FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

jarrodmcdonald-1 I missed this picture the first time it aired on TCM a few months ago. Loved all the on-location European filming. Not sure how I felt about Olivier's performance-- it seemed a bit clichéd, too mannered in places. I think what we get with him is someone who decides when he reads the script how he is going to play it. It's all worked out in his mind before he even steps in front of the cameras. The problem is that his instincts are not always correct and he does not adjust or improvise on the fly. So if everyone else is growing in their performances, and he is not-- if he loses spontaneity, then his acting starts to look too old-fashioned. In a film like A LITTLE ROMANCE, it is more noticeable that he is working opposite very young costars with very young energy if they are soaring and he is just standing still. In sharp contrast to this, we have Broderick Crawford in scenes that seem a lot more natural and accommodating to the younger costars.

jeancothern Saw this movie for the first time on HBO in the early 80's. Went out and bought the vinyl soundtrack album (I still own it on vinyl and CD). Too bad Thelonius Bernard only did two films, he was excellent in this film, as was Diane Lane. The plot evolves as two young teens meet and fall in love. He is French (his father hates Americans), she is American , her mother thinks he is a dirty French boy, which he seems to be a little frisky, which by todays standards, is like petting, her step-father is not too judgmental, but after a few too grown up incidents at the girls 13th birthday, Lane's character is forbidden to see Thelonius' character again! Of course if you forbid a teen to not do something, they're going to sneak around. They then meet a con artist (Sir Lawrence Olivier) who tells them a few stories that add to the soon to be complex plot. Awesome directing, photography, music and acting make this such a gem. I won't say anymore but this is a favorite on DVD for me. A Must See!!!! A Very Beautiful, Romantic, Sweet Movie!

Armand nice, touching, small picture of a meeting fruits, map for transformation of fiction in reality, it is, not exactly for its ages, ball of memories. its fragile beauty, its seductive locations, presence - as perfume drop - of Sir Laurence Olivier, the subject , all is good occasion to remember slices of past.like each not bad film, it is a fairy-tale. same rules, same characters, same end. only miracles are little different. but it is not a problem. because all is at perfect place.and pieces from Paris, Verona and Venice are tasty food for soul, like hot chocolate in a winter evening for body. music, performance, dialogs - innocent secrets in a musical box.enjoy it !

malvernp A period of fifteen years separates two little-known films directed by George Roy Hill that deal with somewhat similar themes but with very different results. Each movie concerns the trials and tribulations of two teenagers, marital infidelity involving one of their parents and the influence of a highly eccentric adult on the lives of the children."The World of Henry Orient" (1964) shows Hill at his best. The young teenage girls are spunky, fun and interesting. The unfaithful mother of one of them is cold, calculating and a thoroughly disagreeable type. And the eccentric adult (in a wildly over the top performance by Peter Sellers as a wacky concert pianist) adds to the comic potential of the plot by trying his best to distance himself from the playfully stalking "groupie" girls. The film is a unique comedy, and thoroughly enjoyable to watch. Even in its most serious moments, it doesn't drag or take itself too seriously."A Little Romance" (1979) reveals Hill in a lesser light. Here the teenagers are presented as Romeo and Juliet wannabees----and while Diane Lane shines in her first film role-----her unpleasant French "Romeo" does much more than his share of excessive pouting and posturing. Lane's unfaithful mother is as unlikable as her predecessor in the earlier film. But here the eccentric adult (in another over the top performance---this time by an aged and hammy Laurence Olivier as a sort of Friar Laurence to the teenage Romeo and Juliet characters) makes the story much too maudlin and treacly by deeply involving himself in the young lovers' plight. Instead of looking for the comic potential of this story, Hill tries to make it a pure romance. The problem is that the teenagers are just unformed clay and not up to the romantic situation Hill places them in. The film takes itself very seriously, and accordingly seems out of balance at times.By 1979, Hill was apparently becoming inattentive to details and pacing. There are characters introduced into the story that add little to it (except for the wasted time they consume on the screen). And how can we explain a French movie house screening an American film with dubbed French spoken accompanied by English subtitles? Wouldn't it have made more sense for the English-speaking audience watching "A Little Romance" to see the American film with English spoken and French subtitles? Bottom line on "A Little Romance." See it to appreciate a very young Diane Lane at the beginning of her highly successful film career in a role that demonstrates why things turned out as they did for her. As for Hill, he did much better work in comedy than romance.