Un Amor, Una Pasión, Un Adiós

I have little to add to the raves and cogent analysis of the Briton below, and I will certainly not re-tell the story. What is there to say?, but there is a multiplicity of characters (incl. cameos of historical figures), all kinds of situations . . . set in a historical events that most people with (my) cursory knowledge of French history would be hazy about.

BON VOYAGE is great film. WHY can I not be cultured like everyone else and know French? To understand this movie, MAN ON THE TRAIN, TIME REGAINED, WIDOW OF ST. PIERRE . . . and on. Yet more evidence of a jejune life, just an intellectual roue.

Run, don't walk. See it.

This superb French farce is brilliant, and I normally don't like farce of any kind. The actors are wonderful, the story line is fantastic, the photography and staging are beautiful, and the atmosphere of the film is extraordinarily engaging. My wife, teen-age daughter, and I went to see the film this evening and all three of us absolutely loved it - a rarity in itself.

But what is perhaps the film's strongest suit is its gentle comedy and insight into human nature. Even when the French are making complete fools of themselves their essential qualities shine through, and this film brings new meaning to the term "coquettish."

I most heartily recommend Bon Voyage.

In Paris, a few months before the Nazi invasion, the manipulative actress Viviane Denvers (Isabelle Adjani) uses her former sweetheart Frédéric Auger (Grégori Deràngere) to hide the body of a man killed by her. Frédéric hits the car, the dead man is found and he is sent to prison. When the Germans invade France, Frédéric escapes with another prisoner, Raoul (Yvan Attal), and they become friends. In the runaway to Bordeaux, they meet in the train Camille (Virginie Ledoyen), the young assistant of the physicist Professeur Kopolski (Jean-Marc Stehlé), who is trying to leave France with his research of heavy water. Once in Bordeaux, the group meets Viviane with her new lover, the minister of state Jean-Étienne Beaufort (Gérard Depardieu), and is chased by a German spy, the journalist Alex Winckler (Peter Coyote), while Paris is falling and the population is confused.

What a delightful and magnificent romantic adventure "Bon Voyage" is! The excellent and complex screenplay has action, romance, war, comedy, espionage, drama and lots of characters, played by a fantastic cast, indeed a constellation of stars; the direction is stunning; the music score is wonderful. I really loved this marvelous film, and I have to finish my review due to my limitation of adjectives to describe such a gem. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Viagem do Coração" ("Travel of the Heart")

This movie was unique in the fact that it took place in the few months prior to and during the Nazi invasion of WWII. This gave the film a hectic atmosphere, as the French government and those surrounding it are in constant chaos while fleeing the approaching Blitzkrieg. For once we see the great disruption that war causes to millions of innocents, not just the horrors that occur on the front. However I don't agree with he genre characterization that it is a comedy- as it is a very entertaining blend of mystery, double-crossing and drama, as well as a few funny moments. Gerard Depardieu didn't have a overbearing role in the film, but played just one of the many interesting characters that are introduced. I was also surprised by Peter Coyote's French and German language skills - and I think it's worth commenting that an American was included in a French film - and I'm glad to say he held his own. Of course Ms. Adjani and Virginie Ledoyen play excellent roles- there's just something about those French ladies...

This movie travels farther on 8 gunshots, 2 kisses and 100 clichés than should be possible. Yet it still works. Brilliant.

As I was driving home from the theater, I tried to figure out how it got away with movie staples like the pages of a novel manuscript blowing across a beach or the impossible series of fortuitous coincidences without the entire audience standing up and screaming, "I've seen that a million times before! And you've pushed beyond the edge of believability!" But the actors were so enchanting and the screen so filled with believable extras that I forgot to care. A friend who saw it with me said it transported him to Paris so perfectly that he was disappointed when we left the theater and realized we were still in Indiana.

Overall, a romantic-comedy-thriller with subtlety, wit and elan.