20 June 2021

Jacques Rozier's Les Naufragés de l’île de la Tortue | The Castaways of Turtle Island (1976)

This is not Jacques Rozier's best film, but like all the films he made it is very amusing, absurd and never dull. Needless to say, there are many swerves in the plot, and it is frequently impossible to say what material here is in the original script and how much improvised. Jean-Arthur Bonaventure (Pierre Richard) works in a travel agency and with his colleague 'Nono' (Maurice Risch) he concocts a scheme – approved by the general manager of the company – for a money-saving holiday which involves sending people on holiday to an exotic location where they have to fend for themselves in Robinson Crusoe fashion.

Jean-Arthur goes out not with Nono but his brother Petit Nono (the irrestistable Jacques Villeret), and no sooner have they (half-)finished their research at the destination and (sort of but not really) found what they think is a suitable destination then the first tourists start arriving. From the airport the tourists go with the guide on a regulation coach which is at one point invaded by a crowd of locals, but eventually the bus breaks down.

This means the group have to make their way on foot, but as it's night they sleep outside a deserted house. Then, painstakingly, they have to carry their luggage through the bush before they find a ship to the island. Needless to say, the 'holiday' is a total disaster and Jean-Arthur even finds himself in the local jail for eating bananas he can't pay for.

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