Dimanches de Ville d’Avray (les)

English title: Sundays and Cybèle

Also known as: Cybèle ou les Dimanches de Ville d’Avray

Genre: psychological drama (in black and white)

With: Hardy Krüger (Pierre), Patricia Gozzi (Cybèle/Françoise), Nicole Courcel (Madeleine), Daniel Ivernel (Carlos), André Oumansky (Bernard)

Director: Serge Bourguignon

Screenplay: Serge Bourguignon and Antoine Tudal (based on a novel by Bernard Eschassériaux); dialogues by Serge Bourguignon and Bernard Eschassériaux

Release: 1962

Studio: Fidès, Les Films Trocadero, Orsay Films, Terra Film Produktion

Rating: for all

MBiS score: 8.6/10 

 

Appearances Can Be Deceptive

 

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Story-line: a retired military pilot, still tormented by the death of a child during a bombing run two years earlier in French Indochina, finds solace when he meets a little girl who has come to Ville d'Avray for schooling.  

Pluses: great performances by Hardy Krüger and Nicole Courcel as the adult protagonists and young Patricia Gozzi as the utterly believable Cybèle, a well-developed and finely observed screenplay, excellent direction and production values, superb photography by Henri Decaë and a suitable musical score by the renowned Maurice Jarre.

Minuses: none whatsoever. This film didn't inspire me much when I read its brief synopsis in a movie guide but, once I got into it, I was astounded by its human interest, dark undertones and artistic merit.  

Comments: LES DIMANCHES DE VILLE D'AVRAY, a universal fable about friendship, people's needs and the struggles of life, reminded me of two classic novels, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's beloved The Little Prince (for its powerful symbolism) and John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men (for its treatment of an ambiguous and morally delicate situation). This perfect movie garnered the Foreign Film Oscar in 1963. For good reason, I might add.

 

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