Slamming doors, comically crossed signals, serendipitous meetings and calamitous misunderstandings — Jean-Paul Rappeneau's "epic farce" strives mightily to drive its star-studded cast to inspired heights of antic lunacy, but remains stolidly earthbound. June 1940: Preoccupied with frivolous feuds and love affairs, Parisian bon vivants scarcely notice as Nazi troops advance into Northern France. Spoiled, supremely self-centered movie star Viviane Denvert (Isabelle Adjani), importuned once too often by her amorous producer, Andre Arpel (Nicolas Pignon), "accidentally" kills him and persuades a besotted and naive admirer, aspiring novelist Frederic Auger (Gregory Derangere), to dispose of the corpse. Frederic winds up in jail but later, encouraged by charming fellow jailbird Raoul (Yvan Attal), escapes amid the chaos of an air-raid evacuation. Discovering that Viviane has fled Paris for Bordeaux — along with the cream of the country's gilded aristocracy, parliamentary officials and moneyed elite — Frederic boards a southbound train and again encounters Raoul, who's busy charming comely university student Camille (Virginie Ledoyen). When the train breaks down at Camille's stop, Raoul persuades her colleagues, Professor Kopolski (Jean-Marc Stehle) and M. Girard (Michelle Vuillermoz), to give them a lift to Bordeaux. Rauol and Frederic are blissfully unaware that their new friends are desperately trying to transport France's supply of heavy water — a crucial component in the manufacture of atomic weapons — out of the country before the Germans arrive. In Bordeaux, Frederic finds Viviane ensconced in the luxurious Hotel Splendide with Interior Minister Jean-Etienne Beaufort (Gerard Depardieu); he and his fellow cabinet ministers are deep in discussions that will determine whether the French government resists or collaborates with the Germans. The complications multiply to include assorted displaced residents of the boarding house where Raoul and Frederic have taken refuge; their landlady, Mme. Arbesault (Edith Scob); a German spy posing as a journalist (Peter Coyote); the late M. Arpel's hot-headed, skirt-chasing nephew (Nicholas Vaude); and Viviane's various rich friends. A child during World War II, Rappeneau revisits the larky tone of his first film, the occupation farce LA VIE DE CHATEAU (1966). But it's just plain exhausting to watch the admirably game cast members running around like headless chickens in chic period clothes, surrendering their dignity to the task of navigating the plot's frenetic contrivances. --Maitland McDonagh
