A Little Romance

A Little Romance was on TCM last night. This was a suitable way to complete watching a trio of European romances with Diane Lane. The others were Paris Can Wait and Under the Tuscan Sun. 

Her teen love interest soon left acting & became a demist. Laurence Oliver played a crafty old picket pocket. Broderick Crawford played himself. The actor was in the original version of Born Yesterday, which promoted civics education. 

Sally Kellerman ("Hot Lips") played Diane's somewhat flighty mother. Her understanding stepfather, in good performance, was played by character actor Arthur Hill. He is the most reliable adult in the film. Oliver, after all, is a con artist. 

Roger Ebert didn't like the film -- he thought it unrealistic and somewhat pretentious. It does try a bit hard. I still think it is a charming film about first love with some nice touches. 

Now for something completely different ...

The creator of the infamous film -- with Roger Ebert hate -- had problems making a profit off it. He eventually found a distributor, who changed the name from Day of the Woman. 

The original writer/director purported at least to have a feminist vision, inspired by a real-life sexual attack (if not with a similar aftermath). It became more of a "video nasty" (a British term) later on, including the somewhat erroneous (there were four rapists) famous release poster.

The model for that poster? I just found out it was a young (she would have been around 18 while the actress in the film was in her 20s) Demi Moore. Such is life: finding new trivia.

I once watched the film with a DVD commentary with Joe Bob Briggs. Briggs often had a tongue in cheek style, but his commentary was pretty good here as I recall. It allows you to see the film in a different light. The DVD also had a commentary from the writer/director, adding a different p.o.v.

The movie is obviously exploitative. I still would argue it is not just garbage. It has some 1970s touches that give it an artistic touch. The remake was more over the top with more characters and unnecessary touches. It also is appreciated that a woman is able to have agency. No man saviors like in Death Wish. 

BJ Colangelo, who writes about film (including horror), early on had a horror blog named after the original title. She was not a fan of the remake.