Une certaine rencontre

Watching this film today, it's easy to forget how daring it was for its day (1963) -focusing on an illegal abortion.

It's also an fascinating mix of conventional romantic comedy mixed with real grit and passion - and the fact it starts off as unconventional as possible; girl meets boy, girl gets pregnant, girl and boy try to organise an abortion - and THEN girl and boy fall in love.

Natalie Wood was often miscast throughout her career - her dark beauty was used to try and pull of Nat as Hispanic, Nat as half-black, Nat as Mexican. In this film she's cast as Italian, and pulls it off perfectly. This could possibly be her greatest performance (alongside Splendor in the Grass and The Cracker Factory). She received an Academy Award nomination for this film. She gives such a natural performance (usually she's more self-conscious on film) - she is such a joy to watch and absolutely stunning.

Steve McQueen is at his most charming - usually he is playing the hero of an action film, so its great to see him display tenderness. Wood and McQueen have such great chemistry, its a shame this was their only film together.

Added to the mega-watt performances is the beautiful black and white cinematography and the NYC location shooting. A great film. Completely underrated.

This has always been one of my absolute favorite movies! Steve McQueen and Natalie Wood were perfectly suited for each other. She played brave Angie Rossini wonderfully - trying so hard to break away from her protective Italian-American family, trying to be strong and capable in the face of such a difficult situation, trying not to show how scared she really is.

But Steve McQueen is the real sweet part of this couple. He is corrupt and funny and unsuspectedly tender and responsible and caring. It should be noted for the fact that it marked his departure from the anti-hero roles that he specialized in (and excelled in). This wasn't an action movie but it was one of Steve's absolute best performances. She was nominated for an Academy Award and deservedly so but he was overlooked and that is criminal!

Can you tell that I love this movie?? Well, I do!

I really like this film. It's exciting to watch these two wonderful talented actors working together. "Love With the Proper Stranger" is always a favorite and I'm irresistibly hooked on repeated viewing.

Natalie Wood is the feisty young working woman struggling for her chance to be independent, to live away from the family (attached Italian parents and brothers in NYC setting) and be on her own terms. Steve McQueen is the center of opposite attraction: the problem and the goal. He is a union musician who is trying to be financially independent; he also has close family ties with both endearing mother and father. Edie Adams is in a supporting role as McQueen's girl friend with an apartment to lean on. Tom Bosley is the kind and good-hearted suitor that Wood's character's family approves. It's a heart-warming, very much a 60's love story that touches on the tough subject of abortion, yet brims with humor, drama and affectionate smiles.

Shot in black and white; music by Elmer Bernstein, with the theme song sung by Jack Jones; produced by Alan J. Pakula; the film is keen and sensitively directed by Robert Mulligan. His films include the award winning 1962 "To Kill A Mockingbird"; the intriguingly haunting 1972 "The Other"; an unforgettably fun 1961 "Come September" with Gina Lollobrigida & Rock Hudson, Sandra Dee & Bobby Darin in Italy; the 1971 classic coming of age film "The Summer of '42" with lovely Jennifer O'Neill; and another poignant coming of age story from a girl's point of view in 1991 "The Man In the Moon", with Reese Witherspoon in her impressive film debut.

This film has always struck me as Natalie Wood and Steve

McQueen's best work in movies. Both would go on to successes

and failures, but neither would seem as natural and as unaffected

on screen again.

The story of a good working-class Italian girl in New York who gets

pregnant by a man she hardly knows, is very strong stuff for 1963.

So is their decision to have an abortion. Roe vs. Wade was nearly

a decade in the future. Mulligan shows a very gritty, dirty, New York

which has emerged from the 50s as a crumbling relic of a city,

nowhere as clean and shiny as it is today. McQueen is a callow

young musician, not looking to settle down with anyone, let alone a

single pregnant girl, even if he is at fault.

The trip to a bad neighborhood to get the abortion is chilling, and

Wood's absolute terror is genuine here. McQueen being

reluctantly honorable is very sexy here. The rest of the film with her

facing down her overly protective Neanderthal brothers and getting

her own apartment, follows the young lovers as they try to do the

right thing. Steve's poster--"Better wed than Dead," is a sweet

coda.

I loved this movie. It struck this teenager at the time, as a very

sophisticated film. Natalie Wood is incandescently beautiful in

black and white and still the loner, McQueen's intensity is a bit

more subtle than usual. Good supporting cast. This was an era

where the final black and white movies were being made--TO KILL

A MOCKING BIRD, BIRD MAN OF ALCATRAZ, THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY, PSYCHO were the last gasp of this

medium.

Long overdue for DVD release.

This movie is heightened by the fact that Natalie Wood and Steve McQueen are the stars. They have enough acting talent and chemistry together to make it work. The subject matter probably made this controversial in the sixties but the movie doesn't seem old in a stupid way. The supporting cast is good too - Hershel Bernardi, especially, as Natalie's overly-possessive brother.