BON VOYAGE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
BON VOYAGE, by writer/director Jean-Paul Rappeneau (THE HORSEMAN ON THE ROOF), is a sumptuous and inviting melodrama that is as old fashioned as it is entertaining. Enjoying its lush images and dreamy music is like lying on a pristine beach while soaking up the sun and being lulled to sleep by gentle ocean breezes. This motion picture is such a satisfyingly sensual experience that you'll probably like the scenes best in which the characters speak the least.
Academy Award winner Gabriel Yared (THE ENGLISH PATIENT) is responsible for the film's rich and evocative score. You're going to want to own the CD. The movie, set in France at the start of World War II, is shot lusciously by Thierry Arbogast (FEMME FATALE). The film's many unforgettable images include ones of black sedans in the pouring rain, a traffic jam of fleeing Parisians and painterly interiors worthy of Vermeer. The stunning production design and costumes are by Catherine Leterrier (Luc Besson's THE MESSENGER: THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC).
The serious story, done sometimes a tad too silly, concerns the spiriting out of the entire world's supply of a dozen bottles of heavy water. They are to be transported to England, if the Nazis don't capture them first.
Isabelle Adjani plays Viviane Denvers, a manipulative and scatterbrained movie star. Grégori Derangère plays Frédéric Auger, a brave and handsome man willing to go to prison for a crime committed by Viviane just before the outbreak of the war. As Jean-Étienne Beaufort, Gérard Depardieu plays an opportunistic, surrender-happy French minister. Virginie Ledoyen plays the beautiful and daring Camille, who is trying to sneak Professeur Kopolski (Jean-Marc Stehlé) and his aforementioned water to a boat on the coast of France. Finally, Peter Coyote plays Alex Winckler, a strangely inquisitive reporter who seems to show up everywhere.
The story is good, but the most memorable joys of BON VOYAGE can be experienced even if you don't speak a word of French and never read a single line of the movie's subtitles.
BON VOYAGE runs 1:54. The film is in French with English subtitles. It is rated PG-13 for "some violence" and would be acceptable for kids around 9 and up.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, April 9, 2004. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas.
Web: http://www.InternetReviews.com
Email: Steve.Rhodes@InternetReviews.com
Want free reviews and weekly movie and video recommendations via Email?
Just send me a letter with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
========== X-RAMR-ID: 37474 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1268341 X-RT-TitleID: 1130780 X-RT-SourceID: 703 X-RT-AuthorID: 1271 X-RT-RatingText: 3/4
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews