BLUE DE VILLE
US, 1986, 96 minutes, Colour.
Jennifer Runyon, Kimberly Pistone, Mark Thomas Miller.
Directed by Jim Johnston.
Blue de Ville is an entertaining telemovie, designed as a pilot for a television series. The focus is on two young women, a rich society girl, her friend who is not so wealthy. They decide to go on the road in America, discovering life. As they go, they win a blue de Ville (the less aristocratic girl winning at arm-wrestling). They encounter many adventures on the American highway, encounter a man who seems to be in trouble, who helps them out - and they support him as he returns to the college which has expelled him. In the meantime, the rich girl's fiance catches up with them and there is a confrontation.
The film is episodic, draws the characters of the girls well, highlights the exhilaration of travelling America, as well as its dangers. It finally makes each girl confront her future and decide where her security lies.
Popular entertainment, better than expected.
1.Entertaining telemovie? Portrait of two young women? The American road? Pilot for television series?
2.American society, the city, the wealthy, college? On the road, the bars, the highways, the countryside, the towns and motels? An authentic picture of America? Musical score?
3.The title, the focus on the car and its status? A classic? The object of the gambling? The girls winning the car, their adventures in it, its being taken? A symbol of what they were trying to do?
4.The introduction to the two girls, their friendship, their circle of friends? J.C. and her wealth, her parents? The reception, the gifts for the wedding (and the useless and repetitious gifts)? Kevin and her love for him? Her friendship with Gus, Gus as down to earth? The temptation to go on the road, leave everything behind, run away? Spirit of adventure? Her motives for going?
5.J.C. and Gus on the road? Their age and experience? The dangers? In the car, hitching lifts? The characters encountered, the men, the police? In the bar, the yuppy toughs and their accosting the girls? The arm-wrestling - and Gus and her strength and power, winning the car? On the road with the car, the encounter with Rod Sanduski? Wariness, growing to understand him, friendship and support? His helping with the car - on the edge of the cliff? Losing the car? Meeting him again? Their staying in the motel, their having to make decisions? Kevin's arrival? Going to the college with Rod, confronting the dean? The farewell?
6.J.C. and her love of adventure, the experiences, Kevin, her finally deciding that she wanted to settle down? The contrast with Gus, her spirit of adventure, nothing to lose, staying on the road? The portrait of friendship between the two girls?
7.Rod Sanduski, on the highway, their being wary of him, giving him the lift, the knife? His helping with the car, sharing their experiences? Finding him again? His story? The dean's wife, the university and the confrontation, his being reinstated?
8.Kevin, his presumptions about J.C., her leaving him? His tracking her down, going to meet her, the confrontation, his chauvinist expectations, her resisting them? Her finally going back with him?
9.J.C's parents? Their support, surprise? Gus and her family, the relationship? Her wanting to find her father? The importance of the absent father? Tracking him down, finding him, the story about the relationship with his mother, saving her and in her pregnancy, going to Vietnam, the return? The emotional experience of finding her father?
10.The themes of the American road, the range of people met, ordinary people, the bars, the yuppies, motels, Gus's putative father? A piece of Americana?
