asiamiles

Lewis Gilbert's soft-focus romance about two teens who run away from Paris and set up home together in the south of France left its mark on many of those who saw it at the right time, if only for 17-year-old-playing-14 Anicee Alvina's nude scenes; I saw this on ATV (now Central) on a weekday afternoon around 30 years ago, where such were obviously not all that common, though occasionally for some reason they were allowed to play...PERFECT FRIDAY is another example I recall.

An easy film to critique but that would be to ignore its charms which are slight yet considerable; it certainly wouldn't get made today but that's not necessarily saying things have moved on for the better. Brit Sean Bury retired from film a few years later while French Anicée Alvina went on to appear in several Euro-Cult oddities (most of which are next-to-impossible to see) and apparently front a rock band; sadly she died in 2006 which lends the film an added poignancy. Gilbert reuinted the two leads for a sequel PAUL AND MICHELLE (which I caught in the same time slot) three years later which also featured nudity suggesting its inclusion in the films was not so innocent but rather commercially motivated. Elton John wrote the score which was more successful than the film.

The barebones Japanese Region 2 DVD from Paramount is widescreen 16:9 and looks nice much of the time doing justice to the chocolate box cinematography though occasionally seemed smeary in darker areas of the screen. Comes housed in a nice textured slip case.

billy bentley

If anyone needs a copy of the soundtrack on vinyl, there appears to be a copy in every pile of used records in the USA. Even more copies than The Man Of LaMancha soundtrack.