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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love the movie, but the DVD is another question, July 1, 2008
This review is from: French Postcards (DVD)
First of all, I'm very grateful that "French Postcards" finally has made it to DVD. I fell in love with this movie on HBO back in 1980, when it seemed to be on at least once a day. It's a sweet and funny movie that perfectly captures that in-between stage of life when you're in college.
The cast is terrific: The late Valerie Quennessen is completely enchanting as Toni, a young French woman who falls in love with bookish American student Joel (Miles Chapin). There's also Blanche Baker, hilarious as she travels through Europe checking out the graves of famous authors. The DVD packaging makes a big deal out of Debra Winger being in the cast, but she barely gets any screen time.
The movie is delightful, but as for the DVD? Well, although the box doesn't state it, the music has been changed from the original release. Part of the movie's charm (and a comic comment on the scenes) was the use of French-language versions of American pop songs, including "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" and "Do You Believe in Magic." Those have all been excised, replaced by generic-sounding French songs. There were some well-known English-language recordings in here, too: The Kinks' "(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman" and Nicolette Larson's "Lotta Love" were both prominently featured. Now, the Kinks' song has been replaced with an anoynmous dance tune; the Larson song has been replaced by...silence.
Perhaps the weirdest move of all involves a play the students put on. During the course of the production, Baker leads the students in singing Cole Porter's "You Don't Know Paree." However, the sequence in which Baker performs a solo has been completely removed. Then, instead of hearing the students sing the song, we see the students on stage, mouthing the words to the Porter song but the soundtrack has a chorus of tuneless people chanting: "I love Paris, oh how I love Paris, I love Paris, it's here I want to stay." OK, even if you've never seen the movie before, I think that would be noticeable.
The movie is presented in widescreen and the picture is fine, but the butchering is a major disappointment. I realize this wasn't a hit movie, but it's still wildly annoying. There are no extras and the packaging is rather sloppy: Even Quennessen's name is misspelled on the box cover. So, again -- love the movie, wished the DVD was better. Still, it's better than nothing.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Would be better without the deletions, January 25, 2005
I saw this in the theatre when it first came out. A fun film.
I bought the VHS, & it's still fun. However, there is a LOT missing: several musical items ["Do You Believe in Magic" - in French, in the opening scene on the bus; "Lotta Love", as noted in another review; "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" - in the scene with Mme. Tessier dancing w/ Alex at the end-of-year party] and several changed scenes.
The movie would be better "restored" & without deletions. I read somewhere that there were rights issues on some of the songs, and that some of the actors were not eager for this film to be released on video. The movie is remarkable for the pre-fame appearances of some actors and actreesses, as others have mentioned.
Buy the video, but if you somehow get a chance to see the actual film, I think you'll like the film better.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great memories only one thing though, October 1, 2001
This movie brought back memories, of when I was a teenager Its just as I remember it..Only one thing, and it did upset me. I dont know if people will notice. There is a scene almost at the end when Joel and Toni are leaving and there parents run into each other, its here where I noticed something was missing?? The music..in the original movie it had Nicolette Larson's Lotta Love.. In this video its been deleted, and that really pained me, because that was part of the reason I bought this movie. I did not notice until later that it mentioned this on the cover of the video, I wonder why this was done.However overall the movie is safe clean AMERICAN fun from the 70's.. Great comedy.
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