Main Cast: Miles Chapin, Blanche Baker, David Marshall Grant, Valerie Quennessen, Debra Winger
Release Year: 1979
Country: FR/WG/US
Run Time: 95 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
A "critic's darling" of 1979, the modestly produced French Postcards has an appeal that goes beyond the wine and cheese crowd. Miles Chapin plays Joel, an American student in France on an exchange program. Joel's teacher, Mme. Tessier (Marie-France Pisier), is a "Miss Jean Brodie" type whose ideas of education are highly unorthodox. One of Mme. Tessier's extracurricular activities consists of a torrid romance with the impressionable Joel. Of interest to contemporary viewers are the supporting-cast appearances of future stars Debra Winger and Mandy Patinkin. The "coming-of-age" through-line of French Postcards was second nature to screenwriters Gloria Katz and Willard Hyuck, whose previous projects included American Graffiti. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Sweet and charming, but also a trifle predictable, French Postcards is an amiable little coming-of-age comedy that will beguile many. Even those who find themselves not so easily beguiled should find Postcards an agreeable little affair; it's hard to dislike a film that's as harmless as this one. Created by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz of American Graffiti fame, Postcards has that same interest in the magnified importance that teen-agers and young adults feel about every little thing that happens to them, as well as the innocence -- soon to be lost as adulthood beckons -- that can still make tiny triumphs seem magical. A few things keep Postcards from being as good a film as Graffiti, starting with the simple fact that Huyck is simply not as inventive a director as George Lucas. Postcards also meanders a bit too much, and the sweetness at times becomes a tad cloying. Its cast varies, with David Marshall Grant and Blanche Baker fine but no more. Much better are Miles Chapin, Marie-France Pisier and especially Valerie Quennessen; special note should also be made of Mandy Patinkin's bizarrely amusing cameo. Location lensing is also a plus. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
The story line primarily follows three American students as they feel their ways through a year of studies at The Institute in Paris: Laura (Blanche Baker), who ostensibly narrates the goings-on of the film with the postcards she sends to her boyfriend back home; Alex (David Marshall Grant), whose interests aren't so much in studying but with love and life in Paris; and Joel (Miles Chapin), who can't quite seem to live with the courage of his convictions. Alex becomes ensnared in a tryst with his instructor (and the Institute's co-director Madam Tessier (Marie-France Pisier), while Joel falls in love with a local bookstore employee, Toni (Valérie Quennessen).
