A Sweet Journey (1980) User Reviews

A stunning, unique film

[gridoon2024 · 8/10 · 13 June 2022]

Imagine "Thelma & Louise", but much quieter, in France, and 11 years earlier. "Le Voyage En Douce" is not a film for all tastes and/or moods; it's deceptively simple and, on a surface level, very little happens. But look deeper and you may see themes of memory, fantasy, intimacy, sisterhood, and women's need / right to control their own choices (this is probably the only film where you'll hear a detailed discussion on unshaven female armpits!). Writer-director Michel Deville keeps surprising the viewer with inventive touches, like the ever-changing visualizations of some stories as they are being told. And he ends the film with a great enigmatic shot that can have you debating indefinitely. Dominique Sanda and Geraldine Chaplin are both absolutely terrific. This is the best Deville film I have seen so far. ***1/2 out of 4.

A Sexual Oddyssey

[kenjha · 6/10 · 2 August 2009]

Two women who have been lifelong friends take a few days off to bond while wandering around the French countryside. The whole film is little more than the two relating events to each other, mostly told in flashbacks. As such, it is not particularly engaging. To make up for the shortcomings of the script, the director comes up with excuses for each actress to strip every once in a while - not that there's anything wrong with that, especially when one of the bodies belongs to lovely Sanda. This being a French film, most of the exploits related by the women are sexual, including a truly bizarre one involving Sanda and her grandmother!

A movie Hollywood could never make...

[Mickey-4 · 10/10 · 27 April 1999]

The Voyage in question immerses the viewer in the world of these two talkative yet strangely inarticulate friends without offering easy answers or facile insights. The viewer follows where the Voyage leads, as the characters themselves do, and bask in the summer sunlight of the French countryside. There are answers but the questions themselves are ambiguous and contradictory. Chaplin and Sanda, consummate actors, bring a crackling intensity and (at times) affecting vulnerability to their roles. The soundtrack enhances contemplative episodes with tenderly played bagatelles from Beethoven, which offer ironic counterpoint even while evoking a nostalgia for "lost time".

The claustrophobia-inducing tight interior shots bracketing the beginning and end of the film also intensify the exchange of roles between the two main characters that has gradually taken place during the journey. Elena (Sanda) has helped Lucia (Chaplin) rebuild her confidence and self-esteem but has herself become vulnerable and unstable in the process...

Contains a haunting and excellent sound montage.

[brashest - 0 · 10/10 · 11 June 2000]

Against a long shot of a hilly French countryside with two miniscule figures strolling together, we hear a C.U. scene of violence and rape in a parking garage. The scene is all the more powerful because the device is a surprise in the film.