I love you, je t'aime

We were the first family in our neighborhood to have a VCR. The first movie I can remember watching was A Little Romance!! Can you imagine being a 5 year old girl and seeing Europe for the first time through the eyes of these two beautiful teen agers. Seeing true LOVE for the first time in such a genuine, honest story! I was overwhelmed by the beauty of it all. I LOVE this movie! I have watched it many times in my life, at various ages. I have shared it with friends and family and watched with some odd sort of pride as they too fell in love with the story and its characters. Such a whirlwind story. Never a dull moment. And can I just say that the soundtrack is incredible!!!

I still own our original VHS tape. It came encased in plastic inside a large cardboard, front-opening box. It has traveled with me, moved with me countless times, been watched repeatedly, and probably even cried on. But, like the true love it represents, it has withstood the test of time. However, last Spring, my own sweet, wonderful boyfriend did buy me the DVD, "for when your copy goes to that big VCR in the sky". (what a keeper he is)

I cannot express the depth of emotions this movie triggers in me. And I can't explain how I managed to cling to the belief that love, can indeed be as simple and beautiful as the characters portray. But I can say that it has been my quest "to kiss under the bridge of sighs, at sunset, while the bells toll". It has become a dream to be fulfilled. Summer of 2005, my boyfriend and I will be in Europe. And we WILL visit Venice. And we WILL take that gondola ride. And as the incomparable Sir Laurence Olivier says in the movie " What are legends anyways, but stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.....Something that two people who are in love create together, against impossible odds, CAN hold them together...forever!"

We believe the legend is real!!!!

This overlooked gem simply sparkles. Diane Lane plays a 13-year old American girl living in Paris with her mother and stepfather. She falls in love with Thelonius Bernard, a 13-year old French boy obsessed with American movies. When it is revealed that Lane's family will be moving back to the U.S., the two hatch a plot to flee to Italy to kiss under the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, feeling this act will seal their love forever. Assisted by Sir Lawrence Olivier, the two bright teens fulfil their mission.

The great part about this film is that the love between Lane and Bernard is treated sensitively and without sentimentality or condescension. Lane and Bernard are in love and know they are meant for each other. Their intelligence about their love is in sharp contrast to the indifference or foolishness of most of the adult characters in the film who dictate their daily lives. The film's score is truly beautiful, utilizing Handel's Largo as it's main theme. There's a sweet vibe running throughout this film that makes it very special indeed. A great movie for a Sunday afternoon. Highly recommended.

Smashing romantic comedy-drama about two youngsters in love. A movie-loving French boy and the daughter of Americans working abroad meet and eventually run away from Paris to Venice to seal their love within the bonds of a legend--never suspecting the romantic story they've been told is a tall one, thought up by a wily pickpocket (Laurence Olivier, hammy but not overdoing it) who ends up acting as their guardian. Herky-jerky continuity and a too-heavy police interrogation sequence do not mar otherwise lovely and funny film with a beautiful score by Georges Delerue (which deservedly won an Oscar). Diane Lane, in her debut, is a wise little princess with understanding eyes and a husky, charming voice. *** from ****

The wonder of Laurence Olivier was his flexibility. From Shakespeare to the light & fluffy he was not too proud and that he enjoyed his profession so is shown in all his last works. This film is one of the latter and it may delight you with its humour and insight. A story set in Paris(sigh) of two adolescents from very different backgrounds and their budding romance in this the city of love. Which raises a good question mr director, why go to Venice when you could have done it all here the most romantic place in the world. But I digress. Lauren(Diane Lane) & Daniel(Thelonius Bernard) are the leads. Two youngsters with very high IQ's, they both read Heidegger & Nitsche for kicks, and who are surrounded by incompetent adults led by Daniel's dad, a parisien taxi driver with questionable ethics and Laurens mum Kay( Sally Kellerman playing a snobbish ex-patriot socialite) who balks at the thought of returning to the states-"goddam Houston".There is also a fine supporting cast of David Dukes playing George, a very avant-garde film director(so he says) and to Kay a potential husband number three, and Arthur Hill playing the kindly stepfather Richard. Broderick Crawford also makes a cameo appearance as himself, sadly one of his last. Olivier makes his entrance as the comical old gentleman with a mysterious past who used to live at the Browning's Villa in Venice and who befriends the two youngsters regaling them with a romantic tale of eternal love which can only be sealed with a kiss in a gondola under the bridge of sighs in Venice.Enough said.

Director Hill directs against type here but imbues his story with some wonderful vignettes. When Daniel's friend Londet sneaks them in to watch a blue movie Laurens reaction is a typically adolescent, morbid curiousity followed by revulsion and then a pert clinical summary.As if to say this aint that kind of a movie folks. Interestingly the two teenage leads found the eventual physical contact an embarrasing experience for all and had to be firmly encouraged by the director.There is a hint of their discomfort on screen but only for a moment. Love conquers all(sigh). Oliviers humourous performance transfixes when he almost gags on his croissant when seeing his criminal identikit photo in the newspaper. Hill also finds time to place excerpts from previous movies into his latest film,but aptly so. Albeit all in a foreign language. I also loved the photography and the landscape, I dont remember Italy being this lovely. The performances by all are very affecting although Lane did go on to bigger though not always better things. Bernard with his gallic good looks and despite passable reviews was never heard from again. Olivier sadly has passed on and will be missed by all for a long time to come.The ending was predictable but touching all the same.It never won any awards but twenty years later it remains one of my firm favourites for love story of the decade.

This movie seems to be about the problems of growing up smarter than everyone else, but it's a very complicated little movie. Everyone in this movie wants to be like the people in the movies, even though they fall far short. There is a brief cameo by Broderick Crawford at a wrap party. Crawford is not interested in art. He wants booze and broads. The director, who is romancing Diane Lane's mother, is a schlock director, but is flattered by people's belief he is an artist. Olivier plays an old man who pretends to be many things, but turns out to be a petty crook. As for the two young lovers who want to seal their love by kissing under the Bridge of Sighs in Venice as the church bells sound, they want to be Bogey and Bacall.

Well, didn't we all? Don't we all?