Night Train to Lisbon

Plot synopsis:
Walking over a bridge in Bern, Raimund Gregorius, a Swiss professor of ancient languages, notices a young woman in a red coat standing on the railing, about to leap. Dropping his briefcase, he runs and pulls her down. She helps him gather the papers that have spilled from his briefcase and accompanies him to the school where he teaches. But instead of waiting to talk, she leaves during the middle of his class, without her coat.
Concerned, Raimund grabs the coat and runs after her, but in vain. He checks her pockets for identification. All he finds is a small book, a memoir of sorts, by Amadeu do Prado. It is stamped with the address of the bookstore, so he goes there. The bookseller remembers the girl's purchasing this obscure book and, as he leafs through it, a train ticket to Lisbon falls out. The train is, in fact, leaving in 15 minutes. Confused and doubtful, Raimund rushes to the station, but the woman is nowhere in sight. At the last moment he decides to use the ticket himself, and during the journey he reads the book.
Amadeu do Prado lived in Lisbon, so Raimund searches for him, hoping that this will lead to the woman. He finds Amadeu's home, where the writer's sister, Adriana, welcomes Raimund; she gives the impression her brother still lives there. Raimund learns that Amadeu was a doctor, and that only 100 copies of his book were printed. When Raimund asks what happened to their father, Adriana's reaction is hostile. As Raimund is leaving, the maid informs him that he can find Amadeu in the town's cemetery. Raimund finds the tomb: Amadeu died in 1974.
In the street, a bicyclist runs into Raimund and smashes his glasses. While obtaining new glasses from a local optician, Mariana, Raimund narrates his experiences. When he returns to collect the glasses, Mariana tells Raimund her uncle knew Amadeu de Prado well and is willing to talk to Raimund.
Raimund and Mariana both go to the nursing home where her uncle João Eça resides, and Raimund learns João and Amadeu were both in the resistance against the Salazar dictatorship, which story is told in continuing flashbacks as the film continues. Raimund then visits the priest who taught and later buried Amadeu de Prado. The priest explains that Amadeu, a smart young boy from an aristocratic background, befriended Jorge O'Kelly, another bright boy in the school though of lowly means. The boys bonded through their love for knowledge, particularly the philosophical and political knowledge not permitted under Salazar. Amadeu gave a graduation speech that reflected his contempt for the regime, much to the chagrin of his father, a well respected judge.
Raimund returns to Adriana and asks for her side of the story, and then he revisits João to obtain more information. Raimund learns that Amadeu died of an aneurysm, which he knew he had, but had not told Adriana about. As a doctor, Amadeu never refused a patient, and when Mendez, a powerful member of the Salazar regime, called "the Butcher of Lisbon", was brought to Amadeu's clinic, he saved the man's life. Amadeu's friends were shocked by this, especially Jorge, who at that time was already in the resistance. Later, Amadeu confronted Jorge and declared that he too would join the resistance. Jorge introduced Amadeu to João and to Estefânia, a beautiful woman who helped the resistance by memorizing people's names and contact information, and whom they were both attracted to. When the revolution against Salazar began, Amadeu was able to smuggle Estefânia to safety in Spain. Raimund learned where she went and went there to see that she was still alive.
Raimund finally meets the woman from the bridge again, in Lisbon; she had felt suicidal because she had just learned from the book that her beloved grandfather was the Butcher of Lisbon, but she is learning to accept this.
The events become a catalyst to Raimund's life, in a gentle sort of way. He informs the school that he is now returning to his job. Mariana goes to the railway station with him and, at the last moment, suggests he could instead stay.

Tags: romantic, atmospheric, flashback

Review:
There's so many layers, so many subtle metaphors, so much poetry in the imagery and storytelling, that despite being such a straightforward story you can't help feeling like you're walking through a maze, a labyrinth of emotions and thoughts, where present, past and future merge into a vast uplifting eternity.
This is an Europudding co-produced by Germany/Switzerland/Portugal , it deals with Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons) , a Swiss Professor, abandons his lectures and buttoned-down life to embark on a thrilling adventure that will take him on a journey to the very heart of himself .
Having saved an enticing Portuguese girl from leaping to her death, Gregorius stumbles upon an attractive novel by a Portuguese author, as he figures out the destination of a certain writer named Amadeu (Jack Huston) , a doctor and poet who fought against Portuguese dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar.
Gregorius acts as an investigator, pulling together pieces of a puzzle that involves suspense , twists and the highest possible stakes to lead unexpected consequences .It is a correct adaptation based on the international best selling novel written by Pascal Mercier from the award winning director Billie August .
This moving film contains suspense , plot twists , a love story , thrills , emotional intrigue and political events .
The flashback technique has been used and re-used from ¨Citizen Kane¨ (1941), known by some as the best movie of all time, it gave the world the first plot device by means of flashbacks , following to ¨The Godfather¨ and recently ¨The hours¨ until today we are faced with ¨Night Train to Lisbon¨ (2013), a film destined for repeated use as schedule filling on inventory-building, loved by some attracted by the name of Jeremy Irons and ignored by everyone else .
Very good acting from Jeremy Irons as an aging Swiss professor of classical languages , Jack Huston a young Amadeu , gorgeous Melanie Laurent as a mysterious revolutionary girl , Martina Gedeck as Mariana and August Diehl as Young Jorge O'Kelly .
And special mention to Charlotte Rampling , though Vanessa Redgrave was originally cast for the role of Adriana De Prado, however Rampling replaced her.The motion picture was well directed by Billie August who repeats similar formula to ¨House of the spirits¨ as German production , Lisboa filming , international cast and Jeremy Irons as main starring .
I just saw it this evening in Rome-- Well done--and although I was not familiar with the book--I will read it now.The style of "movie within a movie" reminds one of Fowles "the French Lieutenants Wife" and Truffaut "Day for night" but MUCH better done than both of those.Wonderful story of the randomness of life---and how that random event allowed three close friends during the dictatorship in Portugal to finally discover what had happened to each other.
It took a stranger to complete --and resolve--the major event of their lives.Jeremy Iron was as usual terrific---and reminded me of his role in House of the Spirits--in a similar political setting of the fascist times in Chile.Deeply intense, dramatically fulfilling--it kept me on the edge of my seat.Bravo.
I am not a book fanatic but I love movies based on the novels especially movie like 'Night Train to Lisbon' I won't miss.
Gregorius search makes him discover the life of the author, the relationships of the author with his entourage and with the political context in which Portugal was immersed at that time (the dark and awful years of the dictatorship of Salazar).
"Night Train to Lisbon," an especially engrossing 2013 film now appearing on Netflix, may not be everyone's cup of tea, but for those hungry for a movie without flying cars that instead pulls you in with an unusual plot and thoughtful, incisive performances by an exceptionally capable cast, this one's for you.The film was nominated for six Sophia Awards _ the national film awards of Portugal _ including best picture, and won three, for best supporting actress (Beatrice Bartarda), best art direction and best make-up.
Directed by Bille August ("Pelle the Conqueror"), "Night Train to Lisbon" was adapted from a philosophical novel by Swiss author Pascal Mercier.Mercier's quotations are spoken in voice-over by the film's protagonist, Raimund Gregorius, played by Oscar winner Jeremy Irons, a quiet, lonely classical studies professor working in Bern, Switzerland, who rescues a young woman about to leap off a bridge and after she disappears, finds himself on a quest to Lisbon, not only to find her but to fully understand the story of a doctor-turned-poet whose book he discovers in the pocket of the coat she leaves behind.The story isn't as dense or contrived as it sounds, thanks to the deft screenplay by Greg Latter and Ulrich Herrmann, and the uniform commitment to character and plot by Irons and a cast that includes veterans Tom Courtenay, Charlotte Rampling, Christpher Lee and Lena Olin.
Once in Portugal, Irons' Gregorius sets about on a quest for the author but instead finds his sister, Adriana (Rampling as the mature version, Batarda as the younger), and learns that Amadeu died in 1974 and that only 100 copies of his book were printed.
Thus, a tenuous but all-important bond is formed between the soft-spoken, insightful professor and the poet's sibling.The movie intersperses Raimund's investigation with flashbacks to a past in which we meet the young Amadeu (a superb Jack Huston), a member of the resistance to the dictatorship of António Salazar.Through Adriana, Raimund meets the priest (Lee) who taught Amadeu, Amadeu's best friend, Jorge (Bruno Ganz in the older version, August Diehl in the younger), and learns of Estefania (the fiery Mélanie Laurent), a resistance fighter who was Jorge's girlfriend until she met and fell instantly in love with the handsome Amadeu.After Raimund breaks his spectacles, he meets a sympathetic optician Mariana (Martina Gedeck) who by happenstance has an uncle named Joao (Courtenay as the elder version, Marco D'Almeida as the youthful one) who was also a member of the resistance and fills in the story.
Late in the film, the strings of the plot are pulled together when Raimund finally meets the mature Estefania (a stunningly beautiful and completely believable Olin).As I said, "Night Train to Lisbon" isn't for everyone, especially for those accustomed to tons of action and instant gratification via computer wizardry and slam bang eye-for-an-eye retribution, but it did it for me.
It's extraordinarily literate and sumptuously photographed to boot, and it's not a stretch to say it contains threads of David Lean's wonderful 1965 film version of "Doctor Zhivago," albeit on a much smaller scale.I was especially drawn to Irons' professor, a sensationally muted performance that holds the whole thing together.Since you'll probably be watching this in your living room, "Night Train to Lisbon" is rated R (under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian) for a scene of violence and brief sexuality (which really aren't all that bad)..
In Bern, Switzerland, the teacher Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons) saves a young woman from committing suicide jumping off a bridge and brings her to the school where he works.
My opinion does not take away from this beautiful film because of course, events can be viewed in many different ways.Jeremy Irons plays Raimund Gregorius, a Swiss Professor.
He registers at a hotel, buys some clothes, and starts asking questions and looking for Amadeu.What he finds is a fascinating story that took place during the Portuguese resistance to the dictator Salazar, It concerns some young people, Amadeu (Jack Huston), his best friend Joao (played as an adult by Tom Courtenay), Jorge (August Diehl/Bruno Ganz), and Estefania (Melanie Laurent/Lena Olin), and their lives then and now.
The beauty of Portugal is ever-present in this film, underlying the emotional and suspenseful scenes as Raimund learns the different threads of the story.
This movie was one of the most captivating stories told in film that I've seen in a long time.
The years prior to and after the revolution, were told through the memories of Amadeu de Prado (played so perfectly by Jack Huston) who sister collected and published his writings in a book called "Um Ourives das Palavras" (not a real book but one created by the author of Night Train to Lisbon).
The book was found by an older man, a teacher Raimund Gregorius, (wonderfully played by Jeremy Irons) when he rescued a young woman attempting suicide.
It is the hauntingly compelling and intriguing story in the book, which begins this journey and introduces the viewer to the lives of so many of the movies characters.
Discovering who the author of the book, Amandeu, was and all the lives that were touched by his existence (including that of Raimund, the girl he rescues Catarina, Amandeu's sister, his lover Estefania, the resistance fighters he knew and the butcher of Lisbon).
The story unfolds slowly, like a slow courtship, so it is not a movie for the impatient or those looking for a quick thrill - and it is all the better for that.The contrast between the aging Professor Gregorius whose life has been safe but uneventful, and the story of the youthful revolutionaries who are living life on the edge of life and death is well done, with some subtleties that can easily be overlooked by the less aware.Both Jeremy Irons and Charlotte Rampling are superb, bringing a wisdom to their roles that was missing from some of their earlier work, and Jack Huston as Amadeu and Melanie Laurent as Estefania have real charisma.This is a film to savour..
Throughout the story, Gregorius struggled with the Portuguese language in the novel, while in the film, everyone speaks in English.
Perhaps a film that is not for 'younger gore and sex motivated audiences' but definitely a film for any who enjoy playing with the plot themselves.Superb acting at all levels.Photography that transformed the banal and tinted the ordinary with interest.Direction that delicately unwound the many intrigues at a pace that was intellectually and emotionally exquisite.The film seems almost down-played, low key, unsure of itself.However, this is far from the case as appearances are usually deceptive and building character recognition with an audience takes patience, especially if the characters are 'out of the box' originals.This is one of those films I know I will happily watch many times.There was a comforting 'humanness and humanity' about it and a sense of acute reality often denied in more brash and gawdy films.I'm happy I got on this train..
Don't be put off by critics who thought "Night Train to Lisbon" was old-fashioned, too talky and lacking in tension, because there is something unique about this movie; by the end, it's quite an experience.Raimund Gregorius, played by Jeremy Irons in his slightly detached manner, is a teacher in Switzerland.
When he saves the life of a woman, she disappears leaving behind a small book written by a man named Amadeu do Prado, and a train ticket to Lisbon.
Admittedly, all this setting up of the story is pretty contrived, but the important thing in the plot was to get Raimund on that journey to discover more about Amadeu.He meets many people who knew Amadeu including his sister played by Charlotte Rampling, always an intriguing screen presence, she still seems to get plenty of roles with absolutely no loss of mystique.
As Raimund delves deeper and deeper into the story of Amadeu, and his relationship with revolutionaries during the Salazar regime in Portugal, he becomes aware that much is missing from his own life.Amadeu's story is told through extensive flashbacks, with younger actors playing the parts of the older storytellers - maybe it's this element that some thought outmoded.
I'm sure there are plenty of other examples.It wasn't until near the end that I realised "Night Train to Lisbon" had similarities not so much to old movies, but to a much older story: Raimund is inspired by the wisdom and profound sayings of a man who seemed better than other men, who spoke out against evil, became a healer and saves the life of a man whom he had every right to think of as an enemy.
It is sometime since I have felt so moved by the acting and characters and felt drawn into this movie like a good book that begs you not to leave.
I like Jeremy Irons as an actor, but his character here is dull and his modern-day scenes don't deserve to occupy more than half the running time as they feel irrelevant.The historical story is better, as it has some fine actors in crucial parts, not least the continually underrated Jack Huston (BOARDWALK EMPIRE).
Stephen Holden in his New York Times review Dec. 5, 2013 has proved himself a rather dimwitted critic with not an iota of perspicacity in his soggy cerebrum to grasp, even on a basic level, the brilliance of Bille August's film adaptation of Pascal Mercier's profound and poetic novel, 'Night Train To Lisbon'.
Based on the novel "Night Train to Lisbon" by the Swiss writer Pascal Mercier, this film, directed by the Danish Bille August, offers an international cast with actors from the USA, the UK, Germany, Sweden and France.
The historical context (Salazar's dictatorship and his Estado Novo) provides a particular background to the story as the public witnesses how Raimund Gregorius finds a new sense to his life thanks to the adventures of the resistance of that period.
Through several encounters and beautiful flashbacks, we gradually discover Amadeu de Prado's life, the charismatic Portuguese doctor and philosopher whose story awes the teacher.
August needs to be credited with the casting of Charlotte Rampling, Lena Olin, Tom Courtenay, Bruno Ganz, Christopher Lee, Martina Gedeck, Jeremy Irons, and Melanie Laurent (in that order) with a critical flaw--Olin and Laurent don't look the same, especially when Laurent has so many visible moles and Olin doesn't and they are playing the same person, with only age as a difference.
The movie is better off abandoning all the flashbacks and simply go back to the 70's to tell Amadeu's story.
And it does have lots of drama in the 'past events' scenes and the professor goes through a fair bit of drama and soul-searchin of his own.It has a top notch cast, great scenery and high production values.If you want a real story populated by real characters and are not averse to a little philosophical input, you'll love it..
It is just I can't remember the last time I saw Irons in a film and he always seems to be very English so maybe a less typecast actor would have been better in that role.
The last class the teacher Jeremy Irons held in Bern was about Marcus Aurelius and his philosophy, and the book left behind is very much in the mood of the philosophic emperor, so much that Jeremy Irons gets obsessed by it and goes to Lisbon just to continue delving into more matter for the story he obviously has stumbled upon by accident.The film is throughout held at a very low key and pace but at the same time remains inescapaby intense, as a very complicated love story in the shadow of the revolution in Portugal 1974 unravels.
This movie involves twin plot lines: Jeremy Irons' character sloughing off his boring his life in Bern, and his making connections among people that lived through a traumatic era of Portugaul's history; facilitating some healing and understanding among them.I thought Irons' journey of self-discovery was by far the more effective story line, though it probably took up less screen time.
Jeremy Irons has such a beautiful appearance and manner that it is difficult to imagine him as a boring high school teacher, but if you can make this leap then the rest follows.A mysterious sequence of events results in his finding himself on the train platform at Bern, looking for a young woman who will possibly be catching the night train to Lisbon.
The teacher (Irons) follows a trail of clues laid out in the book from Bern to Lisbon, unfolding a story from the past of romance and revolution underpinned by eloquent passages of philosophical thought.
There is a mild not quite mystery as the teacher delves into the life and death of the author.The good points of this movie are:The story isn't confusing even though a lot of it is told in flashbacks.
That man is Raimund Gregorius (Jeremy Irons), a Latin teacher in Bern, Switzerland.
This book was written by one Amadeu de Almeida Prado, a Portuguese poet, medical doctor, and philosopher who lived in Lisbon from the early 1930s to 1974.
Outside the fact that Amadeu's story plays out against the historical facts of the dictatorial regime in Portugal during his lifetime, all else is fiction, including the existence of Amadeu himself.Gregorius is so taken with what he reads in Amadeu's book that he feels compelled to meet the author and drops everything and goes to Lisbon to see if he can find him.
I can see why Gregorius was so taken with Amadeu's book--the readings presented are quite elegant and I re-watched the movie so I could better appreciate them.
Adaptation of the original novel of the same name by Pascal Mercier, chronicling the life and times of a young Portuguese doctor named Amadeu de Prado during the years of the oppressive Salazar regime.
Many a great character actor is encountered as the movie progresses through the various view points of Amadeu's inner circle, including Charlotte Rampling, Christopher Lee, Bruno Ganz and Tom Courtenay.
In the case of Swiss professor Jeremy Irons, the chance encounter with a book leads him to Portugal where he finds the sister of the book's author and ends up involved in a mystery concerning the 1974 Carnation Revolution, disturbing several people who are still willing to share the memories, even though it is a past that they would rather forget.Veteran actress Charlotte Rampling plays the aging sister of the one time writer who became a hero to her years ago by saving her life, making her overprotective of him and controlling in her efforts to thank him.