Bon Voyage

There's a certain wit, a lightness of tone combined with seriousness of purpose, that is unmistakably French. When it's dressed up with as much style and flair as in Jean-Paul Rappeneau's "Bon Voyage," the result is just about perfect.

Given its dire topic, "Bon Voyage" should be terribly depressing: the defeat and capitulation of the French to the Nazis in 1940 and the stream of refugees who fled the Blitzkrieg doesn't sound like material for a riotous farce. Nobody here mistakes the approaching cannons for the sound of hearts beating. Yet Rappeneau, who lived through some of the historic events chronicled in the film, manages to find humor in the hopes, fears, and petty jealousies of his star-studded, ensemble cast.

Movie diva Viviane, played with just the right amount of vanity and eye-rolling fakery by Isabelle Adjani in Cleopatra-bangs, is at the center of attention. In order to stay there, war and all, she bursts into regular crying fits and throws herself at men, including smitten writer Frederic (Gregori Derangere) and the powerful minister Beaufort (Gerard Depardieu.) Frederic even goes to jail for Viviane, but is released when the French open the prisons on the eve of the invasion. By train, car, and stately limousine, everybody heads to Bordeaux, which is teeming with refugees, mysterious journalists (like Peter Coyote's Winkler), and German spies. En route, Frederic meets the beautiful Camille (Virginie Ledoyen), patriotic and determined assistant to a professor with a powerful secret.

Tightly plotted and smoothly told, "Bon Voyage" moves at a brisk pace. Between all the accidents, chance encounters, and surprising reversals, Rappeneau and his co-writers find time for compelling characters and smart dialogue that hits just the right balance between seriousness and hilarity. As in Tavernier's "Safe Conduct" and Bertulucci's "The Dreamers," French history is inextricably bound up with the movies of the time (at least in the minds of French directors.) Fittingly, "Bon Voyage," a big movie-movie, with immaculate production values, big stars, and a soundtrack that swells in all the right places, and a story that begins and ends at the movies.