User Reviews

About to leave on their honeymoon, a couple of newlyweds promise a nice old gentleman they'll transport a painting to Marseilles. Neither the bride nor the groom realize the "nice old gentleman" is a criminal well-acquainted with the world of vice, drug smuggling and racketeering. While the newlyweds drive happily along the beautiful roads and highways of France, they attract a trio of pursuers : two men and a woman, working for one of the gangster's rivals. The trio is after the painting...

"Vacances explosives" is an amusing comedy with a variety of funny and eccentric characters. The plot is full of imaginative and unpredictable twists and the dialogue is sharp and witty. A large part of the movie consists of a long car pursuit along the various roads and beauty spots of France. As a result lovers of old cars will feel like they've died and gone to heaven...

The movie happily spoofs the crime and gangster movie genre. It also contains a number of satirical barbs, for instance aimed at the tourist industry : watch how the young couple's dream of a tender wedding night in a charming little inn gets thwarted by the discovery of a maniacally overcrowded hotel full of bone-tired tourists. (Still, their second attempt at consummating their marriage in a suitably romantic environment will prove even more frustrating, since they'll find themselves in the middle of a gang war loud enough to upset a whole region.)

Note the unusual use to which the "Sermons" of Bossuet are put.

Vacances Explosives is just a very fine entertainment, no revolutionary gags in it. The dialogues are written by Jacques Vilfrid, who will write some of the best Louis de Funès of the 60's, les "Gendarme", "Pouic-Pouic", "Faites Sauter La Banque!", "Les Grandes Vacances", "Hibernatus". And these dialogues are told by some of the most funny accents of the french cinema, especially Raymond Bussières, Robert Berri and of course Arletty. And a very young Philippe Bouvard, later on french radio and TV.

The shooting of "Vacances Explosives" must have been pure holidays for that explosive team. As it is a road movie, it was shot on the RN7 (enjoy the police action "day without accident"), which was the road to holidays in the south of France, imagine the happy bunch in the restaurant "Chez Sam" and in the hotel "Au Coq Hardi" in Jouars-Pontchartrain, in the "Villa Khariessa" in Martigues and other places in the south of France. What an atmosphere (catch the dialogue in the end paying tribute to that famous dialogue by Arletty in "Hôtel Du Nord").

Director Christian Stengel was a car lover, he even filmed the garages of his native town in his first two movies. He did a very funny "Casse-cou, Mademoiselle" with the Dyna Panhard (see my review). In "Vacances Explosives", we see a wonderful Buick (the gangster's car) pursuing the modest 2CH (a big luxurious car versus a 2CH, I've seen that in another movie ...). Christian Stengel always filmed what was in fashion : Charles Trenet in "Je Chante", radio in "La Famille Duraton", beauty contest in "La Plus Belle Fille Du Monde", advertising in "Mourrez, Nous Ferons Le Reste", ... We hope to see one day seven of his movies which are still invisible.

There's a lovely moment towards the end of this ho-hum comedy caper; someone plugs in a radio, turns it on and remarks to Arletty who is also in the room, 'atmosphere'. Anyone only slightly interested in French Cinema will recognise this nod to one of Arletty's great roles and the dialogue Henri Jeanson wrote for her to say to Louis Jouvet in Marcel Carne's Hotel du Nord. You don't get to be one of THE great French screen actresses without having a little something extra and when you play as many if not more supporting roles than leads that something extra has to be really special. Arletty is right up there with Danielle Darrieux and Simone Signoret, both like her active in the first two decades of sound, and she doesn't have to take a back seat to any subsequent icons like Jeanne Moreau, Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert etc. Arletty - with 12 of her 62 films still to be made - is the main reason to see this otherwise undistinguished gangster comedy directed by the equally undistinguished Christian Stengal from an undistinguished screenplay by Claude Accursi and Gerard Nery. The closest any of them came to quality was the co-writer credit Accursi shared with Jacques Prevert on Voyage Surprise. There's some nice support here notably from Raymond Bussiliers and Jean Tissot but it's Arletty you watch as she sets off in pursuit of her just-married daughter who is unwittingly transporting a few keys of cocaine in a picture frame. For Arletty fans a must. For others a reasonable divertissement.