Satire of Society Travels Well in ‘Visitors’

Don’t worry about figuring out exactly what’s happening in the swift, hectic opening sequence of “The Visitors,” for that didn’t stop it from becoming France’s biggest box-office hit in history. In any event, time travel comedies don’t get better than this.

Director Jean-Marie Poire deliberately plunges us smack into a dizzying skirmish taking place in 1123, with Godefroy de Papincourt saving the life of his king. (It would seem that his sovereign Louis the Fat was about to be ambushed by the English while dallying with the fair maiden Kathleen.) In reward, Godefroy (Jean Reno) is to be allowed to marry, above his station, his beloved Frenegonde (Valerie Lemercier), daughter of the Duke of Puglia.

As fate would have it, Godefroy and his vassal Jacquasse the Crass (Christian Clavier) must travel through the forest of Malcombe, whose witch casts a spell on the two travelers. The result is that Godefroy fatally shoots his father-in-law-to-be with a crossbow after mistaking him for a bear. What’s a man to do but seek out an elderly wizard to cook up a magic potion so that he and Jacquasse can travel back in time to deflect the path of that deadly arrow? But the old wizard, in his forgetfulness, leaves out the all-crucial quails’ eggs from his brew. Godefroy and Jacquasse wake up in a forest--but nearby there’s a highway, and beyond it, a brand-new, ultramodern community.

“The Visitors” is resounding proof that it is still possible to conjure up a hilarious, ingenious, mainstream entertainment with the utmost sophistication and perception. It would seem that when Poire and Clavier, who collaborated on the script, sat down to write, they gave their imaginations free reign in envisioning what in every detail and situation it would be like for a 12th century knight and his vassal to find themselves in present-day France. At the same time they must have done--or had done for them--considerable research as to what everyday medieval life was like.

Clearly, Godefroy did get back to 1123 to change the course of history, for he eventually concludes that the woman he soon meets is his direct descendant, Countess Beatrice (Lemercier); at the moment, though, neither he nor we can figure out how he’s actually going to pull it off. In the meantime, Beatrice is under the impression that her self-proclaimed ancestor is her long-unseen Cousin Hubert, known for his eccentricity. Predictably, in their innocence of modern ways, the gloriously uncouth Godefroy and Jacquasse wreak havoc as guests in the home Beatrice shares with her dentist husband Jean-Pierre (Christian Bujeau) and their two children.

Amusingly, Godefroy is perplexed to find Beatrice living in a peasant’s stone house. In reality it is a comparatively cozy estate, decorated to the max, which also houses Jean-Pierre’s office; it’s the kind of place that would sell for well over a million in Bel-Air, but it’s a far cry from the nearby ancestral chateau, which Beatrice’s father had been forced to sell. The pretentious nouveau riche, Jacquart (also Clavier), has turned it into a luxe hotel in a fancy Louis Whatever style favored by upscale hostelries from Beverly Hills to Seoul. (“The Visitors” is the kind of film in which decor is crucially revealing, right down to the ashtrays.)

In its understated way, “The Visitors,” while working up nonstop farcical mayhem, is poking fun at the bourgeois dullness that has enveloped Beatrice, whose aristocratic roots seem at first to survive only in a nonchalant self-confidence. Godefroy, however, awakens her sense of romance, provoking her awareness of the importance of the nobility of character and generosity of spirit--and of having just plain fun. Gradually, she comes to consider that she just might be meeting her own ancestor after all.

Poire knows just how to stop slapstick cold with a climactic pause for poignancy, and he couldn’t have a finer trio of actors to pull off “The Visitors.” Featured in “Mission: Impossible” as one of Tom Cruise’s key agents, Reno is a tall, imposing man with a strong profile who can seem noble and comical either alternately or simultaneously. In a full-fledged dual role, Clavier shifts effortlessly from the pompous Jacquart to the lovably loyal Jacquasse; occasionally, thanks to movie magic, the two “Jacs” appear in the same scene.

Lemercier is as assured as Katharine Hepburn ever was in playing an aristocrat capable of evolving; her Beatrice has a wonderfully nasal voice, and were she living in New England she would surely be called Muffie. Marie-Anne Chazel is a flashy, adorable bag lady who gives Jacquasse reason, along with freshly experienced freedom and liberty, not to want to return to 1123. At one point it looked as if “The Visitors” would arrive dubbed by Mel Brooks, but luckily it’s been released in its original language version--with some of the most idiomatic, earthiest and funniest English subtitles you’ve ever read.

* MPAA rating: R, for language. Times guidelines: Apart from blunt words, the film is suitable family entertainment.

‘The Visitors’

(Les Visiteurs)

Jean Reno: Godefroy

Christian Clavier: Jacquasse/Jacquart

Valerie Lemercier: Beatrice/Frenegonde

Marie-Anne Chazel: Ginette

Christian Bujeau: Jean-Pierre

A Miramax presentation. Director Jean-Marie Poire. Producer Alain Terzian. Screenplay by Poire and Christian Clavier. Cinematographer Jean-Yves Le Mener. Costumes Catherine Leterrier. Chief set designer Catherine Kelber. In French, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes.

* Exclusively at the Fine Arts, 8556 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 652-1330, and the South Coast Village 3, South Coast Plaza, (714) 540-0594.