Sundays and Cybele (1962)

Must See Movie...

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

A childlike amnesiac (Hardy Kruger), unable to repair his life after a wartime plane crash, befriends a 12-year-old girl abandoned by her father. They enjoy blissful Sundays together, aside from his periodic attacks of irrationality, but outsiders begin to distrust the relationship, leading to tragedy. This intensely moving, truly original drama – with increasingly spare comic touches – confronts the cynicism, horror and alienation of the adult world, Bourguignon ingeniously shifting styles to contrast the stifling mundanity of Kruger's apartment – and his unconnected life – with the tranquil idyll of the park where he and Cybele indulge in transcendent fantasy. It isn't that Kruger doesn't have love in his adult life, just that he wants to shrink from the world that forced him to gun down an innocent child. He, young Patricia Gozzi and Nicole Courcel – as the protagonist's conflicted girlfriend Madeleine – are terrific, while the film boasts some of the most striking black-and-white photography you'll ever see: an endlessly creative variety of shots drawing you inexorably in to the heartbreaking story.

Anyone who has seen SUNDAYS AND CYBELE on the big screen (as I had the good fortune to do in 1962 when films hung around for longer than a week!), will know that this beautiful, compelling film loses a lot when viewed as a VHS tape (quite frankly, it's unwatchable because I know how much Henri Decaë's superb photography has been degraded...not to mention the subtitles which are illegible at times). Fortunately, all that changed on October 5th, 2009 when Sony/Columbia Pictures finally released a remastered, wide-screen DVD of this sensitive, Oscar-winning French film. There were times that I thought I'd never see this film again -thank God I was wrong! The other reviews of SUNDAYS & CYBELE say all that has to be said about this masterpiece. I can add no other useful information except, although this film had dated slightly (well, after all, it is over 45 years old!), it's more than watchable, it's unmissable and unforgettable! Hardy Kruger's acting is perfect, spot on as a dysfunctional adult, and Patricia Gozzi's acting will take your breath away. Why she did so little after this film (I only saw her again in RAPTURE, 1965), is a mystery to all who witnessed her acting abilities. Get this DVD and watch two of the finest performances ever to be seen on the big screen!

Forty-five years after this movie was made, it remains the most affecting movie I have ever seen. Story, script, acting, cinematography, music -- all are sublime. I keep praying this film will be released on DVD so that more people can experience its beauty and power. Hardy Kruger, playing a traumatized war veteran, and Patricia Gozzi, playing a preternaturally sensitive abandoned child, create unique and unforgettable characters. All the supporting players are perfectly true. Sundays and Cybele is unconventional enough to put off some viewers, but for those looking for poetry, mystery and magic woven with exquisite subtlety, this film is not to be missed.

Saw this film three times when it was first released in the sixties - the last time walking two miles in pouring rain and skipping study for a college math final the next day. I have not seen a film before or since that has had as powerful an effect on me. If you want to be moved and shaken at the beauty and tragedy of the human condition, see this film. Unfortunately, the video quality is poor, but see it anyway.