Red Lights

Red Lights is a 2004 French thriller film directed by Cédric Kahn. It was adapted from the eponymous 1955 Georges Simenon novel set in the Northeastern United States. The film is set in modern-day France. The film stars Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Carole Bouquet as married couple Antoine and Hélène Dunan on a road trip to pick up their children and begin a vacation. After a number of arguments, they are separated and each encounters a horror on the road. Plot One summer mid-afternoon, Antoine (Darroussin) leaves his insurance firm job to meet up with his wife Hélène (Bouquet), as they are to fetch their kids (somewhere distant, but it is not explained exactly where they are or who they're with), and then head on to his in-laws' place in the Basque Country for two weeks' vacation. He wants to beat the traffic (and the two million cars that will be on the road). They arrange to meet at a local bar, but she arrives late, annoying him. When she arrives, it's clear their relations have been strained for some time. Hélène wants to go home to shower and have a quick cold dinner, so they do, further frustrating him. They finally get on the road, but after a while the heavy traffic gets to Antoine, and he decides to get off the highway and take "the back way", at least to Tours. Though tired, he won't let Hélène drive, and they bicker. He stops several times along the way for a drink or two at local bars, while she sits in the car. He becomes slightly inebriated, heightening the tension and arguments between them. Hélène reaches a breaking point when Antoine stops again, and threatens to drive on without him, telling him he can take the train and meet her later. He takes the car keys and goes into the bar, where, as he drinks, he sees a TV news item about a man who has escaped from a nearby prison. When he leaves the bar and returns to his car, Hélène is not there, having left him a note: "I’m taking the train."