Voyages en Italie

A French couple burnt out by the routine of their daily family life decides after much hesitation to travel to Sicily for a short holiday. Voyages en Italie depicts the neuroses and eccentricities of Jean-Philippe and Sophie, the gracious dynamics of their relationship and the depth of their affection and intimacy.

With brilliant dialogue, breathtaking authenticity and masterful performances by music star Philippe Katerine and filmmaker Sophie Letourneur herself, the film is an endless parade of delightful moments, mood switches, hilarious situations and romantic arguments. Grabbing you from the very beginning, Voyages en Italie amusingly conveys how the mere choice of a holiday destination exponentially increases the stress that this duo is desperately trying to alleviate, while also managing to capture the extraordinary in the ordinary, walking with a steady rhythm the tightrope of expectation and disillusionment.

The film’s three-part structure takes us from the preparations for the journey to its reflective aftermath – while cleverly dissecting the clichés about transformative tourist trips. A self-conscious rewriting for contemporary times of Roberto Rossellini’s Voyage to Italy (1954), Letourneur’s return to IFFR (La vie au Ranch, IFFR 2010; Énorme, IFFR 2020) comes as a rendition of a zany romantic comedy that has the right mixture of freshness, humour and intelligence.

– Cristina Álvarez López