The Stranger

Trans-Europe Express, directed by Alain Robbe-Grillet—a French novelist who was at the center of a literary movement, Nouveau Roman, that had its moment in the ‘50s and ‘60s—is a movie that is not conditioned by the stuff of cinema. It’s not even conditioned by the literary (or the mode of literature). What, then, is the substance—or value—of this fine movie, which was released in 1967 (near the end of Nouveau Roman moment) and stars the star of the Nouveau Roman moment, Robbe-Grillet? If one wants to see the value of Trans-Europe Express, one must look at it not as a work of art but as a historical record. In essence, Trans-Europe Express has the value of a document. What it represents to us, the lovers of Robbe-Grillet’s severe (almost Borgesian) novels, is the body of the famous author. We get to see Robbe-Grillet’s size (not fat or thin), his face (not handsome or ugly), his hair (not too long or short), his posture (not strict or lazy), and his voice (not manic or flat). As for the document’s story (or meta-story—it’s film about making a film), it does not matter one bit. What matters is, first, seeing Robbe-Grillet, and, second, seeing his almost criminal obsession with the female body. The author both hated and worshiped the fantastic form of a youthful woman. By Charles Mudede