Friends (1971)

Simply Perfect

As Good As It Gets

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

I saw the movie "Friends" in the spring of 1971 in Indianapolis. A local radio station gave away free tickets ( I think) and thought what the hell. The early seventies in Indy were kind of like the late sixties on the west coast so we were kind of going thru our hippie/love stage which was more a state of mind than anything else. Anyway the movie was appropriate for the times and I was pleasantly surprised how it just seemed to feel right at the time. Have not seen it since but can remember it like it was yesterday...that was more than 41 years ago!! Hopefully it will show up on the tube on some oldies station late a night and make me feel young again. A great low-budget movie that was right for the time. The title song and soundtrack was Elton John at his best!!!

Rating this flick 10 out 10 makes me a person that grew up in the sixties.A flower child,and someone like Paul and Michelle just knew that the real importance in life,was to live and to live was to love. I was 18 years old back then,and although I'm from a big city(São Paulo/Brazil)I watched Friends when I was living in Manaus(north Brazil-the jungle place)and my heart just pounded and almost stopped when I rediscovered this film(I couldn't remember the name either in English or Portuguese),but was throughout Elton Jonh's biog that I came across it and a gentle soul has posted it on youtube.I watched.Ít is still a grand movie. Paul,a British boy living in Paris,meets Michelle,a girl that has just became orphaned.Their social-economical level are as distant as the Earth and the Moon,but it didn't bother them a bit.Young,under age,and they just follow their only option to live.Michelle after trying to live with a stupid cousin,sees that the only thing she has left in this world is a small cottage,owned by her late father,in an idyllic small place,Camargue,in Southern France.It is like there was nothing else,nobody else in that world.Just two of them,starting as friends,companions,but then as lovers.A child is born from that love. The director could express the sixties with vivid colors and it is funny because there are neither riots nor anti war displays,but he superbly shows HOW we felt back then.We were pure and innocent and believed in social justice and love, above all.Make love,not war. The scenery is beautiful:the wild horses,the sea,the whole environment,and the youngsters that portrayed Paul and Michelle did a good job!The scene when Michelle is at the cemetery putting flowers to her father(I believe!)is somewhat strong.SHE,really made me believe,in that moment,how alone,how the solitude was present in her life. The Brazilian culture is over sensual,(probably because we are in the tropics)so their nudity didn't matter,and them being under age,is part of the concept THEN,when we didn't talk(or knew,or mattered about children'molestation,that by the way,DOES NOT OCCUR !) "Paul!" "Michelle!"(they calling each other was printed in my soul!) This film is NOT intended for greedy souls. NOT FOR THE GREEDY!

I saw the movie in 1972, and like other people who have commented on it here ... I went back many more times to see it over and over ... I think 9 times in all. Just great is how I would describe it ... I was taken by the sound track, the beautiful panoramas of the south of France, the life style the kids began on their own. An ideal way to live is what they had set up ... of course the powers that be have to intercede, but when I forget that part I find myself wanting to be in the movie and live like that! So good that it is available on DVD now ... it was not around for years! TLW

With all the dreck out there, this is a gentle movie about young love. Yes, it's true that young love often makes more out of something than it deserves, but why aren't people down on "Romeo and Juliet"? Paul and Michelle are models of good behave compared to them.Yes, they run away, and set up an ideal life, but this is a movie, not real life. Paul is more sexually interested than Michelle, who has been come onto in a bad way. Eventually, they have sex, but no one is forced into it. The movie does let kids know that sex can cause babies.One thing, there is nudity in the movies. The camera does not focus on it, but it is there.The ending of the movie has Paul in good chance of being found out. In "Paul and Michelle", they separate for a time. If you don't like the ending of a movie, think one up yourself. Alternative endings are not just for DVDs.