La Boum

I grew up in the 1980ies and didn't see the movie until now. I have to admit that, despite the hype at the time, it's a decent coming-of-age movie which ended up setting the script for all the teenage romcoms to come. To my surprise, the travails of young Vic are buffeted by the adventures of her patchworkish family, with her philandering father, her economically struggling mother and her funky grandmother. Unusually it depicts the (naturally rather tame) love adventures of 11 to 14-years-olds, in other words the deal is the first kiss on the mouth here, whereas modern movies either cater to kids or senior to college level young adults, where much more risqué humour is viable.

What makes the movie worth watching today is the enormous cultural gap between then and now. It all seems so dull, grey and dusty, just like I remembered the era.

Some things I found especially noteworthy:

* the characters eat noodles all the time; even steak with noodles

* the movie makers had a thing going for Germany; we have sexy German teacher monsieur Lehman, in part two Vic goes to summer school near Salzburg and heart throb Pierre sets off for exotic Stuttgart

* Denise Grey (grannie Poupette) was 84 years old when the movie was released; she had her first acting appearance in 1913 and died at the age of 99

* the family car, a Talbot-Matra Rancho in the luxurious Grand Raid edition (with headlights which look like cop cruiser searchlights); basically a R4-class ride styled to look as if it had just won the Camel Trophy

* the eponymous "boum" (party) is incredibly lame by modern standards, essentially kids standing around a record player, listening to unbelievably cheesy music and sucking on a Coke

* the product placement: while the teens eat generic "super chips" all the time (obviously, a lucrative contract didn't surface here), there are constant placements for Lacoste and Talbot-Matra

* the fashions look unbelievably tame and stuffy, with the girls wearing almost no makeup

* the movie makers were very clever in marketing the music, they managed to scout unknown British musicians and got them to write a suitable song, played it constantly throughout each movie and thus created fairly solid hits in the process ("Dreams Are My Reality" by Richard Sanderson in the first part, and, to a lesser degree, and using virtually identical harmonies, "Your Eyes" by Cook Da Books (what??) in the second episode)

* the school Vic goes to, the lycée Henri IV, is a prestigious Parisian high school

We watched this movie in my french class with English subtitles. It's hysterical, we couldn't stop laughing, a must see for the 80's french enthusiast! With great characters, odd themes, and the funniest one-liners ever, this is a can't miss, even 20 years after it came out!

I'm not so sure what to say about this movie, it's not a masterpiece, there were many other movies like this made before but on the other hand it is a good teenage movie. Teenagers who go party and have fun. Love stories on the side. Good soundtrack. I enjoyed it.

When I watched the film as a teenager, I was instantly falling in love with Sophie Marceau and have watched nearly all of her films later on. I was searching for the films for years, but on ebay in Germany the old VHS version always reached 40 €. But since 6 months we have both parts on DVD her in Germany and of course I bought them and still love them. The song "Dreams are my reality" had been a big hit. I think it was a No. 1 for several weeks. Every woman and man of my age know the song and nearly all men between 30 and 45 I know, get a melancholic smile on there face, when they think about Sophie Marceau in those films... Of course, there exist more intellectual scripts and from a view of the art of cinematography there are a lot of better films, but less that makes you feel so good.

I saw this movie when I was 15 and instantly developed a crush on Sophie Marceau. But seeing it again as an adult wasn't quite the experience it had been. It's sweet and lovely and teen-age painful, establishing the tone if not the actual plot for 80s John Hughes movies - it's a bit deeper than and not as wacky as "Sixteen Candles" and Marceau has a bit better screen presence than Molly Ringwald.

I was disappointed that it wasn't as wonderful the second time around (I've become jaded) but it was still entertaining.