Bon Voyage (2003)

Occupied France the subject of a deft, breezy comedy? Believe it. Bon Voyage gathers a collection of romantics, fools, and survivors, and puts them together in Bordeaux in 1940. Loosely arranged around the ditzy figure of a famous grand-dame actress (Isabelle Adjani), these hapless creatures trip over each other very amusingly during the course of a couple of frantic days. The central character is actually a young writer (the winning Gregori Derangere), who's torn between panting after the actress or aiding the pretty daughter (Virginie Ledoyen, 8 Women) of an important scientist trying to escape to England. It would be hard to say that any of this amounts to anything substantial, but director Jean-Paul Rappeneau whips it together very attractively, and the Bordeaux location offers luscious views of a pre-war city. Rappeneau's delightful 1966 comedy La Vie de Chateau, set in Normandy just before D-Day, treads some of the same turf. --Robert Horton Amazon.com

A very uneven trip

Jean-Paul Rappeneau's disappointing but glossy and lavish comedy melodrama set against the fall of France and the birth of the Vichy government in WW2 always feels on the cusp of becoming a better film. It's full of good things but never really hits the spot, perhaps because Isabelle Adjani seems so miscast as a self-centered French movie star who uses those around her, be they screenwriters to dispose of bodies of murdered blackmailers (and take the rap when it goes wrong), ministers to get her out of Paris or German spies when needs must. Like the character, it's not s much that she's bad as that there's nothing to her - she's too much of blank here to convey such a magnetic presence. But Gerard Depardieu's malleable politician (whose final scene is the film's finest and darkest) and Yvan Attal in an underwritten part as a good-natured crook who always does the right thing are among the film's many compensations. July 25, 2008

Not quite a mystery,and not quite a comedy, so "Bon Voyage!"

Using the German Invasion of France in 1940 as a backdrop of historical fact, comes this odd film "Bon Voyage" that doesn't quite know what it is supposed to be....a mystery, a comedy...or really just another lifeless piece of Jean-Paul Rappeneau, again (The Horseman on the Roof). Like Casablanca, Rappeneau's film concerns people escaping the Nazi onslaught, but this time from the town of Bordeaux where all of the wealthy and connected seek refuge in the Hotel Splendide before trying to get on boats to England. Historically, I like that, but the characters and the situations that Rappeneau has created are farcical and endlessly monotonous with slim to no character development. Isabelle Adjani, as a Faye Dunnaway look- alike actress, in love (or using...who knows!) with Gerard Depardieu, Yvan Attal, Gregori Derangere and others is just plain silly. I practically wanted to get her off the screen. The business of the professor and his "assistant" sneaking "heavy water" out of France....ugh! Thirteen years after Cyrano de Bergerac and this 2003 debacle is Rappeneau's last film. "Bon Voyage" is a fitting title then!

Gabriel Yared (The English Patient: Original Soundtrack Recording, Camille Claudel) has composed a really absorbing soundtrack to try to make Rappeneau's film move more than it really does unfortunately.

Not a highly suggested film in any aspect. April 28, 2008

Movies for the French classroom

If you want your students to be spellbound, this is a great one! June 5, 2007

C'est Bon...

I've only recently started watching foreign films regularly. And I can't say that I've enjoyed them all (or that my favorite foreign films could ever surpass my favorite American films, even though I'm not necessarily saying that they couldn't though), I liked this one. It's very quick paced, but not in a way that you can't keep up. It's got several genres wrapped up into one film: romance & mystery & action & history & comedy. It's not likely to bore anyone because there's so much going on all the time. And again, not in a way that one can't stayed invested the whole time though. And in all the characters basically. Overall, the preview I saw for it intrigued me enough to watch it, and the movie turned out to be exactly what the preview suggested. May 13, 2007

Playful French Fantasy

Bon Voyage doesn't take itself seriously and occasionally trips gloriously over romantic moments that turn into comical charades to leave you laughing. The topic at hand is actually quite serious (War Time panic), that is why the frivolous actions of the main character seem so out of place and bizarre, although instigated mostly by her fear of discovery.

Here you will find Isabelle Adjani wearing sumptuous clothes and adorable hats and clinging to every man who will give her safety, not to mention crying pitifully into pillows for attention. Her adorable vulnerability is however overplayed to the point where she starts to lose the respect of the men she so desperately needs.

You have to love the scene where she suddenly decides to go shopping and jumps from the car and runs into a store. She is definitely a victim in the plot, but can't come to terms with the accidental murder and relies heavily on wealthy men of influence to get her out of any difficult situation that may mar her perfect existence. She mostly runs through the movie scared and insecure and waiting for the next opportunity to be saved.

In terms of artistic excellence, this movie flies beyond expectation and truly raises the bar in scenes of natural splendor, forests and gorgeous apartments. From the start you are invited into an intimate circle of connections that intertwine through the story with elements of romance to leave you emotionally satisfied, while still smiling. Worth watching for the cinematic beauty alone and the comedic elements are a true bonus and were very unexpectedly funny.

~The Rebecca Review
September 6, 2006

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