"Bon Voyage" begins and ends in a moviehouse, a suitable framing device for a comedy with farcical elements.
Most of it is set in June 1940 as the Nazis prepare to occupy Paris, and the most able and expedient of Parisians, especially those with money and connections, flee to Bordeaux -- in particular to the Hotel Splendide.
Directed with great energy by Jean-Paul Rappeneau ("Cyrano de Bergerac," "Horseman on the Roof") from a screenplay by himself and four others, "Bon Voyage" draws its farcical elements from the behavioral style of antiheroine Viviane Denvert (Isabelle Adjani), the brisk pacing of most scenes, the quantity of purely theatrical coincidence and the hotel's overcrowding, which generates a lot of crisscrossing encounters.
Everyone rushes about throughout, and most are engaged in a comical level of self-interest.
Chief among them is the actress Viviane, shown in the first scene howling along with the formally attired audience at the premiere of her latest film farce. She's an opportunistic narcissist who plays a different role in her personal life with each man she manipulates.
When one of her discarded suitors, an older film producer named Andre Arpel (Nicolas Vaude), follows her home and threatens blackmail over stolen jewelry, she shoots him to death.
Always eager for men to do her bidding, she persuades aspiring novelist Frederic Auger (Gregori Derangere) to dispose of the corpse, who supposedly suffered a fatal fall.
A farcical accident leads to Frederic's arrest and incarceration. But he and resourceful petty crook Raoul (Yvan Attal) wind up in Bordeaux with everyone else.
That includes cabinet minister Jean-Etienne Beaufort (Gerard Depardieu) and journalist Alex Winckler (Peter Coyote), who may be collaborating with the Germans. Both men inappropriately prioritize the high-maintenance Viviane.
Operating in a seemingly different movie is Professor Kopolski (Jean-Marc Stehle), a Jewish emigre physicist whose cargo includes bottles of heavy water that he hopes to smuggle to England.
They're needed for atomic bombs and/or research and are used as a plot fulcrum here the way Alfred Hitchcock used the wine bottles of uranium in "Notorious."
Kopolski is assisted by Camille (Virginie Ledoyen), who, unlike Viviane, is dedicated to ideals.
Rappeneau finesses the many plot threads of this complex comic thriller dexterously, zipping about as he yanks the threads tighter.
His film is elegantly photographed by Thierry Arbogast and expertly scored by Gabriel Yared. But despite admirable work by the ensemble, "Bon Voyage" is a near-miss in which no one element coalesces quite satisfyingly.
Too light here, too diffuse there, it trips over its own vacillating tones.
Material set in this context can succeed as comedy. Consider "The Great Dictator," the first version especially of "To Be or Not to Be" and even "Life Is Beautiful."
But Rappeneau's handsome, assured movie is more a logistical and visual accomplishment than one that entertains the way it intends or grips when it needs to. It is by no means a failure, merely a muted achievement. Additional Information:
Details
'Bon Voyage'Director : Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Stars : Isabelle Adjani, Gerard Depardieu, Peter Coyote
MPAA rating : PG-13 for some violence
Now playing : Regent Square Theater
