MovieChat Forums > Son of Rambow (2008) Discussion > The French kid..

The French kid..

posted 14 years ago by TonyLaMezma
7 replies | jump to latest

..If he'd have turned up to my old school looking like that, he certainly wouldn't have been idolised...

..he'd have got a proper twatting!

(Not that I'm condoning that kind of thing, mind....)

[–] xEbOnYKiSsEsx 14 years ago

Yes, but bearing in mind when the film is set, in the 80's, that type of thing was quite cool.

Give hugs not drugs

<3 One man can change his stars <3
TLO!

[–] TonyLaMezma 14 years ago

Hmm, not sure I agree with you; I was at school at the same time this movie was set (and probably around the same age as the protagonists) and a French kid wearing red patent pixie boots, lipstick and Marc Almond hair wouldn't have stood a chance :-)

But then again, that probably says more about the school I attended. It *was* a somewhat dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-fittest type place.....

[–] MystMoonstruck 14 years ago

What I like is that he really only wants to belong to a group. He had followers, but that's not what he wanted. Finding out about the film gave him a purpose, something to be involved in besides walking around trying to deal with being the stand-alone guy. I can see that he would want to be true with the look he had chosen. Think back: Many of us had our individual preferences and might not have always fit in. I certainly didn't though people liked me and didn't ostracize me. I think the French kid is cool, and I love this movie! I'm so glad that I got in on it late, realized what I might be missing, and found it on EPIX On Demand~for free!

It has a lot to do with assorted misfits fitting in to a greater plan. The little boy's secret journal gains him admiration and confidence when the others see what he has been doing. Sadly, the other boy doesn't seem to want the extended group, and I can understand that, too: not liking to share something special. It's sort of like finding a movie that is soooo special, but you feel as if you are the only one who knows about it, and it's like a secret treasure. Then, you find at least someone else, maybe sevearl others, who love(s) the movie, too. Then, there comes a time when the cult movie explodes into wider attention. Somehow, you might feel as if you've lost something. Is that making any sense? The movie has a lot going on in it, so it's too bad that a lot of people seem to hate it, refusing to watch all of it. I was in my 30s in the '80s, yet I can connect to this. Surely younger people will in time.

Pop Rocks and Coke! Now, that did made me LOL! (I think that's only the third time I've used "LOL".)

~~MystMoonstruck~~

[–] ExPresidents 13 years ago

A school full of troglodytes and jocks. Rad.

[–] Great_Gazoo 11 years ago

Are you kidding? Like it isn't okay now?

I'd wager far more boys wear skinny jeans, nail polish, and dyed hair now than in the 80s.

[–] Darth_Ferior 12 years ago

It depends what part of the country he'd have been in, I remember certain fashions differed from region to region. Some places he'd have been popular, others he'd have been beaten up.

[–] elliott-43 8 years ago

It's not so much that he wore magenta boots and other unisex clothes of the day, when most people are struggling to fit in (teenagers so obviously, adults more covertly), the cat who has the confidence to wear whatever makes she/he feel great, no matter how outrageous to the conformance-stuck social sphere, is a force to deal with. Of course people want to kick his butt; The inclination is to destroy the thing that threatens. But that's an insecure over-reaction to petty fears. In comparison, is it such a shock that the girlie boy becomes the hero that all the girls swoon for? But that doesn't make him a god either. His confidence and swagger is nothing more than that. His French friends see him for what he is; not a threat, but a bore.