It's funny how cruising the internet will take us off on some of the most trivial tangents! I just purchased a film ("Sleep With Me" with Eric Stoltz, Meg Tilly and a cameo appearance -- NOT to be missed -- by Quentin Tarantino) and thought I'd look for "French Postcards" . . . another of my long-time favorites.
I thought I was the ONLY one who had even SEEN this film much less had such fond memories of it!!
Like so many, I first saw the film via cable . . . either on Cinemax or HBO. I was in Michigan on internship and while visiting my future (now ex-) wife, I caught this wonderful little film on her VERY little b/w television. I liked it so much that I watched it at almost every opportunity as it ran its repetitive course.
As has been posted already here, I saw a little bit of me in many of the characters (not so much in Sayyid, of course!!). I also found many of the characters to be very believable as well as the story. My guess is that it was probably written by someone who'd had such an experience.
I suppose that I related mostly to Alex, who -- despite being somewhat of a lech was an utter romantic. Like him, I'm a songwriter AND hopelessly drawn to romance. The song he sings ("Paris") was in my head for days and weeks . . . MONTHS after watching the film.
I was particularly attracted to Laura (Blanche Baker's character), who much like Alex was in love with romance and tried so very hard to experience her preconceived notions about Paris. While Alex's affair with Madame Tessier was rather titillating (I mean, isn't it EVERY young man's dream to have an affair with an older, married woman?!?), I rooted for Laura and Alex to get together.
Many of us here can probably also relate with the dweeb-y (initially), socially clumsy Joel. That he was able to finally come to grips with his feelings for Toni and EXPRESS them was IS something we'd all like to be capable of doing all the time. We probably all initially took affront to Toni's brusque responses to Joel, but (sigh!) fell in love with her as well (if ONLY for her accent!).
Although Debra Winger's part is so very small, her character was entertaining.
And while we're speaking "French" . . . I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend "Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain" (Amélie) if you haven't yet seen it.
I thought I was the ONLY one who had even SEEN this film much less had such fond memories of it!!
Like so many, I first saw the film via cable . . . either on Cinemax or HBO. I was in Michigan on internship and while visiting my future (now ex-) wife, I caught this wonderful little film on her VERY little b/w television. I liked it so much that I watched it at almost every opportunity as it ran its repetitive course.
As has been posted already here, I saw a little bit of me in many of the characters (not so much in Sayyid, of course!!). I also found many of the characters to be very believable as well as the story. My guess is that it was probably written by someone who'd had such an experience.
I suppose that I related mostly to Alex, who -- despite being somewhat of a lech was an utter romantic. Like him, I'm a songwriter AND hopelessly drawn to romance. The song he sings ("Paris") was in my head for days and weeks . . . MONTHS after watching the film.
I was particularly attracted to Laura (Blanche Baker's character), who much like Alex was in love with romance and tried so very hard to experience her preconceived notions about Paris. While Alex's affair with Madame Tessier was rather titillating (I mean, isn't it EVERY young man's dream to have an affair with an older, married woman?!?), I rooted for Laura and Alex to get together.
Many of us here can probably also relate with the dweeb-y (initially), socially clumsy Joel. That he was able to finally come to grips with his feelings for Toni and EXPRESS them was IS something we'd all like to be capable of doing all the time. We probably all initially took affront to Toni's brusque responses to Joel, but (sigh!) fell in love with her as well (if ONLY for her accent!).
Although Debra Winger's part is so very small, her character was entertaining.
And while we're speaking "French" . . . I highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend "Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain" (Amélie) if you haven't yet seen it.