haineshisway
Senior HTF Member
I first saw Sundays and Cybele when it first came out, back in February of 1963 at its first LA exclusive run at the Beverly Canon Theater in Beverly Hills. For me it was a life changer in terms of movies. I'm not sure I'd actually seen a foreign film before, with subtitles and everything. I'd just turned 15 two months earlier. And I fell head over heels with Sundays and Cybele and its story of a damaged thirty-year old man and his relationship with a twelve-year-old girl abandoned by just about everyone. The story of their friendship, to me, was so moving and beautifully told that I saw the film again and again, everywhere it played, even when it began showing up in its inferior dubbed version (Hardy Kruger dubbed his own voice, but Patricia Gozzi was dubbed very poorly). I followed the film from theater to theater. It and That Man from Rio were my obsessions. I then began to seek out all foreign films.
The performances by Mr. Kruger and Miss Gozzi are brilliant, hers being one of the greatest child actor performances in the history of movies. It was director Serge Bourguignan's first feature - it was all downhill after this film and he only made a handful of other films, none of them even approaching the artistry and brilliance of Sundays and Cybele. The photography by Henri Decae is in a class by itself, with some of the most beautiful black-and-white scope images ever put on the screen. And the score by Maurice Jarre is unique and really gives the film an other worldly quality.
Viewed in today's world, I'm sure its story makes certain types of people uncomfortable. This was not the case back in 1963 - at all. For me, the film does not make me uncomfortable save for what made me uncomfortable at fifteen - people's lack of understanding and immediately jumping to conclusions that cause tragedy. It is a beautiful film and it remains a beautiful film all these years later.
The transfer is wonderful - rich black-and-white with wonderful contrast - really shows off Decae's incredible work wonderfully. I cannot recommend the film highly enough and I doubt it will ever look better than this.
The performances by Mr. Kruger and Miss Gozzi are brilliant, hers being one of the greatest child actor performances in the history of movies. It was director Serge Bourguignan's first feature - it was all downhill after this film and he only made a handful of other films, none of them even approaching the artistry and brilliance of Sundays and Cybele. The photography by Henri Decae is in a class by itself, with some of the most beautiful black-and-white scope images ever put on the screen. And the score by Maurice Jarre is unique and really gives the film an other worldly quality.
Viewed in today's world, I'm sure its story makes certain types of people uncomfortable. This was not the case back in 1963 - at all. For me, the film does not make me uncomfortable save for what made me uncomfortable at fifteen - people's lack of understanding and immediately jumping to conclusions that cause tragedy. It is a beautiful film and it remains a beautiful film all these years later.
The transfer is wonderful - rich black-and-white with wonderful contrast - really shows off Decae's incredible work wonderfully. I cannot recommend the film highly enough and I doubt it will ever look better than this.
