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The Pains of Growing up in Post War France

12/15/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"During the first fifteen years following the war, France was poor, desoriented, and lacking in that strong Gallic Spirit which they have shown before and after that miserable patch in their history.
Not knowing what direction to take, the young looked to the freer and more varied directions offered by American tastes. They becamed enamored of and bewildered by American Jazz, films, cars, electronics, dating styles, and our puzzling multicultural society.
Food and electronics were severely short in France at this time. A lot of this treasure trove was available at the US Army Personnel PX, and being taken there in a shopping spree was a magic trip through Vanity Fair for the much more restricted French.
Our young protagonist finds out much to his chagrin, that all that prosperity and generocity do not necessarily translate in happiness.
As the movie ends, we sense that our hearbroken seventeen year old will be all right at the end, as indeed, the whole of France did, after all pain of mourning and hunger were over."