After having been annoyed by the candy cane music video of Coppola's "Marie Antoinette," I went in search of this film again. I had remembered liking "La Nuit de Varennes" when it came out, but 25 years later it looks much, much better.

A hostile person once defined French film as people saying wounding things to each other for an hour and a half, then somebody dies of cancer or a gunshot. This film redeems the stereotype, as people say wounding things to each other for over two hours and nobody dies (on camera, anyway).

Imagine "Stagecoach" with politics instead of Catholic redemption, then add a solid, witty script and great acting. Veterans Barrault and Mastroianni give canny, memorable performances and everybody else is just fine.

If your model for the movies is the roller-coaster or the video game, you will scream in agony. If you would prefer not to be insulted, this film will be balm for the soul.

Since the powers that be have decreed that this film shall fall between the cracks, it's worth a little research to find it on DVD. Google "That Night in Varennes" and check the first dozen results. It's the best we can do until the delinquent owners of the film come to their senses.

History is not everybody's cup of tea as most people consider it as a boring subject wherein one is forced to remember various dates and exploits of political parties and royal families. However,there are ways to make history appear more approachable. Italian director Ettore Scola has been able to get a lot of success in this domain by directing 'La Nuit De Varennes' which is not only historical but also an important road movie.It can easily be christened 'a historical road movie'. By blending facts and fiction director Ettore Scola has created a powerful film about the significance of the French revolution with a major focus on the escape of French royal family from Paris until Varennes.There are no dull moments in this film which clocks roughly 150 minutes as the presence of legendary figures Casanova and Restif De La Bretonne in a stagecoach is enough to kindle audiences' interest.The audiences learn that till the last minute there was immense amount of sympathy for the monarchy. Scola shows that there were people who would support the king at all times.The film is not a real history lesson but loses no time in establishing that French king's supporters had failed to realize that the king had completely lost poor people's sympathies.

A really meaningful film from Ettore Scola. Scola captures France during the nearly surreal last moments of the reign of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette. A group of disparate travelers take a coach through the French countryside (all for different reasons) and all come to various ends by nightfall. Jean-Louis Barrault is Nicolas-Edme Rétif de la Bretonne, the writer whose work consisted mainly of his sexual escapades. Hannah Schygulla is one of the Queen's ladies in waiting. Marcello Mastrioanni is a sad and decaying Chevalier de Seingalt (aka Casanova). It's a great movie full of insights into life, change, fear and loneliness. Barrault is excellent and Schygulla, looking absolutely ravishing, gives what has to be her best non-Fassbinder performance. The great, and ironically cast, Mastrioanni is brilliant. He's really sad, particularly when hiding out in a bathroom stall trying to pull himself together with lipstick & powder. Scola's direction is perfect and while the film could have become a boring talk-fest, it's never dull. Also featuring Harvey Keitel as the American Thomas Paine, Laura Betti as a foolish opera singer and, in a cameo, Jean-Louis Trintignant. The breathtaking cinematography is by Armando Nannuzzi.