima Symphony as stripper

Reception

Screenwriter

Robert McKee Robert McKee (born January 30, 1941) is an author, lecturer and story consultant who is known for his "Story Seminar", which he developed when he was a professor at the University of Southern California. McKee is the author of ''Story: Substa ...

claims ''Trans-Europ-Express'' is a "nonplot" film—that is, a film that does not tell a story. The film was released on DVD in 2008 in Italy by Ripley's Home Video and on Blu-ray in 2014 in the US by

Redemption Films {{unsourced, date=February 2021 Salvation Group is a UK-based media company, specialising in exploitation film and alternative music. The company's original name and current trading name is Redemption Films. The Salvation Group was dissolved in No ...

References

External links

* * {{AllMovie title, 114338 1966 films 1960s avant-garde and experimental films 1960s erotic thriller films 1960s French-language films BDSM in films Belgian avant-garde and experimental films Belgian black-and-white films Belgian erotic thriller films Films about filmmaking Films directed by Alain Robbe-Grillet Films set on trains Films shot in Antwerp French avant-garde and experimental films French black-and-white films French erotic thriller films French-language Belgian films Self-reflexive films 1960s French films

Plot

Cast

Reception

References

Further reading

External links