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23 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
Standing Alone, 28 November 2003
9/10
Author: harry-76 from Cleveland, Ohio

When "Les Dimanches de ville d'Avray" first debuted in Manhattan, New York Times Critic Bosley Crowther hailed it as a genuine masterpiece.

New Yorkers flocked to see it, and agreed. Serge Bourguignon in only his third film work was predicted to become a major film director. Who could have predicted he would make only three more movies?

Lead actor Hardy Kruger went on to a prolific career, but talented eleven year old Patricia Gozzi retired after only a few more films.

So this film has become somewhat of an oddity: a brilliantly directed, photographed and acted drama, that has the look and feel of a timeless treasure. Yet, it stands alone without past or future--a fabulous work with nowhere to place it.

Unfortunately today, existing video prints are of poor quality; besides, it demands a big screen and pristine print to do it justice. Thus the film has virtually become a lost gem, pleading for restoration and re-release.

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22 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
I own this film!!!, 21 December 2004
10/10
Author: Peter Byrne (peterabyrne@iprimus.com.au) from Australia

Hello to all the other lovers of this stupendously beautiful film, wherever you may be in the world. This is not a review as such, other than to say that "Sundays and Cybele" is without doubt the most exquisite, heartbreaking, sublime, delicate, moving and transcendental movie ever created. The purpose of this 'post' is to let you all know that, way down-under here in Melbourne, Australia, I am the fortunate owner of a 16mm cinemas-cope print of this absolute masterpiece. My email address is displayed above. You are welcome to email me personally. If there is ever a possibility that you could get to beautiful Melbourne, I would be proud and delighted to screen the film for you. I myself have resisted the temptation to acquire the film on video...that would seem only to trivialize it, by reducing it to the same size (& therefore stature) as television programs. It is a film to be enjoyed on the big screen and I am doubly fortunate, because there is a small cinema here in Melbourne, seating about 50, which I hire out on those occasions when I can't wait another day to see the film. At the present rate, I screen it about 4 or 5 times a year, sometimes just with myself and 1 other, sometimes with an invited audience of 15 or 20. If at any time any of you readers of this communication would like to take the trouble to journey to Melbourne, Australia, I would gladly run the movie for you, at no cost to you. When I meet you, I will also proudly show you Hardy Kruger's autograph to me, written on an original A4 size poster for the film, which, as a reckless teenager, I stole from its display case on the final day of its big screen season here in Melbourne (in 1964). 14 years later, in 1978, I was lucky enough to meet Hardy when he came to Australia to promote a film he made here ("Storm Boy"). And guess what he said to me when I unrolled the poster and asked if he would sign it? "Ah, my favorite film!!". I am like many of you...I have been haunted, inspired, intoxicated, transported in ecstasy, plunged into the deepest of despair by that extraordinary film ever since. It is an unforgettable encounter with great beauty. Let me know if you can come here to see it. We'll have a wonderful evening. Peter Byrne, Australia.

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15 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Against the prejudice and human brutality!, 19 February 2003
10/10
Author: Manicheus

One of the most beautiful cinematic statements against human small-minded prejudiced brutality. Beautifully shot in very crisp black and white. The imagery will definitely remain lodged in viewer's head for ever. It's a triumph of loving kindness and friendship over prejudice and hatred that indeed know no borders and are more or less alike anywhere on this planet. Sad News From A Strange Planet? I can't remember exactly but that was the title of a chillingly brilliant Herman Hesse story. It stems from the same universal human wound: the sadness of what we do and very frequently are as opposed to what we should and could have been in our starry essence.

The France was never more melancholy, never more beautiful. I mourn her loss and I mourn the loss of films that would evoke as much humane and poetic feeling.

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16 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
I would go into a burning building to save this rare masterpiece., 25 March 2006
10/10
Author: victorsargeant from United States BOULDER COUNTY COLORADO

Just remembered the title: "Sunday and Cybel".

This film had a major haunting impact upon my life.(Boston 1962)

What a beautiful story and "Sunday and Cybel" needs to be preserved on DVD.

The childlike trust, and human bond that develops between two "wounded human beings" without a hint of inappropriate sexuality, needs to be seen again and again.

I was deeply pleased, that others have found this film as lovely as I did. It warms my heart to see others recognize such tender humanity between a child and an adult.

"David and Lisa" has a similar sense of love between damaged Souls, out of darkness into the light of emotional "healing".

Being a family psychotherapist, only restores my faith in the psyche to find love in a cruel world of distrusting authorities who only know how to kill flies with hammers, and destroy people they do not understand.

Bravo to the perfect cast, direct and writers, with brilliant cinematographer, to enrich the story into a rare masterpiece. VSS

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13 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
Still potent, 40 years later, 26 December 2002
10/10
Author: Maxwell Hoffmann (maxwellhoffmann@msn.com) from Thousand Oaks, CA

A remarkable film with an astonishing capacity to touch your heart and open your mind. A refreshingly original story that doesn't lapse into exploiting potentially "adult" themes.

Hardy Kruger succeeds in taking you with his character into his child like view of the world (caused by shell shock in Indochine). Patricia Gozzi is a rare child actress whose performance is completely free of the usual self-conscious effort found in recent films. Entire cast is strong.

The black and white cinematography is amongst the best I've ever seen. The camera seems remarkably aware of textures and temperatures. Some images are reminiscent of Ansel Adams' silver gelatin prints. Don't miss any opportunity to see this rare gem of a film. The characters, stories and images will follow you for a long, long time. It will make you wish that Director Serge Bourguignon had a much longer filmography.

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10 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
This film has haunted me since college..., 21 March 2004
10/10
Author: Tarasicodissa from Pennsylvania

It is a terrible pity that this wonderful film is not on DVD. Alas, had Serge Bourgoinon gone on to make more films of equal quality it would be remembered alongside "Jules and Jim" instead of being just a footnote. The earlier poster who noted that it is precisely because he and Patricia Gozzi were meteors who cooled quickly that this film is forgotten was absolutely right.

Another point is the haunting Maurice Jarre "We're Home" theme. So much of his later soundtrack music was bombastic that is astonishing to find a simple, poignant melody used here to evoke the tenderness, beauty, and vulnerability of the world that these two are able to create in the park.

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9 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Si belle, 25 July 2007
9/10
Author: dbdumonteil

I'm the first French user to write about "Cybèle ou Les Dimanches de Ville D'Avray".Serge Bourguignon's work belongs to that handful of movies the reputation of which is much more considerable abroad than in their native country .And when I write "much more" ,I mean it .Other examples are "Au Coeur de la Vie/La Rivière Du Hibou aka Occurrence at Owl Bridge Creek " by Robert Enrico,"Kapo" by Pontecorvo -made with French money and featuring French actors-or "Le Ballon Rouge" by Albert Lamorisse.French TV has not screened it for decades, not even the cultural channel,Arte .It's not available on DVD either.General critic opinion towards the movie adds up to a consensus that ,well,it's OK ,moving,but it's artificial (sic) poetry and mannered cinematography (and nevertheless,it's Henri Decae's).In France ,"Cybèle" is slowly but inexorably falling into oblivion.One should add that it was released when the notorious Nouvelle Vague was ruling and the fusty Cahiers du Cinema were the holy writ and all those who were not part of the young Turks were dismissed as cheesy.

"Cybèle" is perhaps not the masterpiece many people hail abroad,but it's an unique extremely endearing film ,better than 90% of the French movies which were made here in the early sixties.Hardy Kruger,a German actor whose French is perfect is one of the most sensitive thespians of his generation :I urge people who liked his performance to try and see "Le Franciscain de Bourges" where he plays a Nazi priest,a saint in a living Hell ;he refused any fee to play that character.Such is this man! Kruger portrays here a man who suffers from amnesia because of the horrible things he had to do during the war.He is desperately in need of a past.And it makes sense that his journey leads him to childhood.When you are desperate yourself,don't you think of the days when you were a child?Françoise/Cybèle has a -sad- past,but when her father left her,she hasn't got a future anymore.Pierre means everything to her: her father,her playmate,her husband (when you're 36,I'll be 18 ,we will get married!).I've rarely seen a film where two people need each other so bad.Only Carlos(Daniel Ivernel) ,a friend, has understood.Neither the clairvoyant nor the shrink (André Oumansky)with his overblown theories ("He's killed a little girl in the war,he'll do it again just to get punished!")can enter their world.

Because there are two worlds: the world of childhood,with the long walks in the landscapes where the trees and the lakes gain another dimension,the games ,the songs ("Aux Marches du Palais" being par excellence a magic tale of an enchanted country where 'the king's horses could drink in the river which flows in the middle of the "so beautiful (=si belle) girl's so wide bed ") and of course Christmas .The adult world is hostile,it means a return to mediocrity, to a stark present (the wedding meal is the best example).It's not a coincidence if the two worlds collide at the fair in the bumper cars !

Let's not forget the stunning soundtrack ,using profane (the Greek Goddess)and sacred music ,French folk songs , noises which recall Musique Concrète (Pierre cannot stand noises) whispering voices -which contrast with the girl's scream: this scream is harrowing ,that of a wounded animal ,the final scream,so to speak.-

Serge Bourguignon could be said to have started his career at the top and worked his way down.Called by Hollywood,he made a... western which sank without a trace ,then directed Brigitte Bardot in the doomed " A Coeur Joie" (1967).It's extraordinary he fell so quickly after the golden start with "Cybèle" .

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
A lonely, elfin child and a man mentally disabled by war trauma find mutual trust and extraordinary friendship, with tragic consequences., 20 January 2007
10/10
Author: dean1685 from United States

Forty-five years after this movie was made, it remains the most affecting movie I have ever seen. Story, script, acting, cinematography, music -- all are sublime. I keep praying this film will be released on DVD so that more people can experience its beauty and power. Hardy Kruger, playing a traumatized war veteran, and Patricia Gozzi, playing a preternaturally sensitive abandoned child, create unique and unforgettable characters. All the supporting players are perfectly true. Sundays and Cybele is unconventional enough to put off some viewers, but for those looking for poetry, mystery and magic woven with exquisite subtlety, this film is not to be missed.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Absolutely Beautiful Film, 27 February 2007
10/10
Author: WilliamCKH from Northern California

I would definitely put this film in my list of the top ten films of all time. There is a distinctive, other-worldly quality about this film that I have not seen before or since. Patricia Gozzi is absolutely breathtaking as Cybele. She is almost the mother figure in her relationship with 30-something year-old Pierre. It must've been the era, or the black and white photography, or just the way the actors and the setting were filmed but, it's one of those pictures that you can't describe, you must experience, to get the joys from it. Although I don't get affected by what most people call art, this film, to me represents the highest form of art, and it affected me greatly as a human being.

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8 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Best movie I've seen in sixty years, 5 October 2002
10/10
Author: rsd22 from Vermont

Saw this film three times when it was first released in the sixties - the last time walking two miles in pouring rain and skipping study for a college math final the next day. I have not seen a film before or since that has had as powerful an effect on me. If you want to be moved and shaken at the beauty and tragedy of the human condition, see this film. Unfortunately, the video quality is poor, but see it anyway.

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