La femme et le TGV (2016) Reviews

• Touching Performance from Birkin

  Michael_Elliott2017-02-26

  La femme et le TGV (2016) *** (out of 4) Elise (Jane Birkin) is a lonely woman who lives alone in a small house that sets right by a TGV track. Each morning she follows the same routine by opening the window by the track and waving a flag. One day she receives a letter from someone on the train who appreciates her gesture and before long the two strike up a relationship. LA FEMME ET LE TGV is one of the five Oscar-nominated short for Best Live Action. If you're a fan of watching these type of shorts then you should find this one to be rather entertaining, although it does run on a bit too long at thirty-minutes. With that said, for the most part there's a lot of heart and charm to be found in the picture and there's also an extremely good performance by Birkin. She's certainly very believable in the role and helps carry the picture with her touching performance.

• One of the few fun films nominated for Best Live Action Short this year....

  MartinHafer2017-02-11

  This film is a strange little comedy about a very odd Swiss woman (ably played by British actress Jane Birkin). Every morning, like clockwork, she arises from bed at 6:05am in order to wave at the train speeding past her house. And, in the evenings, she does the same…each time waving her Swiss flag madly at the passing train! Apart from this odd ritual, she is a grouchy and rather miserable woman. However, her mundane and antisocial demeanor begins to change when someone from the train begins sending her fan mail— thanking her for the years she's spent greeting the train! She, in turn, begins writing back to this unknown admirer! What's next? Just see this one, as I don't want to spoil the suspense. This film is just fun….something that can't really be said about most of the nominees this year. In fact, so many of the films left the audience feeling a bit depressed that La Femme et la TGU has a strong chance of winning, though I'd still bet on Enemies Within.

• our live is like a trip or like an observer of the others trips

  francis-deandrade2017-04-06

  This story is a true story, so this brings a special emotion level when watching. In the audience there was a woman telling; "hey, it happened exactly the same to me! " So without spoiler alert I can say: what a romantic and funny story can occur when you live in a place like the protagonists live: close to a railway track. Yes, feel invited to watch that short movie; the actress is really touching our feelings and its poetic and beautiful.

• Very mediocre and not Oscar worthy

  Horst_In_Translation2017-03-09

  "La femme et le TGV" is a half-hour live action film from Switzerland and it resulted in the first Oscar nomination for Timo von Gunten, a still relatively young filmmaker from Switzerland. But it is a French-language movie about an old lady and the connection she makes with a TGV driver. From all five Oscar nominees in the Live Action short category, Jane Birkin is probably the biggest name in terms of the cast, but sadly I must say it also feels as if her participation in this project is the main reason why it was nominated. The emotional aspects felt very much for the sake of it and I don't think Birkin elevated the mediocre as much as I hoped she would. So yeah, from an Oscar-nominated film I definitely expect more. One other reviewer called it a "masterpiece of mediocrity" and I tend to agree here. There sure is some ambition in this one and the depiction of lonesomeness definitely could have been better with a script that shows more subtlety and attention to detail, but somehow it is not working out. von Gunten, however, is still very young, so I hope and I am positive he steps things up in the future if he keeps making movies. I personally don't recommend the watch here and I am also not sure if an Academy Award nomination here is justified. Probably not, but hey at least it did not win. The winner from Hungary is clearly superior in my opinion. "The Railroad Lady" is worth checking out only for the very biggest Jane Birkin admirers. I give it a thumbs-down.

• mellow terms yet loud settings..

  merelyaninnuendo2018-07-14

  La femme et le TGV 3 And A Half Out Of 5 La femme et le TGV is a character driven short feature about a stubborn woman seeking for a closure in her life. The concept is promising and has enough potential to feed off the audience throughout the course of it, but the only conflict would be the predictability of the outcome, since the hidden cards up the sleeve is visible far before it even hits the screen, no matter how beautiful and thought-provoking the journey be. It is rich on technical aspects like its metaphorical cinematography, perfect editing and the stunning camera work, although the background score could have been a lot better. The writing is a bit blunt, but is adaptive, elaborative and gripping that helps keep the audience tangled into the bubble. Timo von Gunten; the writer-director, has done an excellent work on executing the explicit script with such conviction and smarter approach. It scores majestically on performance objective especially by Jane Birkin that speaks volume through her expressive emotions. The poetic cinematography, sharp sound effects and stellar performance by the cast are the high points of the feature. La femme et le TGV is a more sweet than a romantic tale whose mellow terms yet loud settings is something that manages to be on both its "pros" and "cons" list.