{{short description|1980 film}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2020}} {{Infobox film | name = Le Voyage en douce | image = Levoyageendouce.jpg | caption = Promotional poster | director = Michel Deville | producer = Maurice Bernart | writer = Michel Deville | starring = Dominique Sanda<br>Geraldine Chaplin | music = Catherine Ardouin | cinematography = Claude Lecomte | editing = Raymonde Guyot | distributor = Gaumont Distribution | released = {{film date|1980|1|4|df=yes}} | runtime = 98 minutes | country = France | language = French | budget = }}
'''''Le Voyage en douce''''' (English: '''''The Quiet Journey''''') is a 1980 French drama film written and directed by Michel Deville. The screenplay is shaped around 15 different sexual anecdotes, penned by 15 writers.<ref name="maslin 1981"/> The film stars Dominique Sanda and Geraldine Chaplin. It was entered into the 30th Berlin International Film Festival.
==Plot== Disillusioned with the men in their lives, two friends, Hélène and Lucie, take a break to explore possible summer homes in the South of France. As the pair spend time together, they share sexual memories and fantasies and even enact some.<ref name="maslin 1981"/> Despite the pleasure of temporary freedom and companionship, they have to return to reality and its unresolved problems.
==Cast== * Dominique Sanda as Hélène * Geraldine Chaplin as Lucie * Jacques Zabor as Denis * Jean Crubelier as L'homme des maisons * Valerie Masterson as La cantatrice * Cécile Le Bailly as Marie * Jacqueline Parent as Mathilde * Jacques Pieiller as Pinson * Liliane Rovère as The Voice * Françoise Morhange as La grand-mère * Frédéric Andréi as Le jeune homme de l'hôtel * Christophe Malavoy as L'homme du train * André Marcon as L'homme du concert * Valérie Hug as Perrine * Robin Camus as Lucas
==Reception== Janet Maslin of ''The New York Times'' praised the ambiguous nature of Hélène and Lucie's relationship; "its teasing is effective, thanks particularly to Miss Sanda, who is as beautiful and insolently alluring here as she has ever been. With timing that is constantly surprising, with a knowing sensuality just this side of brazeness, Miss Sanda is enough reason to see the movie. And she and Miss Chaplin share an abandon that is intricately balanced, and gracefully played." Maslin felt that the film was "finally aimless" but that it was still "seductive all the same."<ref name="maslin 1981"/>
Critic Rob Schmeider wrote that the film "has the distinction of succeeding brilliantly as pornography; like most pornography it must suffer the fate of being born into a man's world; but it is still head and tails above most films with ostensibly lesbian characters."<ref name="schmieder 1981"/> The French weekly ''L'Express'' said it is a "masterpiece of eroticism" and ''Le Monde'' stated it is "enchanting and tender."<ref name="mcclure 1980"/>
Nancy Scott from ''The San Francisco Examiner'' observed that the "fifteen collaborators each contributed an anecdote and these are on the whole, more interesting than the plot proper, which has the look of an ad hoc construction built to house the smaller stories; the movie wanders from one idea of feminine friendship to another and some are true, some contrived, and some just silly; the plot proper would probably collapse entirely if it were not for the performances by Chaplin and Sanda."<ref name="scott 1981"/>
==Filming locations== The film was partly shot in Paris and in front of the Château de Versailles, and in the south of France, in the Var region, in several villages such as Lorgues, Tourtour and Entrecasteaux.
==See also== {{Portal|Film|France|LGBTQ}} *Cinema of France *List of French-language films *List of LGBTQ-related films of 1980
==References== <references>
<ref name="maslin 1981">{{cite news |last1=Maslin |first1=Janet |author1-link=Janet Maslin |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/04/09/movies/voyage-en-douce-2-frenchwomen-on-a-journey.html |title=The Screen: Voyage en Douce, 2 Frenchwomen on a Journey |work=The New York Times |date=9 April 1981 |page=20}}</ref>
<ref name="mcclure 1980">{{cite news |last1=Stratte-McClure |first1=Joel |title=Dominique Sanda Starts to Smile |url=https://archive.org/details/InternationalHeraldTribune1980FranceEnglish/Feb%2008%201980%2C%20International%20Herald%20Tribune%2C%20%2330166%2C%20France%20%28en%29/page/n7/mode/2up |work=International Herald Tribune |issue=30166 |date=8 February 1980 |page=9W}}</ref>
<ref name="schmieder 1981">{{cite news |last1=Schmieder |first1=Rob |title=What Do Women Talk About When Men Aren't Around |url=https://archive.org/details/gaycommunitynews0846gayc/page/n11/mode/2up |work=Gay Community News |volume=8 |issue=46 |date=13 June 1981 |page=7}}</ref>
<ref name="scott 1981">{{cite news |last1=Scott |first1=Nancy |title=16 people's story of two women |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-san-francisco-examiner-sixteen-peopl/183949839/ |work=The San Francisco Examiner |date=20 May 1981 |page=E16}}</ref>
</references>
==External links== *{{IMDb title|id=0081729|title=Le Voyage en douce}} *[https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/voyage_en_armenie ''Le Voyage en Douce''] at Rotten Tomatoes
{{Michel Deville}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Voyage En Douce, Le}} Category:1980 films Category:1980 drama films Category:1980 LGBTQ-related films Category:1980 French-language films Category:French LGBTQ-related films Category:Lesbian-related films Category:Films directed by Michel Deville Category:Gaumont (company) films Category:1980s LGBTQ-related drama films Category:1980 French films Category:French-language drama films