The Train

Paris, 1944: The art-loving German Colonel von Waldheim (Paul Scofield) has collected the most important paintings in France - from Cézanne to Renoir - during the occupation. A goods train is to bring them "home to the Reich" before the Allies arrive. Art historian Villard (Suzanne Flon) turns to Paul Labiche (Burt Lancaster) and his resistance group among the railway workers: Their attempt to stop the train turns into a breathtaking confrontation. Rose Valland served as the model for Mademoiselle Villard, and with a few historical liberties, a star cast ranging from Jeanne Moreau to Michel Simon and Wolfgang Preiss is entangled in a high-tension arrangement of opposing movements, whose spectacular action scenes surrounding the speeding train simply leave you speechless. John Frankenheimer (whom Lancaster had hired at short notice as a replacement director for Arthur Penn) stages the moral dilemma no less masterfully: it is literally about the human price of priceless art. (Christoph Huber)

Photo: Austrian Film Museum