Not even naturally gifted Sophie Marceau and Claude Brasseur can save this film from crashing.
Then only good thing I find about it is the "social character" of Parisian teen life in the early 80s. And I thought only my school mates were corny :). It was the same at chic Saint Germain des Prés :). The morals of this story are awful, the storyline is at times erratic, at others it just doesn't make any sense, but overall I wanted to turn off the TV about 20 times before it finally ended. "Marriage survives all difficulties", "men can fool around, women can do something out of spite, but they always come back to their man", .
I agree with vyto34 on IMDb that "Brasseur is a most unfortunate choice for the dentist ..." in that he looks more like a gangster than a dentist & family man and so on. Brigitte Fossey is miscast as the wife of Brasseur, she's just too beautiful and intelligent for a man who seems to have no ability for anything. Pénélope's sister, precocious little blonde "Samanta" fancying François Beretton is just one of the very stupid choices this film has. One of the few "lovable" characters is Denise Grey' Poupette (the avant-garde harp playing great-grandma (??) who has all the answers), she is just stereotyped. Bernard Giraudeau is Lehman, stud German lycée teacher does what he can with the cardboard plot he's given. He did the extremely funny "Viens chez moi..." with M. Blanc, which proves he can star a brilliant comedy and also took part in "Ridicule" with Fanny Ardant. I mean, some of the actors have done great movies, in spite of this one :). By the way, in one of the most unbelievable scenes of this illogical movie, he, who is young and fit, is being held up by 2 men until, out of nowhere, Mr. Beretton sends the 2 thieves away and later hits the teacher on his face without resistance. Another of the silliest scenes is the comeuppance of Mme. Beretton and her husband's lover, and then Poupette finishes it. No sight of the police, of course. Worse of all, she did nothing her beloved husband didn't agree with. But those are the bourgeoise morals: the harlot has to suffer financial loss, but the pater familias is always welcome. The ending is particurarly devoid of meaning, but maybe "it wants to show how teenagers change of love like a t-shirt".
I found this film umbearable, but have to accept it's very popular. Particularly with Americans who took French somewhere in their education. The electrical piano version of "Dreams..." (slow music) is particularly jarring, veering on mental idiocy, specially after being hammered on all through the film. Paris is nice, thou, but I guess no director can harm it :)!
Watching a former Bond villain like Marceau as an early teenager with blossoming sexuality is not entirely a happy experience. Teen language and high school are interesting, but the film doesn't let us focus even on those moderately interesting topics. Instead it forces us to watch the stupid parent's fights and predictable redemption of the male figure. The only funny scene was, perhaps, the botched sex scene with Mr. Beretton and his last lover. Maybe it's just outdated.
Overall... avoid it.
Then only good thing I find about it is the "social character" of Parisian teen life in the early 80s. And I thought only my school mates were corny :). It was the same at chic Saint Germain des Prés :). The morals of this story are awful, the storyline is at times erratic, at others it just doesn't make any sense, but overall I wanted to turn off the TV about 20 times before it finally ended. "Marriage survives all difficulties", "men can fool around, women can do something out of spite, but they always come back to their man", .
I agree with vyto34 on IMDb that "Brasseur is a most unfortunate choice for the dentist ..." in that he looks more like a gangster than a dentist & family man and so on. Brigitte Fossey is miscast as the wife of Brasseur, she's just too beautiful and intelligent for a man who seems to have no ability for anything. Pénélope's sister, precocious little blonde "Samanta" fancying François Beretton is just one of the very stupid choices this film has. One of the few "lovable" characters is Denise Grey' Poupette (the avant-garde harp playing great-grandma (??) who has all the answers), she is just stereotyped. Bernard Giraudeau is Lehman, stud German lycée teacher does what he can with the cardboard plot he's given. He did the extremely funny "Viens chez moi..." with M. Blanc, which proves he can star a brilliant comedy and also took part in "Ridicule" with Fanny Ardant. I mean, some of the actors have done great movies, in spite of this one :). By the way, in one of the most unbelievable scenes of this illogical movie, he, who is young and fit, is being held up by 2 men until, out of nowhere, Mr. Beretton sends the 2 thieves away and later hits the teacher on his face without resistance. Another of the silliest scenes is the comeuppance of Mme. Beretton and her husband's lover, and then Poupette finishes it. No sight of the police, of course. Worse of all, she did nothing her beloved husband didn't agree with. But those are the bourgeoise morals: the harlot has to suffer financial loss, but the pater familias is always welcome. The ending is particurarly devoid of meaning, but maybe "it wants to show how teenagers change of love like a t-shirt".
I found this film umbearable, but have to accept it's very popular. Particularly with Americans who took French somewhere in their education. The electrical piano version of "Dreams..." (slow music) is particularly jarring, veering on mental idiocy, specially after being hammered on all through the film. Paris is nice, thou, but I guess no director can harm it :)!
Watching a former Bond villain like Marceau as an early teenager with blossoming sexuality is not entirely a happy experience. Teen language and high school are interesting, but the film doesn't let us focus even on those moderately interesting topics. Instead it forces us to watch the stupid parent's fights and predictable redemption of the male figure. The only funny scene was, perhaps, the botched sex scene with Mr. Beretton and his last lover. Maybe it's just outdated.
Overall... avoid it.