I would definitely recommend this movie, if - and it's a big "if" - it is the one I am thinking of. I carefully researched this issue before posting and I am 90% certain this movie is the one I think it is since no others seem to fit the bill - ensemble cast, plot about American students studying in France, personal development.
I had HBO as a teenager growing up in the 80s and remember watching an oddly engaging romance film (my normal fair back then was "Mad Max" and "Commando") about a troupe of US college students studying abroad and going through a series of personal contortions that held lessons on maturity. In 1989-1990, I actually went on a one-year study abroad myself and as I experienced life in Luxemburg, which is where I went, I kept remembering this movie.
In a broad macro way it captured much of what I felt and perceived to be going on in my life and that of my fellow. There were romantic entanglements within the student body and with the locals - though there was certainly no "The Graduate" Mrs. Anderson-type of thing - and personality clashes and blossoming friendships. I have vivid recollections from my time abroad of seeing and experiencing events that caused my mind to hearken back to this movie repeatedly.
The fact that this movie is so intertwined with my experience is, actually, what speaks out to me most. For me, the movie somehow captured the oddity of the overseas experience; that going far away from home forced us closer to ourselves. It prompted honest and clear introspection and, through that process, maturation. Time and again, I participated in or witnessed deep heartfelt and thoughtful conversations about personal development and insight that were almost entirely absent from what I had seen stateside. We discussed the ugly and the beautiful in people and saw both. Oddly, it built a durable sense of comradeship such that many of the friendships that began in Lux, as we called it, endured through the remainder or college and beyond.
It is seemingly odd to attach so much meaning to a movie I saw only once and have never seen again but, actually, I think it is remarkable. I will say this, the movie put a lens on my experience that was very helpful to me.
Putting aside the falsities that are inherent in any fictional enterprise, there is some essence of the truth of the overseas experience that is captured by this film that makes it worth viewing. Perhaps, it is the drama. That is what stands out. Passionate discussions in bars while surrounded by people who, to you, are speaking a foreign language.
"French Postcards" could be viewed as an existential allegory. We are separate and alone to a degree even in the midst of a crowd while simultaneously - in contrast to existentialism - the mere fact we are engaged in a dialog with another is proof that we are not alone. It is proof of a duality of aloneness and comradeship that makes up a person's life.
Now that I got that off my chest, I want to get on Amazon or Netflix and see if I can lay hands on a copy to confirm the truth of my lamentations.
I had HBO as a teenager growing up in the 80s and remember watching an oddly engaging romance film (my normal fair back then was "Mad Max" and "Commando") about a troupe of US college students studying abroad and going through a series of personal contortions that held lessons on maturity. In 1989-1990, I actually went on a one-year study abroad myself and as I experienced life in Luxemburg, which is where I went, I kept remembering this movie.
In a broad macro way it captured much of what I felt and perceived to be going on in my life and that of my fellow. There were romantic entanglements within the student body and with the locals - though there was certainly no "The Graduate" Mrs. Anderson-type of thing - and personality clashes and blossoming friendships. I have vivid recollections from my time abroad of seeing and experiencing events that caused my mind to hearken back to this movie repeatedly.
The fact that this movie is so intertwined with my experience is, actually, what speaks out to me most. For me, the movie somehow captured the oddity of the overseas experience; that going far away from home forced us closer to ourselves. It prompted honest and clear introspection and, through that process, maturation. Time and again, I participated in or witnessed deep heartfelt and thoughtful conversations about personal development and insight that were almost entirely absent from what I had seen stateside. We discussed the ugly and the beautiful in people and saw both. Oddly, it built a durable sense of comradeship such that many of the friendships that began in Lux, as we called it, endured through the remainder or college and beyond.
It is seemingly odd to attach so much meaning to a movie I saw only once and have never seen again but, actually, I think it is remarkable. I will say this, the movie put a lens on my experience that was very helpful to me.
Putting aside the falsities that are inherent in any fictional enterprise, there is some essence of the truth of the overseas experience that is captured by this film that makes it worth viewing. Perhaps, it is the drama. That is what stands out. Passionate discussions in bars while surrounded by people who, to you, are speaking a foreign language.
"French Postcards" could be viewed as an existential allegory. We are separate and alone to a degree even in the midst of a crowd while simultaneously - in contrast to existentialism - the mere fact we are engaged in a dialog with another is proof that we are not alone. It is proof of a duality of aloneness and comradeship that makes up a person's life.
Now that I got that off my chest, I want to get on Amazon or Netflix and see if I can lay hands on a copy to confirm the truth of my lamentations.