Breezy

I can't believe this movie was only graded 5.6/10 (as of today) !! Even though this will obviously remind you of Kubrick's "Lolita" (1962), Clint Eastwood makes an incredibly promising debut as a director. His style is already intact. The development is simple and yet subtle, the acting is great and the lead cast is absolutely adequate. I was really pleasantly surprised and I deeply regret not taping it given its unavailability for sale. Unfortunately, this is yet another gem lost in a sea of mediocrity.

One of Clint Eastwood's early yet still obscure directorial efforts, `Breezy' gently and charmingly explores the nature of wisdom, which can be present in the most unusual of people and the real meaning of happiness, which is usually found in the oddest and least-expected of places, usually when one is not looking for it.

Amid the smoldering cultural wreckage of the recently-ended 1960s with its nagging remnants of the shrill `don't trust anyone over 30' crowd and the seemingly still-unbridgeable `generation gap,' the odd and quirky relationship between the youthful, Ophelia-like Edith Alice `Breezy' Breezerman (Lenz) and the middle-aged Frank Harmon (Holden) successfully and simultaneously reveals several very simple but still frequently-ignored truths; that shrewdness and insight are not necessarily the sole province of the `aged' and that a carefree, happy spontaneity isn't and shouldn't be automatically restricted to the `young.' And, more subtly, we also are quietly reminded that neither wisdom nor happiness can realistically exist isolated from one another and that the bitter memories of our own respective pasts can often tragically prevent us from getting what we truly need the most.

Like the Italian neo-realist director Sergio Leone under which Eastwood successfully toiled in the 1960s, the personalities of the film's characters are deliberately and slowly intensified but not over-presented or stereotyped, which adds to the power, insight and poignancy of this understated and well-produced film.

Clint Eastwood's 2nd directorial effort is a gentle, pleasant surprise that probably will evoke a completely different reaction if one were to observe a strict adherence to societal norms. A 50 plus well-to-do business guy with a 19-year-old hippie drifter? Not necessarily uncommon but in this film the girl's not in it for the money and the guy's not in it for the sex. They genuinely love and cherish each other, and strangely, this is the element of controversy.

William Holden plays Frank, a cynical divorced real estate broker who lives by himself with only a series of uncommitted relationships for companionship and a mental rulebook that precludes serious involvement. He is likewise surrounded by like-minded cynics that all want for something they have long since given up on . . . youth. Not so much in chronological terms, but more in attitude and that sense of wonder about life. Breezy is the very embodiment of that sense of wonder, and despite her 19 years, possesses a wisdom that cuts through the cynical disillusionment of Frank, who unlike what you'd expect, never makes a sexual advance toward the younger girl, even though she's very attractive and probably willing. For her part, Breezy recognized the sensitive soul that Frank has taken pains to suppress and confounds his suspicions by giving of herself to him without asking for anything in return. When he eventually gives in to his feelings, the age difference becomes irrelevant, but Breezy and Frank do not exist in a vacuum and the outside world eventually fills his head with doubt. His best friend, while being envious of the "zing " Breezy has put into Frank's life, laments thus: "Why should a young girl like that love an old fart like me? I'd be a meal ticket for her and nothing more." And even if it could be more, "where could I go with her without feeling like a child molester?" And so Frank smolders in a crisis of perception that already had been countered by Breezy in an earlier scene. "Is that how it is Frankie? Do you start believing what you see in the mirror and forget about what you feel inside? Do you stop feeling because the outside of you makes it seem foolish? Does becoming older mean feeling foolish? What's there to look forward to if you can't go on loving and being loved?" Surely this bit of wisdom transcends any distance of years between two people.

William Holden is always a good reason to watch a film. I thought he was wonderful in this. And even though his face looked much older, his body certainly did not!!Nice!! He gave a terrific performance and was very cute in the cotton candy scene and when he was rolling up her sleeves(love that scene and dialogue). Kay Lenz was so natural and I thought their relationship was very believable. It's always nice to see a heart open up and let the happiness take over. No matter what your age, or differences. This is such a nice quiet movie and it really stays with me for days after watching it. Can't wait to buy it and watch it anytime.

I don't think many people saw this film on its first release, but I did. I was about the same age as Kay Lenz (Breezy) and it was long before I considered William Holden (frank) my favorite actor. I enjoyed the film for its joyful spirit as personified by Breezy.

This is a great love story. It deals with the nature of love, unbounded by conventions or expectations. As such, it also embodies the generally understood essence of the (California) flower child movement. Free love. If you love something, set it free...

This film has a lot to say about aging and the maintenance of dreams, the preservation of youthfulness. As such, it is inspirational. Another film that deals with this subject is "Harold and Maude".

Watching this film again took me back to the early seventies. Kay and I are now in our late sixties, but the message still resonates. Like the wonderful "Breezy's Song" by Marilyn and Alan Bergman, and Michel Legrand. I bet many people would never guess the film was directed by Clint Eastwood, if they didn't know.