A Little Romance

In Paris, thirteen-year-old Lauren, an American, meets Daniel, a French boy. Both are obsessed with cinema and neither can talk to anyone around them. An old man they meet in the street tells them a story: a couple who kiss under the Bridge of Sighs in Venice at sunset stay together forever. The children decide to go to Venice. The subject is not love but children needing a lie. The legend the old man tells is invented and he is not who he says he is; but giving them the story gives them a destination. The form is a road movie without period design; the Paris and Italy of the seventies are filmed as they were. Georges Delerue's score won the Oscar for best original score. George Roy Hill directs. Diane Lane entered cinema with this film at thirteen, chosen from among thousands of candidates. Laurence Olivier plays the old man, taking the part late in his career during the years when he accepted a great many films for financial reasons. Thelonious Bernard plays Daniel; he gave up acting afterwards. Who it is for: viewers who like the warm family films of the seventies and romance with child protagonists. Who it is not for: anyone wanting realism; the narrative runs as a fairy tale from beginning to end.