VOLCANO/ EYJAFJAFJALLAJOKULL
France, 2013, 92 minutes, Colour.
Valerie Bonneton, Dany Boon, Dennis Menochet, Albert Delpy.
Directed by Alexandre Coffre.
Volcano is a slight French comedy, capitalising on the style of Valerie Bonneton and her timing and Dany Boon and his comic style.
This is a French version Planes, Trains and Automobiles, except that the couple are involved in the battle of the sexes, separated and bitter against each other, he having married again. The reason they are travelling is that they want to get to Greece for their daughter’s wedding.
It is the day that the volcano in Iceland in 2010 erupted stopping all air travel for several days. This means that the couple finish up travelling together, in a car and bickering which means that a young couple and their uncle cannot stand riding with them. They are careless with the hire car and it rolls backwards, eventually being run over by a truck. They stay in motels and actually have a sexual encounter. In Albania, they are welcomed at a Festival but he causes a disaster. They get a lift from a very religious man who ultimately ousts them. And finally, they travel by boat to Corfu but are arrested.
They arrive just in time to witness the wedding from the top of a mountain and then join in the celebrations – but all is not entirely well at the end of the film.
1. French comedy? Comic style? popularity of the French box office?
2. Audiences enjoying films which involve disasters?
3. The title, the eruption of the volcano in Iceland in 2010, the consequences for travellers?
4. The parents and their mission to get to the wedding in Greece? The travel, the escapades, the battle of the sexes, their arrival?
5. French audiences enjoying this kind of comedy? Beyond France?
6. Valerie, on the plane, chatting to a neighbour, making the video as a gift for her daughter, the interviews? Her giving information about the situation to the fellow passenger? Her husband on the plane, the irony of their both being on it? The husband and his talk? The meeting, the accident, the clash, locking her in the toilet, the invective, Alain and his armchair piloting, following flights, knowing there would be a landing?
7. The situation of the volcano, everybody getting off the plane, the crowds at the airport, no further plane travel? Possibilities with trains, buses, returning to city of departure? Alain and his hiring the car, the crying performance? The uncle, the friends joining the trip, his taking the wedding dress, Valerie seeing him, going to the car, the travel, the bickering, the couple and the uncle leaving? The phone calls to their daughter?
8. The travel, different landscapes, Austria, Romania, Albania? Motels? Tossing for the upper and lower bunk? Valerie stealing the car keys but not knowing the code? Their arguments, the car going backwards, it’s being run over by the truck?
9. Hitching, the religious man, his discussions, hymns, conversion language? Alain going into the back, picking up Valerie, the fighting, their being ousted? Buses?
10. The night at the hotel, their memories, the sexual encounter?
11. Albania, getting the lift, the Festival, the fireworks, the death of the Eagle? The silence of the crowd?
12. The host, taking them in the boat, the police pursuing them, suspicions, the arrest, the handcuffs, the interrogation, Valerie and her diagnosis of the dog, offering her help?
13. Arriving, at the top of the mountain, happily watching the ceremony, the ceremony itself, Cecile and her husband, the gift of the video?
14. The gift, watching it, the sex scene from the hotel – and the farcical end of the film?
