The bankrobber and the teacher

The unlikely pairing of great actor Jean Rochefort and Johnny Hallyday (pictured), the French Elvis, would ordinarily be played for laughs, but Patrice Chereau (The Hairdresser's Husband) has created a sweetly sad drama of longing and regret.

Hallyday, a taciturn bankrobber, comes to Rochefort's small town on business and strikes up an unlikely friendship with the loquacious retired schoolteacher. It's a relationship based mostly on mutual envy: Hallyday hankers after pipe and slippers while his law-abiding host has fantasies of gunslinging.

The camerawork is choppy, but otherwise this is charming.

No extras. Nina Caplan

Ben Sloan