SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY (Voyage en Douce)

Disproving the old adage that “too many cooks spoil the broth,” director Michel Deville enlisted no less than 15 French writers, male and female, to each contribute one sexual anecdote to his screenplay. VOYAGE EN DOUCE journeys between the present and the past, makes side trips to the never-was and, in the closing scene, books passage for the future. Helene (Dominique Sanda) comes home from a concert to find Lucie (Geraldine Chaplin) slumped against Helene's door, crying. She's left her husband, the brute. Helene comforts Lucie, and the former childhood friends take off for Provence to find a summer house for Helene, her husband and two children. The two women exchange sexual fantasies along the way; some of them are prettily embroidered French lace, others are put together with “a little scissors and glue,” the truth, half-truth and the imaginary are hard to separate. Gentle flirtations with men and, more often, with each other, pass the time in the sunlit countryside. Pervading the atmosphere is a deepening disillusionment with men and marriage. Sanda and Chaplin's delicious performances are perfectly contrasted. “Whether for its erotic luxuriance, for its French postcard imagery, or for its venture into the sexual minefield, VOYAGE EN DOUCE is an original.” – Carrie Rickey, Village Voice