Revisiting a fateful time in 1940 France

“Sophisticated farce in high style” may be an accurate description of the French film “Bon Voyage,” but it somehow doesn’t do it justice. Intrigue, murder, betrayal, Nazis, spies and scientists on the lam make a heady cocktail -- especially when you consider it’s based on real events.

The latest film from Oscar-nominated writer-director Jean-Paul Rappeneau, “Bon Voyage” is set primarily during one fateful weekend in 1940 when government cabinet members, journalists, physicians, spies and even director Jean Renoir descended upon Bordeaux in the south of France after escaping the Nazi invasion of Paris.

Winner of three Cesar awards -- France’s version of the Oscar -- “Bon Voyage” is also a deeply personal film for the 71-year-old Rappeneau (“Cyrano de Bergerac,” “Horseman on the Roof”).

“It’s based on my childhood memories,” Rappeneau says.

“At the age of 7, I was one of those kids on the road during the exodus. These are memories that are so strong. I remember every single minute of the journey that very night my mother woke up myself and my brothers and sisters and packed us into the cart because the Germans were about to invade Paris.”

“Bon Voyage,” which opens Friday, stars Isabelle Adjani as a neurotic actress who has murdered one lover and is being kept by an ambitious politician (Gerard Depardieu). Virginie Ledoyen plays a student trying to help her mentor escape to England; Gregori Derangere is a writer who had an affair with Adjani; and Peter Coyote is an American journalist -- with a bad French accent -- who is not what he seems.

Ultimately, “Bon Voyage” is about choice. During that fateful weekend 64 years ago, Rappeneau says, “people had to make choices -- do I do this or do I do that -- in a very short amount of time. A lot of people came to me after the film saying, ‘Is this really true? Did this really happen?’ The tone is different, but the historical facts are 100% true.”

-- Susan King