Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Dominique Sanda | ... | Hélène / Denis' wife | |
Geraldine Chaplin | ... | Lucie | |
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Jacques Zabor | ... | Denis / Hélène's husband |
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Jean Crubelier | ... | L'homme des maisons / The man at the houses |
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Valerie Masterson | ... | La cantatrice / The singer |
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Cécile Le Bailly | ... | Marie / Lucie's cousin |
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Jacqueline Parent | ... | Mathilde / Pinson's girlfriend |
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Jacques Pieiller | ... | Pinson / Salesman |
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Françoise Morhange | ... | La grande-mère / The Grandmother |
Frédéric Andréi | ... | Le jeune homme de l'hôtel / The young man at the hotel | |
Christophe Malavoy | ... | L'homme du train / The man on the train | |
André Marcon | ... | L'homme du concert / The man at the concert | |
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Catherine Le Dall | ... | La marraine / The godmother |
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Hélène Garcia | ... | La pompiste / The pump attendant |
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Robin Camus | ... | Lucas / Hélène's son |
Lucia and Elena are best friends since childhood. They take a car trip from Paris to the country. Their conversations are overtly intimate, but more revealing is their tacit understanding of each others' personality and desires. Written by Greg Pribyl <gpribyl@isd.net>
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...