Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 30, 1994 TAG: 9408200006
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Though the filmmakers attempted to be true to the spirit of the work, they took some cinematic shortcuts and seem not to have been completely comfortable with the Shenandoah setting or the time - 1955.
From beginning to end, this is paint-by-numbers nostalgia.
Phillippe Le Clerc (Marco Hofschneider) is 18 years old when he leaves France to spend a semester at Asheland-Stuart University. Though he's innocent in almost every sense of the word, he's enthusiastic and enamored of all things American. In short order, he becomes pals with Cal (Rick Johnson), the Golden Boy quarterback. He also falls hard for April (Robin Givens), a maid who works for his favorite English teacher (Jack Coleman), and a star-crossed interracial romance ensues.
Among the other key elements are the music of Howlin' Wolf (Charles S. Dutton) and Sonny Boy Williamson (Hinton Battle), a reading by William Faulkner (John Habberton) and the poetry of Lord Byron.
The two leads are certainly attractive enough. Hofschneider has James-Dean looks, and Robin Givens does about as well as anyone could with a relatively thin role.
The opening is slow and clumsy, and in the second half, the time sequence of the events becomes confused. But the real problem is the filmmakers' lack of any real experience with the material. First-time director Eva Sereny is Hungarian-born and English-educated. Writer Menno Meyjes is Dutch. Producer Mark Lombardo is an American who has lived in Europe since 1975.
So, even though the screen is filled with old cars and girls in long skirts and round-collared blouses, there's never any real evocation of the period. The people behind the camera may know about the 1950s, but they don't know the 1950s. And they certainly don't capture Phillippe Labro's fresh insights on post-war Virginia.
Foreign Student *1/2
A Gramercy release playing at the The Grandin Theatre. 99 min. Rated R for strong language, sexual content.
by CNB