Captain Fracassa's Journey (French: Le Voyage du capitaine Fracasse, Italian: Il viaggio di Capitan Fracassa) is a 1990 French-Italian film directed by Ettore Scola and starring Vincent Perez, Ornella Muti, Emmanuelle Béart and Massimo Troisi. It is inspired by the 1863 novel Le capitaine Fracasse by French author Théophile Gautier.
In the 17th Century, a penniless Commedia dell'Arte troupe have their trailer stuck in the mud while travelling to Paris during a rainstorm. They seek refuge in a castle that's falling in ruins and is owned by a young and impoverished nobleman, the shy Baron Jean Luc Henri Camille de Sigognac. On the advices of his servant, Sigognac joins the troupe's journey to Paris, and eventually joins them as an actor, gains self-confidence and experiences love.
See also Le Capitaine Fracasse, the 1961 film adaptation.
Captain Fracassa's Journey provides examples of the following tropes:
- Adapted Out: Vallombreuse's mooks and the Master Swordsman hired by Vallombreuse who all lose their fights to Sigognac in the novel don't appear in this adaptation.
- Adaptation Deviation:
- Sigognac has a relationship with Serafina here, he doesn't in the novel.
- Sigognac is a Master Swordsman in the novel, while here he barely knows how to use a sword and gets his ass handed to him by Vallombreuse in the duel instead of winning it. There's also no mook and enemy Master Swordsman on Vallombreuse's payroll for him to fight therefore.
- There's no Roaring Rampage of Rescue by Sigognac to save Isabella from Vallombreuse's clutches.
- There's nothing to indicate Vallombreuse is Isabella's half-brother, and he ends up with her instead of Sigognac.
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Sigognac has a relationship with Serafina at first before the canonical one with Isabella, which eventually ends. In all previous adaptations and in the novel, he hooks up solely with Isabelle/Isabella and they live Happily Ever After.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: While Vallombreuse is attracted to Isabella like in the novel and previous adaptations, he doesn't even touch her after abducting her, and he even lets her come back at the troupe's camp to visit Sigognac.
- Adaptational Wimp: Sigognac is clearly not a Master Swordsman unlike his counterparts from the novel and previous adaptations. His fighting style against Vallombreuse is much clumsier and he loses the duel, while he wins in the novel and in all previous film versions.
- Badass Boast: Sigognac throws one to the Duke of Vallombreuse when defending Isabella, mentioning his name, title and the fact that his family's nobility status is at least 200 years older than that of Vallombreuse.
- Canon Foreigner: The sanitary expert who serves as Audience Surrogate doesn't exist in the novel.
- Coming of Age Story: Throughout the story, Sigognac matures from a socially awkward young man to a confident actor.
- Commedia dell'Arte: The theatre troupe embodies this very trope and encompasses some of its most well known archetypes (Capitano, Pulcinella, Pierrot, Innamorato, etc).
- Cool Sword: Henri's sword (a rapier) was offered to his ancestor by King Henri IV for having saved his life during the siege of Paris in 1590. It is a work of fine craftsmanship.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Sigognac's relationship with Isabella doesn't last in this version.
- Driven to Suicide: Matamore lets himself die frozen in the forest following his niece Isabella's rejection speech.
- First Snow: Pulcinella experiences snow for the first time during the trip to Paris, since he comes from Southern Italy.
- Gorgeous Period Dress: When Isabella comes back at the troupe, she wears one.
- Hotter and Sexier: This adaptation of Le capitaine Fracasse is the only one to feature bare-breasted women and long kisses.
- Impoverished Patrician: An ancestor of Sigognac (probably his grandfather) spent all the family's wealth in wars and "vices". Consequently, Henri and his only servant are poorly dressed, they don't have much to eat and the castle is falling in ruins.
- Improv: In-Universe, Sigognac forgets most of his lines the first night he has to play the Capitaine Fracasse on stage, so he has to improvise, and does so quite well.
- Inner Monologue: The whole troupe has this at one point, thinking about the honors, riches and/or lovers and whatnot they will get if, they think, they give the King the best theatre performance they can once they reach Paris.
- Lap Pillow: During their first love night, Sigognac rests his head on a bare-breasted Serafina's lap.
- Large Ham: It's required to be this In-Universe to replace Matamore on stage, and Sigognac has troubles hamming it up at first.
- Love Confession: Serafina to Sigognac while they're on a forest road, as she stays behind the troupe's trailer on purpose to catch up to him on his horse. She admits to him that she threw him glances and smiles in order to seduce him thinking about what he could gain talking to the King in Paris, but then she also confesses that she grew sincere feelings, which Sigognac reciprocates by taking her hand.
- Man Bites Man: Agostino's daughter bites the hand of Tyran when he subdues her.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Isabella gives one to Matamore about how he's a Dirty Old Man to her behind his attentions, small kisses and cuddles, how he's not funny anymore on stage and how she's fed up with being the troupe's offstage Ingenue.
- Same Language Dub: The Italian actors were dubbed in French and the French actors were dubbed in Italian for each country's version. For instance, Pulcinella (Neapolitan actor Massimo Troisi) was dubbed in French by Gérard Hernandez.
- Snake Oil Salesman: Serafina mentions that her father sold "miraculous healings" while she was a Street Performer who did acrobatics.
- Socially Awkward Hero: Initially, Sigognac is so not used to receive people at his castle that he awkwardly runs away to his bedroom when the troupe arrives and he has troubles looking at people's faces. Being smitten by Serafina also doesn't help. He warms up to them all over time, and by the end he's a confident actor.
- Starving Artist: The Commedia dell'Arte troupe isn't wealthy, to say the least, and some of them feel hungry over time.
- Street Performer: Serafina performed acrobatics in the streets to beg for money in her youth.
- Subverted Trope: The novel and previous adaptations (the 1961 one especially) went full-on Swashbuckler. This version doesn't go there, as it has has only one Sword Fight and the protagonist is not a Master Swordsman. The focus is more on the theatre troupe this time, since Ettore Scola had no real love for the swashbuckler genre and wanted to infuse more of an "Italian touch" to the story beyond the Commedia dell'Arte, most visibly through the considerable screentime of Pulcinella (Neapolitan actor Massimo Troisi), which is clearly expressed on the film's Italian poster
◊. - Unrelated in the Adaptation: There's nothing indicating that the Duke of Vallombreuse and Isabella are related in this version (they're half-siblings in the novel and previous adaptations).
