Breezy (1973)

Spoiler Alert... I saw this movie years ago. Loved it enough to get the DVD. Hadn't watched it in several years. Got it out last night - and I had forgotten how much I enjoyed this movie. I am a sucker for "impossible" love stories - most of which don't end happily (The Remains of the Day, Brief Encounter, etc.) - so finally one that does! This film could have degenerated into something really awful, but Clint Eastwood as director kept it true and on course. With the exception of a couple corny "hip" terms used, like how Holden "dug" things about his ex (true to the era, but they age badly) - this is a well-made movie about how two wildly different people (age not withstanding)can find things in common emotionally. I love William Holden - he is a real actor, subtle but clear in how he creates this character. While I found Kay Lenz a little over the top sometimes, she evolved into the right foil for Holden.I know some are made uncomfortable by the love scenes, but Eastwood gave just enough for us to know what was happening without being graphic. Not sure some of the nudity from Lenz was necessary, but I can see how it showed us her free spirit and willingness to be open even when it might not be in her best interest (like Bruno, the guy who took her in but couldn't even remember her name the next morning...). I am glad this movie has received more accolades since it was first released. I recommend it for anyone who needs something a little bit more healthy and positive in a world of "Fifty Shades".

Bit of a difficult one this. Both to watch and review. It must also have been tricky to direct and although Eastwood gets away with this tale of the young girl and the older guy, it is touch and go at times. Eastwood had already directed Play Misty For Me but I understand he had his buddy and work chum Don Seigel on hand for that one and I'm guessing he was on his own here. Kay Lenz is good as the young hippy chick, quick to strip off and surprisingly quick to fall for the much older William Holden. Within the film it is mentioned he is twice her age but in reality it is more like three times and occasionally it shows fairly badly. Still, the tale is well written and if some of the actors struggle, even Lenz slipping up on lines a couple of times, this must be down to Eastwood and his inexperience. It is a very big call for a rookie director to take on something as difficult as this and overall manages to tell the tale well enough without causing us to fall over with laughter or call the police. Sensitive work reflecting that time when many a young girl slightly disillusioned with the hippy movement was tempted to make herself available to that well off older man - and maybe learn something in the process. At least we are not told that everything is sweet and light. Just about believable and rather sweet.

Breezy (1973)Never mind the Clint Eastwood penchant for having old men sleep with young women. This is a fairly nuanced story about exactly that problem—and it's a problem on one level or another when two people fall in love who are very different in age.It also helps that veteran, 54 year old actor William Holden pulls off a delicate, charming, perfectly grumpy performance as the older guy—someone with a beautiful house in the hills near Hollywood, but where he won't be found floating dead in the pool at the end, or the beginning. Yes, this is the Holden of "Sunset Blvd." It feels odd to remind people (some of you) about an actor who was once, briefly, both a screen idol and an box office success. His rocky career never quite reached its intended peak, but there are some really fine roles he took on with surprising ease and sincerity. This is one of them.The young woman in this case is Kay Lenz, a little known actress (19 at the time) with some television and a tiny part in "American Graffiti" under her belt before the director pulled her in for this role, which fits her like a glove. The very naive purity of the character is exactly what this actress seems to actually have in excess. When she meets Holden early in the film, they are exactly opposites—except that they are both deep down very kind. And so the differences become ways to learn and grow— especially for the old man, who doesn't quite get the hippie mentality for its better sides.The plot actually fits into a few clichés a little too easily, and overall it's a bit simple. The details around the couple—her friends and his—are tossed in like peanuts on the ice cream, and the movie is worse for it. Holden is meant to struggle with being, on the surface, a kind of child molester, but it is carried only in his face, not in the external conversations. (Luckily this is enough.) The utter naiveté of Lenz's girl, named Breezy, leaves us with less to do inside her head, which is too bad because she seems smart and street smart, both. There was more here by far than gets plumbed.Another aspect that makes this worth watching is the feeling of 1970 or so in the overall scenario. (The movie was filmed in 1972 but the hippies, and the clash of cultures, feels a couple years earlier.) Unlike some movies where the mis-en-scene feels timeless from this New Hollywood period ("Five Easy Pieces" perhaps), this movie is particularly dated, and that might be a good thing. It's so much about the era, and a product of it, that is drips with symbols from the time. It also drips with sappy folk-rock music for a soundtrack, which is a product of the time and of Eastwood's lifelong attempt to make music in his movies pull from "real music" including his own compositions. It's a distraction here.Despite all the gaffes and shortcomings, "Breezy" is really worth watching for all that works, especially the shimmering, contrasting main characters.

Some SpoilersA gentle film that really can make you forget for an hour the real world. It is not a dream or a fairy tale, but a well presented story, directed and acted with strenght and heart. I bought some DVD from years 1968 to 1975; unfortunately the Breezy one - I saw the film on TV maybe 25 years ago but always appreciated Eastwood works a lot - has only my native language subtitles and not the English one, so I saw it a few times to get the English dialogue better. Now I saw more clearly some little aspects of the story thanks to the multiple views . Breezy (Lenz) is a young girl who has no money, no real home and nothing except her guitar and positive attitude towards life. She meets by chance Frank (Holden), a 50 something divorced and sometimes angry man who is still in good shape, good looking, has a (beautiful) home, a work and a life. But has really Frank so many things ? He beds occasional lady friends, but no string, no commitments...Betty, one of the ladies, tells him she will marry and Frank is very surprised, because he realise that he gives nothing to them. He gives nothing to nobody. He is afraid and suspicious, especially of Breezy...who maybe wants money, food, a refuge. Breezy appears in his life each day for a week, for a reason or another; she makes him speak, she discusses with him, lead him to the ocean ...Frank becomes more accustomed to her and her ways, his defenses start falling down, piece by piece. It's well acted film, so the little moments are the most poignant...the kiss on the shore is unexpected and Frank can't believe it at first, then smiles, and he appears immediately younger and more alive. The fulcre of the central part is the moment Frank tells Breezy in the bathroom" you don't have to go away": his tone is sweet, soft, a little shy, too. He cannot do the first move, he lets Breezy start their fist night together because he wants to be sure she really wants him. Frank knows too well he is older (in my family, an uncle is 25 yrs older than his second wife, my husband is 4 younger than me, life is bizarre); the "morning after" when playing with their dog in the park he introduces the problem, but Brezy has a marvelous answer about the ageing and the absence of love. Somebody wrote the script is too perfect, too well constructed, but this is the quality of the film. The dialogs are always excellent. And the silences, the looks, are very intense. Breezy is not a vagabond, nor a ignorant girl... she comes from a not so poor background (the way she prepared the table for the dinner left uneaten, the refuse of drugs) so she had simply embraced a lifestyle that during the 70ies lots of young people tried to share..it were revolutionary years, and the establishment was not so ready to accept it. In fact Frank's friends comes from a upper middle class group who is very close and conservative, women do not work (all have the same pearls, it seems), no children around (strange, OK Frank having a teen daughter would have made his affair with Breezy more dirty, but there is a sense of sterility of bodies and minds... no ideas of birth control, does Eastwood suggest a baby in the coming year?), man fantasize about chasing young girls, but when Frank really does it they become envious. Frank and Breezy could hide in their love nest on the hills, but this will kill their flame very soon, they do not share sex only (the scene during the second night, when they disrobe in front of each other, never loosing eye contact, is a strong moment, they take joy and pleasure in the presence of the other, not only in the mere coupling), but since the beginning they shared their stories.... so they go out at dinner, at the movies, knowing well the society will see and judge them, and fears arise. Fear to be happy again, that's the real point of the whole film, Frank is too afraid or upset by what people think of him and so he does not talk a lot, he does not debate with friend Bob about his story, although he wants tell him, twice, there is something new and special in his life. Frank had declared Breezy his strong feelings for her but he pushes Breezy away in a bout of pure fear and feels suddenly the loss, the fireplace is full of flames which does not heat his soul, the beach is empty without her. Luckily for him, Betty 's car accident makes Frank reflect about his situation in a different way. If he had the nerve to start a relationship with Breezy, he can have the nerve to go on with it. And thankfully he tries