SUNDAYS AND CYBELE (LES DIMANCHES DE VILLE D’AVRAY)

France, 1962, 110 minutes, Black and white.
Hardy Kruger, Patricia Gozzi, Nicole Coucel.
Directed by Serge Bourguignon.

Sunday and Cybele won the Oscar for the Best Foreign Film of 1962. Its emotional story was appealing at the time - later critics have been somewhat severe on it. It tells the story of a war pilot with guilt memories of his relationship during the war, meeting a twelve-year-old girl abandoned by her father in a convent school. The pilot pretends that he is the girl's father and .they enjoy their Sundays together. Complications of course occur and the audience responds very emotionally to the tender relationship of the man and little girl. The screenplay is by Serge Bourguignon and directed by him. (He was later to make the film The Reward in Hollywood,but did not succeed there.) The photography by Henri Decae is very attractive, stylish and the music is by Maurice Jarre (famous for his scores for Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and Ryan's Daughter amongst many others.)

Hardy Kruger is an attractive hero but Patricia Gozzi is the focus of the film as Cybele. (She was to appear to effect in a similar kind of role in John Guillerman’s Rapture, 1965). An attractive emotional film.

1. The overtones of the title? Do they indicate the style of the film and its impact? The film had some impact in the early sixties. Do you think it would have the same impact now? Why?

2. How much did the film depend on its style? Black and white photography and wide screen? The continual trying for effect with the photography? The distortions and the frames of the screen, looking through this at St Mary's etc.? Was this well integrated into the film or did it distract?

3. What was the final message of the film? Was it an emotional message? How real was it? Why? Was the story meant to be real or symbolic? Was it sentimental?

4. The impact of the start? What it revealed about Pierre? The collage style of the memory? The frayed memory?

5. What did it reveal about Pierre? What effect did the war experience and the deaths have on him? What kind of person was he? What motivated his life? The need to atone? His relationship to Madeleine and his dependence on her? The limited world in which he lived? His work in the aviary? What future did he have? What did he need?

6. Why did he respond so quickly to the little girl? How well was Francoise presented? At first? The relationship with her father at the station? Going to the convent? Her relationship with the nuns? The symbolism of her name? The fact that she seemed psychic? Or did she relate well with Pierre? How happy was he in pretending to be her father?

7. What was the joy of the relationship? What effect did it have on each of them? Did it make each dependent on the other? Or did it give them a new stability in their lives? Pierre and his growing independence of Madeleine? And yet his growing calm? Which incidents showed best the happiness of the relationship between the two?

8. The symbolism of their bargain: her name at the weathercock? What bond did this create between them? What quest did it inaugurate? The character of Madeleine? How important was she in the film? What had she done for Pierre? What was she worried about him? How satisfied was she when she saw the games that the two played as children? The advice she got from Cados? Was it sound?

9. The character of Madeleine? How important was she in the film? What had she done for Pierre? What was she worried about him? How satisfied was she when she saw the games that the two played as children? The advice she got from Cados? Was it sound?

10. How did the film suggest the variations in the relationship? Francoise's jealousy as Pierre went to the wedding with Madeleine? The sequence of the merry go round? The potential hurt and the potential violence?

11. The final sequence? was it fatalistic? What peak had the French reached? The atmosphere of the stolen Christmas tree an a symbol for the fulfilling of the bargain? The significance of Francoise giving her name as Cybele (and the mythic overtones of this name)? Pierre's achievement in not having vertigo as he got the weathercock?

12. The irony of his death? Was it avoidable? Was it inevitable? Was it in some way an atonement of what had gone before?

13. The story was presented rather solemnly if not pretentiously. Was it merely a sentimental story and melodramatic or was it a drama of some significance? Why?