{"id":1978,"date":"2024-08-05T15:04:18","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T15:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=1978"},"modified":"2024-10-14T13:42:18","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:42:18","slug":"1978","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/05\/1978\/","title":{"rendered":"A Little Romance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A Little Romance <\/strong>(1979)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 110 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (brief language, mature themes, teen drinking)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: George Roy Hill\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Allan Burns\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Georges Delerue\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Pierre-William Glenn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 27, 1979 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Laurence Olivier, Diane Lane, Thelonious Bernard, Arthur Hill, Sally Kellerman, David Dukes, Broderick Crawford, Graham Fletcher-Cook, Ashby Semple, Claude Brosset, Jacques Maury, Andrew Duncan, Claudette Sutherland.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0I fell in love with A Little Romance <\/strong>at first sight. I knew I would before I even laid eyes on a single frame of it. Sadly, that didn\u2019t happen until about six years after it came out. It played exclusively at the Ritz 3, the premiere arthouse theater in Philadelphia. My parents were the types who didn\u2019t see the point in going to the dangerous city for a movie. In Dad\u2019s words, \u201cIt\u2019ll be around.\u201d He was wrong. It never made it to the suburbs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I finally saw A Little Romance <\/strong>on cable in early \u201985 and was instantly enthralled with its story of young love in France. It\u2019s about the kind of love that can only be had by those experiencing it for the first time. It\u2019s that kind of love that develops between a French boy named Daniel (Bernard) and an American girl named Lauren (Lane, The Outsiders), two intelligent 13YOs from different economic backgrounds who have their meet-cute on the set of a movie being filmed at the French manor where Daniel is on a field trip with his class. Lauren\u2019s mother (Kellerman, M*A*S*H), who works closely with the film\u2019s director (Dukes, The First Deadly Sin), brought her daughter to work that day. She\u2019s hiding in a corner reading a book on metaphysics when Daniel first spots her.<\/p>\n

After a few little complications, Daniel and Lauren begin a romance. It\u2019s a cute little romance that doesn\u2019t go any farther than hand-holding and an innocent kiss. A big complication arises when the girl\u2019s mother informs her they\u2019re moving back to the US. They respond like any lovesick teens, they run away together. Their goal is to reach Venice so they can kiss under the Bridge of Sighs at sunset when the church bells toll.\u00a0 According to a legend by Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, two lovers that do this will love one another forever. They\u2019re helped in their mission by their new friend Julius (Olivier, Hamlet), an elderly man who enthralls Lauren with stories about his life. Of course, Lauren’s affluent parents are convinced she’s been kidnapped and have the police out looking for them. This leads to some hilarious complications as they try to dodge the authorities and accomplish their goal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), A Little Romance <\/strong>is one of the sweetest movies I’ve ever seen about teen romance. For one thing, it doesn\u2019t confuse romance with sex. It isn\u2019t centered on teens looking to lose their virginity. It\u2019s not even remotely concerned with that. Although each in their own way is intelligent, Daniel and Lauren are na\u00efve about certain matters. They\u2019re only 13, for heaven\u2019s sake! Sex comes up a couple of times like when Lauren and her crazy friend Natalie (Semple) briefly discuss \u201cdoing it\u201d and Daniel\u2019s friend Londet (Cook, Absolute Beginners) sneaks the young couple into a porno movie (nothing is shown).<\/p>\n

\u00a0ANYWAY, Daniel and Lauren are interesting, intelligent characters. Daniel spends his days at the cinema watching American movies. In one scene, he reminds actor Broderick Crawford (playing himself) of a movie he was in even though the actor can\u2019t even remember making it. Lauren is smart and sensitive. \u00a0She takes a genuine liking to the kind, lonely old man with a questionable past. What\u2019s amazing about these kids is they\u2019re capable of holding intelligent, mature conversations unlike the actual adults around them who behave childishly. Lauren\u2019s mom is having an affair with the director right under the nose of husband number three (Hill, The Killer Elite). Daniel\u2019s father (Brosset) drives a taxi and takes great delight in cheating American passengers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0There is genuine chemistry between Bernard and Lane. You actually believe they\u2019re in love with each other. Faking something like their characters\u2019 have isn\u2019t easy; it eludes a lot of young actors. In his only major acting role, Bernard is terrific as street smart Daniel. He\u2019s a natural. Whatever became of him? Lane makes a startling debut as Lauren. It\u2019s easy to see why her career continued into adulthood. Olivier is similarly great as Julius, a man who might not be all that he claims. It\u2019s great to see the respected actor lighten up and have fun with a role.<\/p>\n

\u00a0As deeply heartfelt as A Little Romance <\/strong>is, it\u2019s also a beautiful movie. Hill makes excellent use of the European locations in France and Italy. He makes Paris and Venice look like the most romantic cities in the world. Some would argue that they are. The score by Georges Delerue is great too. He makes especially nice use of the Vivaldi piece \u201cGuitar Concerto in D Major, 2nd<\/sup> Movement\u201d. It gives me chills every time I hear it. It\u2019s astonishing that Hill made such a sweet, innocent movie immediately after the super-profane hockey comedy Slap Shot. It\u2019s a testament to his versatility as a filmmaker. He was truly remarkable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I can’t think of a single thing wrong with A Little Romance. <\/strong>I love everything about it.\u00a0It’s delightful, funny, charming and touching at the right moments. It\u2019s the kind of movie I enjoy watching with somebody I love; it’s ideal for a date night at home. It\u2019s just a nice little movie for the young romantic in us all.<\/p>\n

TRIVIA TIDBIT: Daniel watches two of Hill’s movies, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting, in the local cinema. I guess it was easy negotiating the rights on those two titles.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Little Romance (1979)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Comedy-Drama\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 110 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (brief language, mature themes, teen drinking)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: George Roy Hill\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Allan Burns\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Georges Delerue\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Pierre-William Glenn\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 27, 1979 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Laurence Olivier, Diane Lane, Thelonious Bernard, Arthur Hill, Sally Kellerman, David Dukes, Broderick Crawford, Graham Fletcher-Cook, Ashby Semple, Claude […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hidden-treasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/A-Little-Romance-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1978"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2774,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1978\/revisions\/2774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}