Le Voyage à Paimpol is a strange, little-known
film from American born director John Berry, one of a number of artists who fled the MacCarthy
anti-communist persecution that was rampant in the States in the 1950s.
Freely mixing social issues and surreal fantasy, the film is unusual in that it features working class
people in a realistic setting. The main character's flights of fantasy become
increasingly bizarre as the film progresses - one minute she sees herself as a Russian
princess sacrificing herself for the Russian Revolution, the next she is Joan of Arc -
to the extent that the film feels painfully fragmented and a tad silly.
There are some wonderfully surreal moments filling out the nonsensical plot,
such as the scene where Maryvonne is parcelling up a
copy of herself on the factory production line and another where she gives birth on the
factory floor to the item she spends all day packaging.
Whilst it is not Berry's
best work, the film does offer an amusing take on the social issues that preoccupied many
workers in France in the 1980s.
One interesting cast member is Dora Doll, who plays the main heroine's mother.
She had a prodigious career and appeared
in over two hunded films for cinema and television, her heyday being in
the 1950s when she was often cast as the femme fatale or gangster's moll,
notably in Jacques Becker's
Touchez pas au grisbi (1954).
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Film Synopsis
Maryvonne's dreams are a world apart from her daily reality. Her life as a factory
worker in a humdrum town receives a boost when she starts a romance with a young Arab
co-worker, Joël. Marriage and childbirth follow, but it's not long before Maryvonne
is once more stuck into a tedious routine. Whilst she and her colleagues are taking
strike action against impending redundancies, she meets a handsome young journalist, who
encourages her to take up writing. Not realising her admirer's real motives, Maryvonne
rises to the challenge, giving free rein to her imagination. But is she living just
another fantasy…?
Cast:Myriam Boyer (Maryvonne),
Michel Boujenah (Joël),
Jean-François Garreaud (Jean-François),
Dora Doll (La mère de Maryvonne),
Michèle Brousse (Béatrice),
André Rouyer (Le père de Maryvonne),
Jean-Paul Muel (Chouchou),
Josiane Lévêque (Arlette),
Francis Lemaire (Chapeau),
Chantal Neuwirth (Lili),
Catherine D'At (Irène),
Arny Berry (Le fils de Maryvonne et Joël),
Hélène Batteux,
Penny Fairclough,
François Gamard,
Christine Gour,
Guinguin,
Evane Hanska,
Vincent Hervé,
Marion Hingant
Country: France
Language: French
Support: Color
Runtime: 88 min
Aka:Voyage to Paimpol
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