Austerlitz

You buy a book You dont really know why It lies around and then one day you open it almost absentmindedly And there you are facing your own innermost secrets So begins Stan Neumanns cinematic adaptation of WG Sebalds awardwinning novel Austerlitz The vaulted and majestic space of the railway station in Antwerp is where our journey really starts with actor Denis Lavant Holy Motors addressing the camera directly and musing on the curious nature of railway stations This bravura opening is startling charming and like the unnamed narrator of the book you surrender to the proceedings and perambulate alongside Lavant as he journeys through the great buildings of Europe faded and shuttered hotels and grand colonnades with broken windows