The successful novelist Judith Ralitzer is interrogated in the police station about the disappearance of her ghost-writer. A serial-killer escapes from a prison in Paris. A missing school teacher leaves his wife and children. In the road, the annoying and stressed hairdresser Hughette is left in a gas station by her fiancé Paul while driving to the poor farm of her family in the country. A mysterious man offers a ride to her and she invites him to assume the identity of Paul during 24 hours to not disappoint her mother. Who might be the unknown man and what is real and what is fiction?
Writing
Lelouch layers puzzles like a con artist showing his hand.
Acting
Pinon's shapeshifter energy keeps you guessing.
Director
Claude Lelouch
Dominique Pinon
Pierre Laclos / Louis
Fanny Ardant
Judith Ralitzer
Audrey Dana
Huguette
Michèle Bernier
Florence
Myriam Boyer
La mère d'Huguette
Zinedine Soualem
le commissaire
Boris Ventura-Diaz
Alain
Marc Rioufol
Le propriétaire du vignoble
Thomas Le Douarec
Cyrille Eldin
Paul
Gilles Lemaire
le capitaine du bateau « Roman de gare »
Serge Moati
lui-même
William Leymergie
la voix de la radio Autoroute info
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Lelouch made this as a spiritual sequel to his 1966 classic 'A Man and a Woman,' reuniting with Ardant and exploring how his own storytelling tricks evolved over four decades.
The title 'Roman de gare' literally means 'station novel'—cheap paperbacks sold at train stations, which the film both mocks and embodies.
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