Murder, False Imprisonment, Nuclear Bombs, and Nazi Spies: Bon Voyage (2003)

Murder, False Imprisonment, Nuclear Bombs, and Nazi Spies

So my friend and I after waiting an agonizing few months to find out what happened next, watched High Seas Season 2 and I was sorely disappointed in it.

I was feeling bummed and reorganizing the DVDs at work and saw this one and it intrigued me with the charm that High Seas Season 1 had. I rented it and brought it to watch with my mom.

The movie is a french film with subtitles and was amazing-comedic, dramatic, had adventure, romance, etc. It is very loosely based on the true story of Professor Lew Kowarski‘s smuggling of the world’s only supplies of heavy water out of France following its occupation by the Nazis.

Wow

So the film is set in 1940 and starts off with actress Viviane Denvert at the premiere of her newest movie. It is a hit and everyone loves her, espechially Prime Minister Jean-Étienne Beaufort (Gérard Depardieu).

Viviane should be happy, but she isn’t as the producer of the film is staring at her. When she gets home he is there and he wants “payment” for all he’s done. Cut scene, if you know what I mean.

In the next scene Viviane calls her old neighbor and boyfriend, Frédéric Auger, an aspiring writer. When he arrives she tells him that the producer attacked her and fell from the second floor. She wants Auger to help her move the body, while he wants to call the police. She is afraid to have the scandal in the papers, as it was all an accident-but Auger insists they call the police.

However, Viviane is so charming she convinces him to move the body-NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Seriously

You should have called the police! This will all end badly for you!!!!!!!!

So they put the body of the producer’s in Auger’s trunk and he is going to drive and dump it somewhere. Viviane offers to come with him, but he tells her he will handle it.

However, that night it is storming down buckets of rain and the windshield wiper breaks. Auger struggles trying to see and ends up crashing the car unto a police box, the pressure from the crash popping his trunk.

Bystanders come to help, and they find the body.

Next thing you know Auger is in jail for shooting the producer. Auger is completely flabbergasted and shocked to hear that the producer was shot. Even worse his lawyer won’t be able to help him as he is being set to the frontlines.

Meanwhile, Viviane has not forgotten the prime minister and heads to him, She goes on about how worried she is for herself and uses all her charm to completely wow the prime minister.

From Candlestick

Time passes and the Nazis are storming Paris to occupy it, so the jail decides to move its prisoners. All of them are chained with another, and luckily Auger gets handcuffed to Raoul, a thief who has been planning an escape. They escape from the jail, and head into an empty Paris.

Auger searches for Viviane, but it turns out that she has left with her beaux, the prime minister, for Bordeaux. As she is the only one who can help clear his name, he gets on the last train and heads after her.

From Blackmail

On the train Auger runs into Raoul who is also heading to Bordeaux as he has a get-rich-quick plan. Raoul has fallen head over heels, 100% in love with Camille, assistant to Professor Kopolski from the College de France. He keeps trying to get her to agree to go out with him, but she turns him down as they are headed to Bordeaux on an important mission.

But then Camille meets Auger, and she falls head over heels, 100% in love with him, but he still cares for Viviane-even after all she has done. Raoul tries to get him to see she was using him, but he is convinced that it is all a mistake.

Camille is traveling to meet up with Professor Kopolski and his other assistant as they are secretly trying to move heavy water out of France. Heavy water is what is used to make nuclear bombs and they had borrowed some from Sweden. With Hitler taking over Europe, they hope to send it and the Jewish professor out of the country to England.

When they arrive in Bordeaux, Raoul goes on to his plan to steal wine to sell and use, while Camille leaves to meet up with her associates.

Auger goes looking for Viviane who is staying with the Prime Minister Beaufort-he taking care of her and fulfilling her every whim. Right now he is in a stressful situation as they are trying to figure out what to do with the Germans-fight, give up, etc.

As Beaufort doesn’t have as much time for her-she has another man on her string, an American reporter (Peter Coyote) who is there to get a story and trying desperately to get Vivienne to run off with him.

Auger runs into Viviane, who wants to keep him a secret from Beaufort as the murder was highly publicized. She ducks into shops and sneaks away but eventually Beaufort gets jealous and follows her demanding to meet her friend. He invites him to lunch, which Auger does not want to be a part of.

Camille and the professor have been trying to speak to the prime minster to try and move the heavy water, but haven’t been able to get any time with him. When they spot Auger with him and Viviane they try to get him to help them. He tries to explain he doesn’t know the prime minister, but they don’t believe it.

Ugh!

Camille reveals all about the heavy water and their need to smuggle it out to Viviane. She has fallen completely for Auger-but Raoul is in love with her.

Camille!!!!

Things get further complicated when officials try to impound the car that holds the Heavy Water: Auger goes to lunch with Viviane and Beaufort and is spotted by the nephew of the man he “murdered”; the nephew after yelling and screaming at Auger starts to wonder about Viviane; Beaufort dumps Vivienne; Beaufort will not help the professor; and one of the characters is a Nazi spy after the heavy water.

This was so good!!! It was dramatic, has action, was fun, hilarious, intense-everything you could want in a film.

For more that takes place in World War II, go to Time for You to Awaken, Master. Time for You to Go Out: The Return of the Vampire (1943)

For more period films, go to A Psychic Arrives and a Ghost Haunts the Ship: High Seas Season Two (2019)

Paris Street; Rainy Day

So this painting was completed in 1877, 59 years after the last Austen novels were published. It has nothing to do with them or Regency times. And the capper, it is set in Paris!

What’s that have to do with anything?

So even though it has nothing to do with any of that, I felt like sharing it because whenever I look at it it always makes me think of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, even though they didn’t have any boulevards and probably wouldn’t sped their weekend strolling along that way but would be in a carriage or be walking in the roads/lanes outside.

It also makes me think of Anne and when she and Captain Wentworth walk together.

This painting was done by Gustave Caillebotte. It is an Impressionist painting, a scene of modern everyday life. It’s not as fluid or fast stroked as the others, being more “realistic” in the brushstrokes.

In the painting we see the modern day of the city, the new boulevards, buildings, paved cobblestones, etc.

Most people would go on these new boulevards for walks, to relax, see and be seen by society-rich and middle class alike.

So what do you all think? Can you see it too, or do you think I’m just stretching things and including a picture I love?

For more art, go to He Was Taken Up Before Their Very Eyes

I Don’t Want to Say Good-Bye: American Dreamer (1984)

Romantic Moment #5

American Dreamer (1984) 

So one weekend, my roommate Elaine went home to visit her parents. When she came back to college, she brought back a bunch of things and movies. She started showing me the different films and telling me about them, stopping at American Dreamer, and said that we had to watch it-that I would love it. She told me it was like Romancing the Stone, but better.

What?

I was like, I love Romancing the Stone. How could this be better? How could I possibly love it more?

Yeah right.

So we watched it. And I loved it! I watched it…

It is amazing!

Cathy Palmer is a bored housewife, dissatisfied with her life and marriage. Her husband pays no attention to her, doesn’t romance her, and only cares about his work.

She spends her days in the romance thrillers starring the spy and detective Rebecca Ryan.

The author of the Rebecca Ryan series is having a contest in which anyone can write a Rebecca Ryan story and the best one will win a week trip to Paris. Cathy enters the contest and wins!

She wants her and her husband to go, but he refuses and forbids her to travel. They fight, but Cathy decides to go anyway. When she gets there, she gets hit by a car, and when she wakes up thinks she is Rebecca Ryan!

Something is not right.

She takes off, goes on a shopping spree, and heads to Rebecca Ryan’s hotel. There she meets the author of the series’ son, Alan McMan, who she believes to be Rebecca Ryan’s sidekick Dimitri . She sets out to solve the “case” of who is trying to kill her, taking Alan along for the ride. The two get caught up in an actual mystery as they go to an embassy dinner, track down a political leader, get shot at, have to hide from sight, get in car chases, etc-trying to solve the crime.

Will Cathy ever gain her memory back? Will she and Alan survive this adventure? And will they solve this case of who is trying to kill them, before “the book ends”?

Most Romantic Moment: I Don’t Want to Say Goodbye

***Spoiler Alert***

So this comes near the end of the film. Alan and Cathy/Rebecca have gone on this wild adventure-with Cathy/Rebecca fainting and waking up to realize who she really is and what has happened-remembering everything.

She and Alan have a moment and it is time for them to separate, back to their daily lives. But even though this whole time he thought she was crazy, she had to drag him along, and all he wanted was for her to stop-he realizes how gray and lonely his life was before her and now he doesn’t want their time to end.

Alan McMan: [To Cathy] I don’t want to say good-bye

Swoon!

So romantic!

To start Romance is in the Air: Part V, go to Who Says I Have to Stop: Fireproof (2008)

For the previous post, go to Work Will Always Be There But You Might Not Be: The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

 

I’m Putting You First: How to Steal a Million (1966)

Most Romantic Moment #10

So I’ve mentioned before how this film was one I had been searching for, for a long, loong time. When I was young I watched a movie about stealing art that took place in France, but couldn’t remember the title, just the one scene. I was pointed toward To Catch a Thief, but it wasn’t how I remembered the film.

I figured I just had faulty memory and was done with it.

Over ten years later, I decided to watch this movie as I love Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole. As I started watching it, I had this sense of deja vu, but I was certain I’d never seen it before. It wasn’t until they played the one scene that I realized this was the movie I had been thinking of the whole time.

Finally!

This is an absolutely hysterical heist film. Audrey plays Nicole Bonnet, daughter of a forger and leading citizen of Paris. She has been trying to get him to stop to no avail.

Parents

One night, she catches a bungling burglar, Simon Dermott (Peter O’Toole), who is more than what he seems. He likes her and tries to date her; but she wants nothing to do with him.

Meanwhile, her father has allowed the museum to take the famed Cellini‘s Aphrodite (a forgery done by Nicole’s grandfather) for an exhibition. After he has signed off the museum paperwork, he discovers that the museum will be testing the statue in order to insure it.

Both Nicole and her father know that such tests will show that it is a fake and bring ruin to both Bonnets. In order to stop it, Nicole hires Simon to steal it for her, using one  incredibly crazy scheme.

Most Romantic Moment: I’ll Protect You and Your Family

*Spoilers*

So the most romantic moment comes at the end of the film. Simon and Nicole have successfully stolen the sculpture and Simon is hiding it.

Simon Dermott: [about the Cellini Venus] Oh! She’s fine. She’s wrapped up in one of my old shirts, just as snug as could be. I rocked her to sleep in my arms last night.

He takes Nicole out to dinner, and reveals that he isn’t an art thief. He is actually a private detective who specializes in art forgery; finding the criminals and gathering evidence that will send them to prison.

Yeah not good for Nicole or her father. But because he loves Nicole he decides to not prosecute her father, (as long as he promises to not make or sell any more forgeries).

How romantic

This is HUGE! It is his job! If word got out he would be in big trouble, and probably end up in prison for obstruction or accessory charges.

But for a man who has never settled and was only focused on work; he decided to put the girl he loved and her happiness first.

To start Romance is in the Air: Part IV from the beginning, go to I Can’t Pretend, I Have to Be: Casual Sex? (1988)

For the previous post, go to You’re Sad So I’m Making This Day Extra Special: The Bikini in the Soup, Bones (2011)

For more Audrey Hepburn, go to Heart and Soul

For more Peter OToole, go to What is This Thing: Phantoms (1998)

For more heist films, go to I’m Here for You: The Italian Job (2003)

For more private detectives, go to I Don’t Care What You Think, She’s My Girl: A Trip to the Dentist, Veronica Mars (2005)

Now That’ve Met You, I Can’t Imagine Life Without You: Sabrina (1954)

So first of all

For the past two years I have ended on a Jane Austen film, but this year I was having an extremely hard time choosing which moment to use. Since it was such a difficult decision, and I was going to be away from my computer on vacation this weekend forcing me to write this all ahead of time, that meant I had to make a choice immediately. So we will not be ending this year’s finale with Jane Austen, but with one of my favorite films:

Romantic Moment #14

Sabrina (1954)

Now this is my all time favorite Audrey Hepburn film. Out of all her pieces, this is the one I could watch over and over and over again without ever getting bored. In fact I have in the past.

This film is amazing, although full of all kinds of drama in filming, which you can read about here, if you wish. This film was Audrey Hepburn’s second film, and the start of her relationship with costume designer Edith Head and fashion designer, Hubert de Givenchy. This film was remade in the ’90s with Harrison Ford, but besides him the film sucked and you shouldn’t watch it.

So the film starts off talking about the very wealthy Larrabee family that live in Long Island, New York. They have gazillions of dollars and their fingers are in every pot of business. Their older son is Linus Larrabee (Humphrey Bogart) who graduated from Yale, runs the family business, and has added gazillions to the family pot. Their younger son David (William Holden) like Linus, went to many fine schools but got kicked out of those very fine schools. He works for the family but doesn’t really do anything, but get married. Yep, he has already gone through three divorces: actress, dancer, and opera singer. He’s the black sheep of the family.

Anyways, the family has lots of servants, one being a chauffeur who was brought over from England, Thomas Fairchild. His daughter is Sabrina. Sabrina’s mother died at a young age and Sabrina grew up in New York living in the apartment over the garage. She became close to the servants, but was not supposed to be close to the Larrabee family. Linus of course is much older then her, but David, she has had a huge crush on David ever since she was a small child.

This night Sabrina is being sent off to a cooking school in France, the same one her mother went to when she was her age. This is also the same night that the Larrabees throw their huge Gala. That night she sees David doing what he always does, getting some girl to run off with him to the indoor tennis courts, carrying champagne, and having the band play Isn’t It Romantic?.

Sabrina is heartbroken at seeing David with another girl and having to leave him.

She decides that she doesn’t want to live anymore and takes off to the garage, starting every car and hoping to kill herself.

Just as she is about to lose conciousness, Linus comes in looking for a car to take someone home and saves Sabrina. He takes her up to her room and the next day Sabrina heads off to Paris.

At Paris, she fails in her cooking as she can’t concentrate on anything with her heart broken. She meets a Baron who is taking the class, and he asks her why she is unhappy.

He takes her under his wing and helps her “grow up”. Cutting her hair, helping her get more adult clothes, and sharing his love of France and the culture with her. As Sabrina spends more time with him she starts to come into her own.

The Baron also encourages her to continue to dream about being with David.

Sabrina Fairchild: I might as well be reaching for the moon.

Baron St. Fontanel: The moon?

Baron St. Fontanel: [laughs] Oh, you young people! You are so old-fashioned. Have you not heard? We are building rockets to reach the moon!

And Sabrina decides that she will win David’s affections.

A year later, David is dating someone new, Elizabeth, and discovers that their engagement has been announced in the newspaper…even though he never proposed! This has been all arranged by Linus. Yes Linus has created a new type of plastic that is bulletproof, heatproof, freezeproof, can hold tons of weight, etc-essentially perfect. The major ingredient needed? Sugar. And who owns the most sugar plantations? Elizabeth’s father. Linus sees this marriage a key step to a merger of interests and a multitude of money. Success all around. David is still a bit miffed, but calmed down when Linus has him think about how much he likes Elizabeth and the high likelihood of him going to ask her to marry him on his own. David is relaxed and happy about marrying Elizabeth. Preparations begin.

Meanwhile, Sabrina has completed her cooking courses and is headed home. She is waiting for her father, who was detained for some reason. As she is waiting, David passes by, and comes back as he cannot resist a pretty woman. Sabrina is happy to see him, but David is confused as he can’t figure out who she is.

David Larrabee: I feel so stupid I could kill myself.

Sabrina Fairchild: You’ll be all right in a minute.

They get to the house and then he realizes that the gorgeous girl next to him is Sabrina, the one he has ignored forever! He asks her to go out with him, but realizes that night is the annual Larrabee Gala, and invites her to that instead. He keeps gushing over her, and has completely forgotten about Elizabeth.

That night Sabrina goes to the Gale, dressed in the most amazing gown.

David shows her off to everybody, much to the displeasure of the rest of the Larrabee clan. Mr. & Mrs. Larrabee disapprove because of her station. Linus disapproves because of the deal he wants to make with Elizabeth’s father. As David sends Sabrina off to the tennis court and gets the music and champagne ready, he gets cornered by his father and brother.

The two try to convince David to stop what he is doing and think, but nothing can get through to him. Linus realizes this and notices something else, that David put the champagne glasses in his back pockets. Linus has him sit and crash, David is out of commission. Linus then goes off to meet with Sabrina and hopefully convince her to dump David.

It doesn’t work as Sabrina doesn’t want money. She wants David. Then Linus comes up with a new plan. He decides that he will make her change her affections, get her to fall for him, dump her, and send her back to Paris. He admits that he is older and the likelihood of it working is slim, but they don’t have very many options.

They go boating, and Linus makes up a story about how his heart was broken by a woman and made him never want to love again. His story convinces Sabrina that this is much more to him. Linus continues taking her out and showing his softer side. He also tells her that he will be leaving for Paris. With all their time together she starts falling for him.

In reality Linus’ plan was to have an extra ticket and give it to Sabrina, telling her that they will be running away together. But after the boat has sailed to France, she would go to his cabin and find flowers and an apology note. However, the more time Linus spends with Sabrina the more upset he becomes over the whole deal. He ends up giving the Fairchilds a ton of stock, buys an apartment for Sabrina, a Parisan bank account, flowers, candy, the works. But he still is sick over the whole deal.

Sabrina realizes her feelings for Linus, and beomes extremely confused as to what to do. She tries to end it all, by avoiding him, but Linus convinces her to continue their plans to have dinner together. She starts to make him dinner, but as she is looking for things she discovers the ticket. She is so excited about the whole thing, telling Linus how she loves him. Linus feels horrible and tells her the complete truth. Sabrina understands and leaves the next day for Paris. Heartbroken again.

But at least Sabrina is over David. Now she just has to get over Linus.

After the reveal to Sabrina, Linus has a change of heart. He decides that he cares more about Sabrina’s happiness than his own. He calls of the wedding, and has David sent over to Paris with Sabrina. All well end’s well, right? Wrong.

**************Most Romantic Moment**************

As Linus is about to make the announcement that David and Sabrina has run off together, David walks in. David tells Linus that he realized that Sabrina no longer loves him. When Linus realizes that Sabrina is going to be all alone, he takes off. He loves her and has finally come to the conclusion that he can’t live without her.

He goes running off to be with her. Throwing away buisness, money, everything he has ever loved and cared about as he realizes that there is someone much more important.

And it ends, happily ever after.

Perfect!

So romantic! I just love this movie!

So that ends this year’s Romance is in the Air:Part III. I hope you all have a great Valentines Day, whether you are single or in a relationship. Watch romantic flicks, eat candy, and just enjoy your day. 🙂

To start Romance is in the Air: Part III from the beginning, go to I Can See Your Beauty: The Breakfast Club (1985)

For the previous post, go to I Choose You: Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day (2008)

For more on Sabrina (1954), go to If It Means A Lot to You

For more on Audrey Hepburn, go to O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

For more on Action Item, go to Good or Bad

For more on Dan Howell, go to Fantastic Fantasies

For more on J.K. Rowling, go to Heaven on Earth

For more of my favorite quotes, go to I Don’t Want to Own You, I Just Want to Be With You: A Room With a View (1985)