forgotten favorite: le passager de la pluie (rider on the rain) 1970

"Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of time as she went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next."  Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Le passager de la pluie (Rider on the Rain) opens with this whimsical quotation and takes us, like Alice, through many twists and turns through the real and imagined. Directed by René Clément (Jeux interdits, 1952) in a moody style, it is most unusual to find in a Charles Bronson movie delicacy, wit and unexpected tendresse.

Though Bronson appeared in several European productions in the 1960s, Rider on the Rain features one of his more complex and enigmatic roles as a mysterious stranger arriving in a small coastal resort community in the off-season, where a young wife ("Melancholy" played by Marlène Jobert of Godard's Masculin Féminin) had just been raped and killed her attacker.   Is Bronson's "Harry Dobbs" a policeman?  A blackmailer?   What ensues is a "cat-and-mouse" game between the two, with each lie they tell revealing more than what they try to conceal.

 "If the pane breaks, it means you're in love."

The film's score by Francis Lai coupled with Clément's brilliantly composed imagery capture an eery, yet lyrical mood in an unusually subdued Cote d'azur setting.  Though suspenseful and in at least one scene, quite brutal, it is the unexpected humor and piquancy of the relationship between Bronson and Jobert that sets the film apart from any standard action or thriller fare.  Bronson even named the film as one of his personal favorites and it features his wife, Jill Ireland, in a small part.

There have been multiple DVD releases of varying quality and I've purchased several.  Do your homework, but I recommend for Region 1 players, Wild East Productions' 2011 double-feature (includes the 1968 Bronson film, Farewell Friend a.k.a. "Honor Among Thieves") or for those with Region 2 (PAL) players, the Optimum Home Releasing 2009 disc which has the added bonus of the rarely heard French audio track (Bronson's voice is dubbed) with English subtitles.

Watch Rider on the Rain (English version) on YouTube: