Bon Voyage

I studied the Vichy films in France and this movie gives them a hat tip without saluting. A masterpiece. I saw some moments of complete understanding of the French occupation. The incredibly beautiful genius Isabel Adjani does a song a la "Venus Aveugle". And those new actors,Yvan Attal as Raoul et Grégori Derangère as Frédéric were both incredible new comers. Hope to see more of them. As for the Wonderful Peter Coyote, (boy, what a man! The reason I rented the film!) Rock and ROLL! and then,of course the new sensationally beautiful french star, Virginie Ledoyen rock and rolls all the way to the eye blinks of gold. thank you France. Merci la France! Make more movies please!!!!!!!!

At nearly any film (except art-house showings) some viewers will arrive late, several by as many as ten minutes. `Bon Voyage' is one of those films with such an extraordinary opening scene (and the best in the movie) that one is reminded that no person begins a story or novel six or eight pages in; consider Hemingway's `After The Storm', demonstrating arguably the greatest opening sentence ever written. We are treated, as in the opening of `The English Patient', with that sense-straining struggle to exactly understand what we are seeing and that almost organic release as we know we have been masterfully played. This wonderful introduction plays as centerpiece the astonishingly beautiful Isabelle Adjani cast in the best lighting and angles imaginable. She portrays a film actress (Viviane Denvers) who along with her collection of friends, lovers and various other acquaintances must (or so they think) leave Paris on the eve of the Nazi takeover in 1940. That murder, love, conspiracy and high-tech military secrets are part and parcel of this mélange is all part of the fun. And fun it is. With as many characters as are employed here, `Bon Voyage' requires careful attention to the comings and goings of all. It is probably fairly accurate that those in an invaded nation probably do not really know where to go or exactly what to do in the face of rumor, speculation, hearsay, and least important of all, facts. But we also see that human desire, duty and propinquity are undeniable factors in all matters. The main threads of the story involve Gerard Depardieu (natty as Beaufort, the cabinet minister) in a desperate political situation, Peter Coyote (as Alex Winckler the journalist/writer), Professor Kopolski and his singular mission (played by Jean-Marc Stehle) and his assistant Camille (as rendered by beguiling Virginie Ledoyen). There are a number of other performers that appear throughout which add to the confusion but in actuality are adroitly woven into the tapestry that is `Bon Voyage' and serve to act as stirrers that mix the drink. Truly a testament to excellent writing, the complexities of Ms. Adjani's character are the common link between all that is there for us to see. She is the one you cannot take your eyes off (I cannot recall as wonderful a wardrobe on a beautiful woman since Ashley Judd in "Eye of the Beholder"), and she is the one whose own ostensible self-interest drives the hamster wheel of energy that we observe. Almost never did the audience laugh out loud, yet the humor is unrelenting and perhaps because we strain to hear the next line or get our bearings we have no time to pause. Just monitoring the cast is a job in itself and Isabelle Adjani's ephemeral appearances are so special that there is no doubt the viewers were quite literally mesmerized.

I found this DVD in the library and based on the jacket notes, it looked like it might possibly be interesting: a black comedy set in 1940 France, just as the Germans are marching in. ("Boy, that should have them rolling in the aisles…") But it does! This is a clever, original, suspenseful and funny film. I don't recall seeing anything like it before – foreign or U.S. That the writer/director can find humor when we know part of the outcome (the Germans will occupy France for four years) is remarkable. That he does it with such charm is part of the delight. What starts off as black comedy and fluff even ends up having a couple of serious moments – including a race to spirit out a cache of "heavy water" (which was part of the preliminary research for the A-bomb) and a quick History 101 intro to the beginnings of the collaborationist Vichy Government that would govern Southern France for much of the German occupation.* But don't let any of that that scare you off: the movie itself is funny, charming and romantic and races ahead at steady clip. One of the best things about it is the combination of actors we've seen many times (Adjani and Depardieu) and others we've never heard of before. Along the way, there are two star-making turns: Virginie Leydoyen and Grégori Derangère. Both are impressive, but Mr. Derangère is especially so. According to IMDb, he was in ten films before this one – but he also won the Cesar as "Most Promising Actor" for this role, so apparently he was not all that well known even in France. He is a combination of romantic lead and comic actor – and he makes it all seem so effortless. You may be reminded of Cary Grant in "Bringing Up Baby" and "Arsenic and Old Lace" – it's hard to do comedy on film because the risks are enormous that the actor can come off looking inept. But Grant pulled it off charmingly, and this guy does also. I should think we're going to hear more about him in the future. To be sure, this film won't please everyone – there's a little bit of violence, although nothing you don't see on TV every day. But if you're up for something original, you may feel after you've seen this that you've unearthed a cinematic gem. * The so-called "spoiler" in this comment.

I've just been at the cinema in down town Prague watching this film. Not due to the poster I found very Holywood old-fashioned heroic style. Not due to the high level starring which remind me that most of those high starring French films are usually pathetic. But just because there are not so many films in my French mother tongue in a city like Prague. And because I love Adjani, Depardieu and Rappenau's Cyrano. Then I decided to write up this small comment because I think I really don't agree with the comment main stream on this film on imdb. I was not disappointed. The film just look like the poster. The characters are just as stupid as they look like. For a while I thought Adjani would be like a caricature -- just a funny character you can laugh at. No she is not! For example when she decides to tell Depardieu she is the one who murdered the fat one she killed at the beginning of the film then come the violins in a big fat pathetic music which should make you cry and realize Adajani's character is a deeper person as she looks like. Maybe this was humor at the 10th level but I am sorry my sense of humor is not that high! If I want to see some funny French film on the WWII I watch once again La Grande Vadrouille! It is definitively more fun! I have also read on imdb that Lemoine is making a great performance in this film. I have to say I have never seen a so bad acting! (Well I have never seen any Ed Wood's film). Nevertheless the film is good filmed with a lot of good (very costly) scenes like the one with the Pantheon in the morning when the German army arrives at Paris or when the refugees settle down on a bridge in Bordeaux. I think Rappeneau is a good filmmaker but that he does better with a good script. It was easy with Cyrano. He had not to write the dialogs! I give 1/10.

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...

I really liked this movie. I saw the DVD on Friday, and watched it with director's comments the next day. The director's comments were very useful, but didn't as explicitly as I will attempt to do now give away the actual nature of the film. It is a movie about the early years of the second world war of a sort that might have actually been made during he second world war, albeit not in France. One might see it as a case of revisionist wishful thinking. This is movie on the order--with many of the same character types, plot twists, and other conventions--of great war-time films like _Casablanca_ and _To Have and To Have Not_. Rappenneau brackets his film, in postmodern fashion, by beginning and ending it in movie theaters, and by making the Isabel Adjani character an actress who doesn't seem to be able stop acting. Who cares if she has had a face lift; she plays a woman who is tragically fake. This a movie almost as much about movies made during the war as about the war itself. That said, I did not see this film as a spoof of mostly American war-effort movies. Rather, it is very loving tribute. Afterall, those were very good movies, some of them. If they seemed to copy each other (_To Have and to Have Not_ is a lighter, comic version of _Casablanca_)it may be because their message is timeless, and _bears_ repeating. Rappeneau's movie, like those movies, explores how basically apolitical, or opportunistically political, or even criminal individuals respond when confronted with a radical evil. Some passively acquiese, some collaborate, and some actively resist. The third option is the only ethical one, and that message certainly bears repeating. I hope this isn't too much of a spoiler. It is wonderful how the film shows so many of its characters too caught up in their petty personal concerns to recognize, in the face of an urgent political crisis, how very petty those concerns are. This movie clearly shows why the French were so quickly defeated by the Nazi's, but also why they are our best friends. As the old joke goes, if we hadn't intervened in WWII, the French would all be speaking German; but if the French hadn't intervened in our revolution, we would all be speaking English. This movie could be a delight to francophones and francophobes alike--if the latter would bother to watch it. I suppose it is significant that the most prominent Nazi in the film is played by an American, Peter Coyote. Perhaps there is a more, immediate, specific, more timely political message here than the above mentioned timeless one. I had no problem with the pace of the film. It moves more quickly than most French, art-house films (in his comments, Rappeneau mentions that not just Coyote, but even the Parisian actors, complained about how quickly he demanded they speak their lines). It is also beautifully acted (by some of France's best), cinegraphed, scored, and directed. I had a little trouble believing that the characters could see as clearly as they did in the nocturnal forest scene toward the end of the film, but afterall, as good as it was, this was just a movie. But a worthy tribute. I

This film looks at the travails of a group of Parisians against the backdrop of Nazi occupation of France during WWII. It moves at a frenetic pace, touching on murder, chases, shootouts, espionage, romance, and intrigue, but doesn't go anywhere. The action seems to be there just for the sake of action. There is no narrative flow or compelling storyline to propel the film forward or grab the viewer. It is meant to be a comedy of sorts, but there isn't a chuckle to be had here. Adjani looks strangely puffy while Depardieu is given little to do. What is Coyote doing in this movie? Rappeneau, who has directed eight movies in 50 years, appears to be in over his head.

Don't waste your time on this silly movie.I don't see how anyone would rate this movie above 3. Comedy -I did not laugh once .I hoped the movie would get better but in did not.This movie cost $20 M to make and made back 3M.That should tell you how bad it was. I agree with all the other negative reviews. Waste of time waste of talent waste of money waste of story Can't believe someone actually loved this movie.Don't waste your time on this silly movie.I don't see how anyone would rate this movie above 3. Comedy -I did not laugh once .I hoped the movie would get better but in did not.This movie cost $20 M to make and made back 3M.

Billed as a romantic comedy set against the early years of WWII it fails to deliver. The problem is that while beautifully photographed it has no consistent story line or narrative. Starting as a murder mystery it offers no hope to its actors as it meanders through recent history. Depardieu is wasted in a trivial role he obviously is not comfortable with playing. Adjani cannot carry the picture. The hero is not; obviously an imitation of a Hitchcock "wrongly accused" role it lacks balance. Neither heroic, comic nor suspenseful. This could have been a good film. I am reminded of "The Lady Vanishes" which did combine suspense, romance and comedy in a serious film dealing with fascism.

'Bon Voyage' is a pallid Gallic farce set during the early days of the Nazi occupation of France. The over-complicated plot revolves around a self-absorbed movie actress directly or indirectly involved with a patsy author, a spineless government official, Nazi collaborators, and French resistance fighters attempting to smuggle heavy water over to England. Though the movie does exude a certain manic energy at times, director Jean-Pierre Rappeneau too often mistakes movement for style - in the naïve hope, apparently, that if he just keeps everyone running around from one location to another, we won't have time to notice that there really isn't anything fun or interesting going on in the story department. The final result of all this ceaseless hubbub is that the film simply ends up wearing us out trying to keep up with it, an exhaustion compounded by the fact that we often aren't quite sure who all these people are and what it is they're exactly up to. The movie looks great physically and Rappeneau does have a certain way with crowd scenes, but those virtues are really all for naught when the characters and storyline are both so conspicuously unengaging. The movie features at least two legends of modern French cinema, Isabelle Adjani and Gerard Depardieu, who, along with the rest of the cast, capture the arch mannerisms necessary for a film with its roots essentially planted in Feydeau farce. Regrettably, the film, for all its excessive huffing and puffing, fails to come to life on the screen, an unhappy turn of events given all the energy and talent involved in its making.