a little romance

Director: george roy hill

Actor: laurence olivier,diane lane,thelonious bernard,arthur hill

Data Published: Fri Apr 27 1979

Genres: Adventure,Comedy,Romance

Key Words: foreign language adaptation,field trip,paris france,first love,based on novel

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079477/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Little_Romance

Description: A Little Romance is a movie starring Laurence Olivier, Diane Lane, and Thelonious Bernard. This 1979 romantic tale captures a young Diane Lane in her screen debut as an American teenager living in Paris, who meets and falls in love...

Plot: Lauren King (Diane Lane) is a highly "book-smart" and affluent 13-year-old American girl living in Paris with her mother (Sally Kellerman), who works in the movie business, and stepfather (Arthur Hill). Daniel Michon (Thelonious Bernard) is a "street-smart" 13-year-old French boy who also lives in Paris with his father, a taxi driver. The two meet in the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, where a movie Lauren's mother is working on is being filmed and where Daniel is taking a school trip, and fall in love. Lauren's mother fiercely objects to the romance. Daniel punches George, a sleazy friend of Lauren's mother, at Lauren's birthday party for making a crude innuendo about Lauren, and the two are forbidden to date. Lauren and Daniel soon meet Julius Santorin (Laurence Olivier), a quirky but kind elderly man, literally by accident. Daniel is unimpressed by him, but he fascinates Lauren with stories of his life, telling of a tradition that if a couple kiss in a gondola beneath the Bridge of Sighs in Venice at sunset while the church bells toll, they will be in love forever. Told her family will be returning to America soon, Lauren hatches a plan to travel to Venice with Daniel. Though they have money from a horse race (in which Julius fortuitously changes Daniel's bet to the winning horse), they cannot cross the border without an adult. With the help of Julius, to whom they claim they're visiting Lauren's sick mother, the three travel by train but miss their connection to Verona after Julius gets into a conversation during the stop at the Italian border. In the meantime, Lauren's family spark an international investigation, believing she has been abducted. They hitch a ride with an American couple from Columbus, Ohio, Bob and Janet Duryea (Andrew Duncan and Claudette Sutherland), who are touring Italy by car and also traveling to Venice. In Verona, the travelers go out to dinner together, where Bob Duryea discovers that his wallet has been stolen. Even though their winnings from the horse race were left on the train in Julius's vest, Julius offers to pay the bill with cash, perplexing Lauren and irritating Daniel, who suspects he stole it. The following morning at breakfast, the Duryeas notice Lauren's picture in an Italian newspaper, revealing her as a missing child. Julius has also seen the paper and intercepts Lauren and Daniel on their way back to the hotel, angry that Lauren lied to him about their true reason for going to Venice and that everyone will think he's a kidnapper. Because they can no longer go back to the hotel, they join a local bicycle race to escape Verona. Julius soon falls behind and Lauren persuades Daniel to go back for him. They find his bike abandoned and him collapsed from exhaustion. Daniel worms his background out of Julius, who also confesses that he both picked Bob's pocket and stole the money for their train tickets, disappointing Lauren. Lauren then reveals that she will be moving back to the United States permanently in two weeks. She wanted to take a gondola to the Bridge of Sighs and kiss Daniel so as they could love each other forever. She berates Julius by dismissing all his stories as lies. Julius admits he lied about some things but insists the legend is not a lie. Daniel decides he still wants to go to Venice with Lauren, and Julius joins them. In Venice, they spend the night in St. Mark's Basilica, sleeping in the confessionals, until a chance meeting with the Duryeas sets them on the run again hours before sunset. Julius hides them in a movie theater and gives them his remaining cash, promising to return a half-hour before sunset. As soon as they are inside, however, Julius turns himself in to police searching for them; despite being slapped around by an inspector, he refuses to reveal Lauren and Daniel's whereabouts. The two children asleep during the film and awake with just a few minutes remaining. Not knowing where Julius has gone and with so little time, Lauren and Daniel run to find a gondola, most of which are booked by tourists eager to see the sunset from the canals. They finally find an available gondola whose gondolier quotes a fare that is 3,000 liras more than Julius gave them. Daniel manages to cajole the gondolier into accepting what they have. The gondolier takes them within sight of the bridge but refuses to go further just as sunset arrives. Daniel pushes him into the canal and, as the bells of the Campanile church begin chiming, the two pull the gondola toward the bridge hand over hand using the pilings; this successfully enables the gondola to glide under the bridge. While the bells are still pealing, Lauren and Daniel kiss and embrace. In the police station, Julius finally reveals the two children's whereabouts. A few days later, Lauren is back with both her mother and stepfather, preparing to leave for home. As she starts to enter the car, Lauren notices Daniel across the street, waiting to say goodbye to her. Her mother starts to object, but her stepfather tells Lauren to go ahead, charmed with the boy who punched the man who brazenly flirted with his wife, defending the honor of her daughter. She and Daniel share a final kiss, pledging not to become "like everybody else." Julius is sitting on a nearby bench, and Lauren bids him a tearful farewell. She runs back to the car, and Daniel follows it as it leaves, him and Lauren waving at each other.