A Little Romance (1979)

Based on the 1977 novel "E=mc² Mon Amour" by Patrick Cauvin, this is a delightful story of first love. The film is essentially an adolescent fantasy but a very endearing one. It is extremely sweet without being sappy, at least until the very end but that is to be expected under the circumstances. While the similarities are very superficial, the storyline was probably partially inspired by "Romeo and Juliet", which it mentions several times. Given the numerous references to Hollywood films throughout, I am certain that the lack of anything approaching gritty realism was a deliberate choice. It has a very strong script by Allan Burns and the direction of George Roy Hill makes excellent use of the fantastic locations offered by Paris, Verona and Venice. It also has a beautiful score by Georges Delerue, which deservedly won an Oscar.The film stars Diane Lane in a very impressive on-screen debut as Lauren King, a shy, lonely 13-year-old American girl who is living in Paris with her emotionally distant and often neglectful mother Kay and her stepfather Richard who loves her as if she were his own daughter. With an IQ of 167, Lauren is considerably more intelligent than most, which makes it difficult for her to relate to her peers, and spends her leisure time reading the poetry of Elizabeth Barrett Browning and the incredibly heavy philosophy of Martin Heidegger. She finds a kindred spirit in a streetwise French boy her own age named Daniel Michon, played very well by Thelonious Bernard. As with Lane, this was Bernard's first film but, unlike her, he did not pursue acting as a career, only appearing in one more film. Assuming that the information on the Internet is accurate, he is now a dentist in Nantes. It is a shame that this was his only major role as he is a very natural actor. While Lauren belongs to a wealthy family, Daniel lives in a very small flat with his father, a dishonest cabbie who scams American tourists and loses most of this money at the racetrack. While his IQ has never been tested, Daniel is likewise extremely intelligent and has developed a sophisticated system for betting on the horses, albeit in theory and not in practice. He is obsessed with Hollywood films, particularly those of his idol Robert Redford. Incidentally, two of the Redford films that he watches in the cinema are dubbed versions of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting", both of which just so happened to have been directed by George Roy Hill. Lauren and Daniel meet in the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte where a political thriller is being filmed by the pretentious hack George de Marco (whose first name was almost certainly as an in-joke!) As would happen in one of Daniel's beloved Hollywood films, the two of them fall in love instantly. The self-absorbed Kay, brilliantly played by the underrated Sally Kellerman, does not approve of Lauren's romance with Daniel on the basis that he is "a filthy French boy."In one of his final major roles, Laurence Olivier is absolutely wonderful as Jules Edmund Santorin, an eccentric but very kind elderly Frenchman who entrances Lauren with his romantic stories and tales of his colourful life. He tells them of a legend that says that lovers who kiss in a gondola under the Bridge of Sighs in Venice at sunset as the bells of St. Mark's Campanile toll will love each other for all eternity. On the basis of this legend, Lauren and Daniel decide to take a trip to Venice and recruit Jules as their mandatory adult companion, telling him that they are visiting Lauren's sick mother. However, things get a little complicated when Lauren's parents learn of the trip and the police assume that Jules has kidnapped the young couple. It turned out that Jules had not been entirely honest either. He had claimed to be France's former ambassador to Liechtenstein who rubbed elbows with the great and good throughout his diplomatic career when he was actually a pickpocket who had served numerous prison sentences over the years. Even his frequent references to his beloved late wife Emmaline were fabrications. Emmaline was based on an old girlfriend who would not wait for him while he was in prison and represents his ideal woman. As the lovable old rogue Jules, Olivier seems to be channeling Maurice Chevalier, who probably would have played the role if the film had been made 20 years earlier. Olivier had a flair for accents and tended to go slightly over the top with them at times. He certainly does so on occasion in this film but I thought that it fit in perfectly with both its tone and the mischievous, eccentric character that he was playing. He is never less than a delight in the film.The film has a strong supporting cast overall. Arthur Hill (no relation to the director) is great as Lauren's stepfather Richard, who is very supportive of her in a way that her mother has seemingly never been. In her only film appearance, Ashby Semple is a laugh riot as Lauren's "terminally dense" but sweet best friend Natalie Woodstein, who spends most of her time saying, "God!" in a shocked tone of voice. David Dukes is suitably sleazy as George de Marco, whom Kay intends to make her fourth husband. The flirting that goes on between them is so obvious that they might as well have taken out an ad in Le Figaro. In one of his final roles, Broderick Crawford has a very funny cameo as himself in which he sends up his well- known propensity for heavy drinking and cannot remember half of his films.Overall, this is an extremely sweet, enchanting, feel good film that left me with a massive grin on my face.

nice, touching, small picture of a meeting fruits, map for transformation of fiction in reality, it is, not exactly for its ages, ball of memories. its fragile beauty, its seductive locations, presence - as perfume drop - of Sir Laurence Olivier, the subject , all is good occasion to remember slices of past.like each not bad film, it is a fairy-tale. same rules, same characters, same end. only miracles are little different. but it is not a problem. because all is at perfect place.and pieces from Paris, Verona and Venice are tasty food for soul, like hot chocolate in a winter evening for body. music, performance, dialogs - innocent secrets in a musical box.enjoy it !

In Paris, teenagers (an American girl and a French boy) fall in love and befriend a shady old man. Lane is fine in her film debut as the sensitive child of a floozy of a mother (Kellerman) and an understanding stepfather (Hill). The characters and situations are rather clichéd but it is entertaining enough. While Lane parlayed this role into a long film career, Bernard (who plays the boy) retired after just two films. Olivier does little more than act pooped. The film doesn't really get going until the kids and Olivier embark on a journey to Venice. Director Hill vainly manages to insert clips of two of his films ("Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Sting").

A period of fifteen years separates two little-known films directed by George Roy Hill that deal with somewhat similar themes but with very different results. Each movie concerns the trials and tribulations of two teenagers, marital infidelity involving one of their parents and the influence of a highly eccentric adult on the lives of the children."The World of Henry Orient" (1964) shows Hill at his best. The young teenage girls are spunky, fun and interesting. The unfaithful mother of one of them is cold, calculating and a thoroughly disagreeable type. And the eccentric adult (in a wildly over the top performance by Peter Sellers as a wacky concert pianist) adds to the comic potential of the plot by trying his best to distance himself from the playfully stalking "groupie" girls. The film is a unique comedy, and thoroughly enjoyable to watch. Even in its most serious moments, it doesn't drag or take itself too seriously."A Little Romance" (1979) reveals Hill in a lesser light. Here the teenagers are presented as Romeo and Juliet wannabees----and while Diane Lane shines in her first film role-----her unpleasant French "Romeo" does much more than his share of excessive pouting and posturing. Lane's unfaithful mother is as unlikable as her predecessor in the earlier film. But here the eccentric adult (in another over the top performance---this time by an aged and hammy Laurence Olivier as a sort of Friar Laurence to the teenage Romeo and Juliet characters) makes the story much too maudlin and treacly by deeply involving himself in the young lovers' plight. Instead of looking for the comic potential of this story, Hill tries to make it a pure romance. The problem is that the teenagers are just unformed clay and not up to the romantic situation Hill places them in. The film takes itself very seriously, and accordingly seems out of balance at times.By 1979, Hill was apparently becoming inattentive to details and pacing. There are characters introduced into the story that add little to it (except for the wasted time they consume on the screen). And how can we explain a French movie house screening an American film with dubbed French spoken accompanied by English subtitles? Wouldn't it have made more sense for the English-speaking audience watching "A Little Romance" to see the American film with English spoken and French subtitles? Bottom line on "A Little Romance." See it to appreciate a very young Diane Lane at the beginning of her highly successful film career in a role that demonstrates why things turned out as they did for her. As for Hill, he did much better work in comedy than romance.