Una piccola storia d'amore

One of the finest movies I have ever seen. Let no one ever again say that intelligent movies can't be deeply moving, spiritual, and just plain fun.

I was utterly stupefied at the seamless way this movie exposes the spiritual landscape. I'm really at a loss to explain this movie in the normal way one speaks of theatrical productions; in terms of components, like writing, direction, acting, etc. This movie was marvelously "of a piece", which is very, very relaxing and refreshing. Analyzing it would feel like dissecting a living thing, which I won't do.

Just one of the gems: This movie makes perfectly plain the essential role of familial love for the full and timely flowering of romantic love. At a time when people are accused of ascribing to movies an inordinate responsibility for social conditions, this movie reminds you why it might be reasonable to do so. It can be fairly well depended upon to stand as a model for father-daughter love, true husbandry under difficult circumstances (a spiritually impoverished mother), and exploring your first love.

And there are lots and lots and lots of other gems in this movie. There's sweet chaos, Sir Laurence Olivier, an excellent balance of English and subtitled native speech, a truly fine and unaffected portrayal of European life, and on and on and on. SEE THIS MOVIE!

This movie is very special to me. I saw it with my first girlfriend. I thought, "Wow, they made a movie about me." This is a truly amazing movie. Sure there are contrivances but really the romantic angle works.

This movie has everything, philosopy, romance, adventure, love, discovery of self love and France. Who could ask for more. It has a wonderful cast. Diane Lane is absolutely wonderful. Sir Laurence Olivier is just fabulous. The rest of cast is a wonderful collection of oddballs and nuts that are done superbly.

There is no overt sex, no violence but the movie manages to do very well without those things. It makes you wonder why they can't make more movies like this anymore. It is a complete movie. Thankfully they did not make a sequel to this one. It stands on its own. The test of a good movie is that after it ends you care and wonder about the characters. This movie really makes you wonder what happened after the movie ends.

Did she write back? Did he find another love? Will they find true love? Very few movies I have seen ever made me wonder what happened after the end.

This movie seems to be about the problems of growing up smarter than everyone else, but it's a very complicated little movie. Everyone in this movie wants to be like the people in the movies, even though they fall far short. There is a brief cameo by Broderick Crawford at a wrap party. Crawford is not interested in art. He wants booze and broads. The director, who is romancing Diane Lane's mother, is a schlock director, but is flattered by people's belief he is an artist. Olivier plays an old man who pretends to be many things, but turns out to be a petty crook. As for the two young lovers who want to seal their love by kissing under the Bridge of Sighs in Venice as the church bells sound, they want to be Bogey and Bacall.

Well, didn't we all? Don't we all?

Forget what the naysayers might tell you, not all films about first love are teen softcore or sappy afterschool special! I still get a kick out of loaning this movie to friends and co-workers when they need something a little romantic. Sure, it's somewhat dated in places, but everything's here, including the excitement you feel for the two lead characters. Oh, and at risk of sounding like some pervert, I was only a tad older than Diane Lane was when I first saw this movie and I knew she was bound to be a knockout, that said, she still can act better than most and delivers a strong one here. That she can pull this off starring in a movie with Sir Larry says quite a lot if you ask me.

I've never been able to get this out of my head since its first release; it is one of the best films I've ever seen. I just looked at the DVD and was amazed at how many details I still remember from that first viewing 26 years ago. Gunfire-addled IMDb voters are dead wrong; this should be a 9+, but I guess it gets docked two points for having no explosions and only one shooting (with a blank pistol, which probably doesn't count).

The only "modern romances" in the same league are Richard Linklater's "Sunrise/Sunset" films, which I urge all fans of "A Little Romance" to see.

As fine as Diane Lane has been in recent films, I don't believe she's ever been as good as she is here, 13 years old and simultaneously fresh as new snow and polished as silver plate. She absolutely belonged on that TIME magazine cover. It's a miraculous performance which may owe more to director Hill than to Lane herself, but who cares? Just enjoy it...her interview feature on the DVD is excellent, by the way.

With the exception of "Marathon Man" and a couple of British TV plays, you can't find better late-period Olivier. He's simply delightful. If you are really perverse (like me), watch this and then compare with "The Boys from Brazil," a dreadful Olivier movie from the previous year, which should have qualified Sir Larry as the all-time champion "great actor working like hell while thigh-deep in pure crap." Here it's the exact opposite: the consummate old pro, totally relaxed, tossing off another memorable performance because he's in a terrific movie that he doesn't have to try and save. This is how I choose to remember the older Olivier. Another old pro, Broderick Crawford, damn near steals the movie in his too-brief cameos. He has a wonderful moment with Thelonious Bernard that will charm anyone who's dealt with an aging person's fading memory.

Arthur Hill, yet another reliable old guy, puts a nice turn on the #2 step-dad character. Who ever looked better in a business suit? The only truly unbelievable thing in the movie is that such a smart and understanding man would actually marry Sally Kellerman's vapid, starstruck mother character. Heavens, what a bitch. She doesn't deserve Arthur, and the scene in which he ejects equally vapid Potential Next Husband David Dukes from their lives is a classic of real-world, real man macho.

It's a real shame that Thelonious Bernard didn't have a film career, but if you can only star in one movie, this is a pretty damn good one for it. The iconic freeze-frame final shot of him leaping above traffic to wave goodbye is something one never forgets. It's like the alternate universe version of the last shot in "The 400 Blows."

One more thing: thank heavens there was no sequel.