Sundays and Cybele

Pierre came back from the Indochina War with memory loss and trauma; he does not remember his past and speaks like a child. One day at the station he sees a twelve-year-old girl being left at a boarding school by her father. Her name is Cybèle and nobody comes to visit her. Pierre starts collecting her every Sunday; they walk in the park, sit by the lake, and build a world between them. The town notices the relationship and makes its own reading of it. Serge Bourguignon's film is about how the bond between two lonely people is read by those around them. The narrative is deliberately ambiguous; Pierre's intentions are innocent, but some of the film's images carry a closeness uncomfortable to present-day eyes. Hardy Krüger plays Pierre and Patricia Gozzi plays Cybèle. The film won the Oscar for best foreign language film in 1963. Who it's for: Viewers who like 1960s French cinema, black-and-white cinematography, and narratives about loneliness. Who it's not for: The relationship between an adult man and a child is uncomfortable by present-day measure, and the film deliberately leaves that reading open. The ending is also harsh.