Fanfan La Tulipe 1952

It was a surprise to see the movie has been masterfully colorized. The image quality is excellent considering it was filmed in 1952. Subtitles in English are also great. Watching this classic movie was a very pleasant experience. Read more

Fanfan la Tulipe is a wonderful story about a handsome rogue (Gerard Phillipe) who is told by a fortune teller (Gina Lollibrigida) that he will marry the daughter of the king. He engages in one swashbuckling escapade after another in his quest for the princess. He survives a "hanging," has swordfights galore and engages in a wonderful race to save the princess from a kidnapping--as good as any race in a US western. It is a wonderful satire about wars as fought in the time of Louis XV. I saw this movie when it first came out in 1953 or thereabouts and has always been one of my absolute favorite movies. But, decades passed without being able to see it, so I was delighted when it became available on DVDs, first in France and later in England. The Russian version, the only one listed on Amazon.com is a PAL version. I have not seen it, but the British version (also PAL) is listed on Amazon.com.uk and the cost of shipping to the US is reasonable. One needs a DVD player which can play PAL disks, and Phillips makes one (available from Amazon.com for under $60 incl. shipping) which can easily be programmed to play PAL as well as NTSC DVDs. (The instructions do not mention this, but various websites easily found with Google have it posted. Open the disk tray, and while it is open, use the remote to send (i.e., press) 7 8 9 press OK and then send 0. It will now play any DVD.) Since there are a number of good British movies which are available only on PAL, a player which plays both NTSC and PAL disks may be useful for those interested in British films. Gerard Phillipe, perfect in the role of Fanfan, may not be very well known to most people today, because he died not long after this movie was made. He and Jeanne Moreau were the stars of the original "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" directed by Roger Vadim which was very successfully re-made (twice) a decade ago--as Dangerous Liaisons and as Valmont The original (with English sub-titles) is available on VHS at Amazon.com. Read more

Good, action-packed film with one of France's greatest stage actors of the 1950s, Gérard Philipe, who also appeared in several notable films. Only wish there were some extras with the dvd, or at least some liner notes. Pretty basic package, but the film is entertaining. Read more