Sundays and Cybèle [Les Dimanches de Ville d’Avray] **** (1962, Hardy Kruger, Patricia Gozzi, Nicole Courcel) – Classic Movie Review 11,866

Director Serge Bourguignon’s 1962 French film in Franscope Sundays and Cybèle [Les Dimanches de Ville d’Avray] is based on the novel by Bernard Eschassériaux, and stars Hardy Kruger, Patricia Gozzi and Nicole Courcel.

It is the moving, tender account of a most unusual friendship between innocent, guilt-ridden Pierre (Kruger), an emotionally disabled veteran of the French Indochina War, and a 12-year-old orphaned convent schoolgirl, Cybèle (Gozzi), whom he takes out on Sundays.

It is a charming, humanitarian story, leading to a tragic ending, which won the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1962, with nominations for writing and scoring in 1963.

The original French title of Les Dimanches de Ville d’Avray (Sundays in Ville d’Avray) refers to the Paris suburb of Ville-d’Avray.

Eschassériaux collaborated on the screenplay with Serge Bourguignon and Antoine Tudal.

The cast are Hardy Krüger as Pierre, Nicole Courcel as Madeleine, Patricia Gozzi as Cybèle/ Françoise, Daniel Ivernel as Carlos, André Oumansky as Bernard, Michel de Ré and Serge Bourgignon.

Berlin-born Hardy Kruger was discovered outside Germany by UK film distributor J Arthur Rank, casting him in three British film shot back-to-back: The One That Got Away (1957), Bachelor of Hearts (1958) and Blind Date [Chance Meeting] (1959). Anti-German feeling was of course still strong in postwar Europe, but Hardy was successfully promoted as a ruggedly handsome blond heartthrob and became an international favourite.

Hardy Kruger [Franz Eberhard August Krüger] (12 April 1928 – 19 January 2022) appeared in more than 60 films after 1944. He became an international star in Hatari!, The Flight of the Phoenix, The Wild Geese, Sundays and Cybèle, A Bridge Too Far, The Battle of Neretva, The Secret of Santa Vittoria, The Red Tent, and Barry Lyndon.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,866

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