SYNOPSIS: Love found and lost, and found again and the promiscuity of European youth in the 1970's is the premise behind Blue Jeans.  Director Hugues Burin des Roziers' first feature length film tells the story of Julien Morin, an 11-year-old boy from an affluent area of Paris who takes a summer-long trip with his class to England to learn English.  Along with his friends Talimard, Picolet and Dupont, the class seems more interested in meeting girls and having fun than learning English.  Julien's attentions soon turn away from his English classes and to Janet, a local girl he meets in an arcade.  When she spurns him for Jean-Pierre, an older French boy, Julien too finds a physical attraction to this handsome boy.  Labeled as a queer and laughed at, Julien is at first unaffected by these hurtful remarks and yearns to spend more time with his new friend.  Jean-Pierre, however, is unaware of Julien's true feelings.

EDITORIAL REVIEW:  In the spirit of The Nature of Nicholas and You Are Not Alone comes this French film from 1977.  Although not quite as controversial as You Are Not Alone, Blue Jeans is a "groovy" flick with hints of strong acting (and a dash of weak acting), that tries to tell the story of "forbidden love" between two boys.  Julien (played by Gilles Budin), a handsome Parisian on a short trip to England, and Jean-Pierre (played by Michel Gibet), an older teenaged boy also visiting England for the summer.  Like his school friends, Talimard, played by Daniel Véry (who's plan is to "do it" with as many English girls as he can behind the sand dunes of Herne Bay), Picolet and Dupont (amongst many others), Julien isn't in England to learn English...he wants to meet new friends and chill on the beach.  Soon after arriving in England, Julien meets Janet in a local arcade.  The two quickly hit it off; going on dates, long walks on the beach; a match made in heaven.  That is until the strapping young lad Jean-Pierre comes into Janet's life.  But instead of competing for the love of Janet, Julien finds a strong attraction to Jean-Pierre and soon finds that he is competing with Janet for Jean-Pierre's affection.  Que the cat calls and insulting remarks from his smart-aleck "friends" who get a kick out of their friend being a little blonde fairy-boy.  What follows is a sensitive and sometimes sad look at what Julien goes through being "queer" and only 11-years-old.

It's not a bad film overall, Gilles Budin does a good job portraying Julien, and Daniel Véry (Talimard) is actually quite funny playing the "ladies man" who screws like a bunny and always has two girls on his arm.  Most of the young actors never acted again after this film, but Gilles Budin became a Set Dresser/Decorator for some lower budget French films through the 1990's.  The picture quality isn't the best (but it's not terrible either) and the subtitles are in white, so on some backgrounds they may be difficult to read.  It's a rare film with similar subject matter to The Nature of Nicholas, You Are Not Alone, Fire That Burns, etc., and you can't beat the price!

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STARRING: Gilles Budin, Michel Gibet, Daniel Véry, Thierry Dolon.
AVAILABILITY: In stock! Ships within one business day.
LENGTH: 77 minutes.
LANGUAGE: French / English, with ENGLISH SUBTITLES.
SPECIAL FEATURES: 1.33:1 (4:3 Full Screen); Mono sound; 1 disc; Chapter selection; Uncut.
VIEWER DISCRETION: Sexual innuendo, violence, coarse language.
PICTURE QUALITY: Good picture quality. (what's this mean?)
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: France / Portugal (1977).
ALSO KNOWN AS:  Blue jeans - Du beurre aux Allemands (France).
DATE ADDED TO OUR LIBRARY:  July 4, 2008.
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