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A Masterpiece!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Two damaged individuals, a precocious twelve-year old girl (Patricia Gozzi) abandoned by her parents and orphaned to a convent and a shell-shocked 30-year-old war veteran suffering from amnesia and vertigo (Hardy Kruger), form a deep emotional bond that is misunderstood and greeted with hostility by others.While their relationship appears to be fraught with the possibility of tragedy, the two find in each other a place to retreat from their unbearable loneliness and loss. While the film is somewhat over-determined, it has a remarkable childlike quality and is performed with startling naturalness and honesty.

I loved this movie so much that my husband and I held our small wedding lunch at the Cabassud restaurant in Ville d'Avray, on one of the two lakes painted so often by Corot and featured prominently in the film. Several years later, when my daughter married, we held a much grander wedding party for her in the same place, attended by many members of the French film colony. It happened to be the evening of the annual Ville d'Avray festival, and quite unexpectedly a procession of people carrying torches appeared out of the night to march around the lake. The wedding was as magical as the film that inspired it. Sadly, I think the film has been mostly forgotten in the United States, but one that can inspire so much romance should be revisited.

It's taken me a long time to catch up with this outstanding film but it was well worth the wait and I am further indebted - if that is possible - to my good friend in France for making this available to me. The theme of two wounded birds attempting to heal each other is far from new, the theme of adult and child bonding whether sexual or otherwise is, if anything, even older so this movie had a lot to beat and to say it does so hands down is to underrate it. The phrase 'adult and child' evokes anything from Lolita to Le Papillon and everything in between but nothing comes even close to this uniquely beautiful film that is reminiscent in its complex simplicity of Au Hasard, Balthazar and equally unforgettable. The two leads are absolutely SUPERB - and Hardy Kruger is the last person I thought I'd ever say that about - and completely dominate the support, fine though it is. One of its strengths is the way in which Writing, Directing and Acting surmount easily the main stumbling blocks of coincidence and outrageous fortune; consider, what are the chances that one wounded bird (Kruger) would encounter another (Pozzi) at Exactly the right time for both their psyches to respond to the healing elixir in the other or, for that matter, that a father would more or less cheerfully abandon a daughter without either a second thought or a plausible reason and that a second man bearing no resemblance to the biological father would not face even the most basic interrogation when turning up, claiming to be the father, and be allowed to remove her from the care of the nuns Sunday after Sunday. Perhaps paedophilia was just a word in 1964 but whatever the Artists involved in this film, as I have already stated, make us completely forget practicalities/realism and draw us inexorably into THEIR world where the tragic end is equally inexorable. I cannot speak too highly of this magnificent film which I will watch again and again.

Hello to all the other lovers of this stupendously beautiful film, wherever you may be in the world. This is not a review as such, other than to say that "Sundays and Cybele" is without doubt the most exquisite, heartbreaking, sublime, delicate, moving and transcendental movie ever created. The purpose of this 'post' is to let you all know that, way down-under here in Melbourne, Australia, I am the fortunate owner of a 16mm cinemas-cope print of this absolute masterpiece. My email address is displayed above. You are welcome to email me personally. If there is ever a possibility that you could get to beautiful Melbourne, I would be proud and delighted to screen the film for you. I myself have resisted the temptation to acquire the film on video...that would seem only to trivialize it, by reducing it to the same size (& therefore stature) as television programs. It is a film to be enjoyed on the big screen and I am doubly fortunate, because there is a small cinema here in Melbourne, seating about 50, which I hire out on those occasions when I can't wait another day to see the film. At the present rate, I screen it about 4 or 5 times a year, sometimes just with myself and 1 other, sometimes with an invited audience of 15 or 20. If at any time any of you readers of this communication would like to take the trouble to journey to Melbourne, Australia, I would gladly run the movie for you, at no cost to you. When I meet you, I will also proudly show you Hardy Kruger's autograph to me, written on an original A4 size poster for the film, which, as a reckless teenager, I stole from its display case on the final day of its big screen season here in Melbourne (in 1964). 14 years later, in 1978, I was lucky enough to meet Hardy when he came to Australia to promote a film he made here ("Storm Boy"). And guess what he said to me when I unrolled the poster and asked if he would sign it? "Ah, my favorite film!!". I am like many of you...I have been haunted, inspired, intoxicated, transported in ecstasy, plunged into the deepest of despair by that extraordinary film ever since. It is an unforgettable encounter with great beauty. Let me know if you can come here to see it. We'll have a wonderful evening. Peter Byrne, Australia.