[SPEAKER_04]: It's a handholding.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a kiss on the cheek and it's just very, very sweet.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not Jenny and Greg, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not a teenage romance.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's all, yes, they're thirteen, but it's a pre-teen romance.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's first love.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not teen love.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's not, it's not leader of the pack.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not Jenny and Greg and from all my children.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a step before that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it retains his innocence.
[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome to the Pop Culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the Big Wheel generation, who saved their allowance from bubble yum, bubble licious, and big daddy bubble gum.
[SPEAKER_01]: We believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters, and images.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear, like Marshall Will and Holly, on a routine expedition.
[SPEAKER_03]: And today, we'll be saving the quiet little movie that captured teenage hearts and gave millions of kids their first crush in the form of a newcomer named Diane Lane.
[SPEAKER_03]: In the nineteen seventy nine sleeper hit, a little romance.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm Carolyn, I'm Kristen, and I'm Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationist.
[SPEAKER_03]: As we get closer to the release date of my new book, The Scott Fenwick Diaries on July, twenty-second, we're zeroing in on the phenomenon that lies at the heart of that book and is universal to pretty much all of us.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that is the Oso melodramatic tweenage crush.
[SPEAKER_03]: We all had them and I'm guessing that crush did not play out in real life the way it did in your daydreams.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's because being twelve or thirteen is one of the most unique time periods of your entire life.
[SPEAKER_03]: To be thirteen is to be singularly and uniquely delicate, because you start yearning for things that you have no idea how to get.
[SPEAKER_03]: You have absolutely zero experience or familiarity with this thing that you yearn for.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you were listening right now, you were probably beyond the age of thirteen.
[SPEAKER_03]: But nobody gets to fifty-seven without being thirteen first.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not possible.
[SPEAKER_03]: We may have forgotten about it, but that doesn't mean that it didn't happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that thing we start yearning for at thirteen is served up to us on a silver platter in the nineteen seventy nine film a little romance which allows us to see our daydreams come true.
[SPEAKER_03]: It stars a thirteen-year-old Diane Lane in her film debut thirteen-year-old Philonius Bernard in his first of only two movie roles and one of the final film appearances by seventy nine-year-old film veterans sir Lawrence Olivier.
[SPEAKER_03]: who shepherds two young lovers from Paris to Venice in their quest to fulfill the legend of kissing beneath the bridge of size at sunset while the bells toll, which will ensure that they will be in love forever.
[SPEAKER_03]: Some of you listening right now got just got who's could do big time at the mention of a little romance.
[SPEAKER_03]: and some people have no memory of it at all, because this quiet little movie severely dented the hearts of those who saw it, but you could only see it if it came to your town.
[SPEAKER_03]: And this was not a blockbuster.
[SPEAKER_03]: Instead, it has been called the biggest sleeper hit of�.
[SPEAKER_03]: Did you guys have any knowledge of a little romance when you were young?
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm so sad that I didn't because I would have been all over the movie.
[SPEAKER_04]: My gosh, what you said though, I think is is really important about even though we're all in our fifties and we can say, oh yeah, we all had that, but we might have forgotten it.
[SPEAKER_04]: This movie, it's so authentic.
[SPEAKER_04]: It portrays this type of romance so authentically, then you do then remember how it felt.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, all those feelings again.
[SPEAKER_03]: It triggers your memories that you may have suppressed.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're like, no, thirteen was in so bad.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't remember who my crush was.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, watch this movie and it'll all come back.
[SPEAKER_04]: Come back to you because it's not campy or coffee or silly.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's authentic.
[SPEAKER_03]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's very realistic and relatable.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I have no, it's so interesting.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have no idea exactly how successful it was because I tried and failed to find box office information about a little romance.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I found nothing.
[SPEAKER_03]: I found absolutely nothing except for that fact that it cost three million dollars to make.
[SPEAKER_03]: But what I do know is over the last forty five years, if I have found myself in the presence of somebody who saw a little romance when they were young, that person always, one hundred percent of the time, was madly in love with this movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I can see why.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm really fond of that.
[SPEAKER_03]: It didn't cross my path.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it must just be that either it didn't come to where you were or it was there for such a short period of time that you missed it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And if nobody was talking about it, how would you ever know?
[SPEAKER_04]: Well listeners, we're going to say this again and again and again and again.
[SPEAKER_04]: Go watch it.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's on YouTube.
[SPEAKER_04]: Go watch it.
[SPEAKER_04]: It is sweet and darling.
[SPEAKER_04]: And it's probably best known for its three primary cast members.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't know about you guys, but Diane Lane came on my radar in the outsider.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: Me too.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then rumble fish, both of those were in the same year.
[SPEAKER_04]: But a little romance was her first screen role, although she'd been acting professionally on stage since the age of six.
[SPEAKER_04]: At age twelve, she had a role in the cherry orchard with Merrill Street.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_03]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_04]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, she is very proud of this movie.
[SPEAKER_04]: I watched several interviews with her, um, when she was doing press for, um, Capote, the, um, the feud, the Capote versus one.
[SPEAKER_04]: She was, because she was nominated for, uh, an Emmy, I think, but this movie comes up and she's very, she still loves to talk about this movie.
[SPEAKER_04]: She makes this movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: One hundred percent.
[SPEAKER_04]: She is enchanting.
[SPEAKER_04]: I couldn't look away.
[SPEAKER_04]: Laurence Olivier, who, as you said, Kristen, I mean, sure, I guess.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, sure.
[SPEAKER_04]: Laurence Olivier.
[SPEAKER_04]: He called her the new Grace Kelly after making this movie with her.
[SPEAKER_04]: And she was a child.
[SPEAKER_04]: She was a child and he called her.
[SPEAKER_04]: She's our teen.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's crazy.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: There isn't a scene where she doesn't deliver authentically and make you fall in love with her.
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you guys think she was so grown up?
[SPEAKER_03]: And she's clearly a child.
[SPEAKER_03]: She's not, um, she's not made to be solitary or sexy.
[SPEAKER_03]: She's one hundred percent a thirteen year old, but she just has such an era of maturity about her so much that she can manage the screen.
[SPEAKER_01]: A hundred percent.
[SPEAKER_01]: This character is
[SPEAKER_01]: gift it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, she's very, very bright.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think she plays that really well, too, because that's probably where we get a little bit of this more mature adult aspect of her character.
[SPEAKER_01]: But she does them both seamlessly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, she's thirteen, especially when she's hanging out with her friend from school, and but yet she can seem really mature in some of her other.
[SPEAKER_01]: conversations like the book she's reading and yeah like that.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think in real life and also the character she plays, she's very mature.
[SPEAKER_01]: Very sophisticated.
[SPEAKER_04]: She's just so engaging.
[SPEAKER_04]: She absolutely pulls you in to every scene that she's in.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I've I've loved Diane Lane for years and also she's a sixty to her sixty the sheer and she's dropped it.
[SPEAKER_04]: She's beautiful too.
[SPEAKER_04]: And just so
[SPEAKER_04]: She's so classy when you watch her.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I'm so classy.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is her interviews, like last time.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like I said, all of these were from Twitter.
[SPEAKER_04]: Very articulate.
[SPEAKER_04]: And she thinks deeply and very helpful.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, in the early eighties, she was in quite a few films.
[SPEAKER_04]: You might remember her in six pack with Kenny Rogers.
[SPEAKER_04]: Or in the classic punk film, ladies and gentlemen, the fabulous stains.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't, I don't know that one.
[SPEAKER_04]: But I had to mention, because I know listeners will remember that movie.
[SPEAKER_04]: But like I said earlier, it was her roles in the back-to-back films, the outsiders, and rumblefish in nineteen eighty-three that really put her on the map, even though she had this enormous resume already, I mean, from six to age thirteen, she had a whole bunch of plays under her belt already.
[SPEAKER_04]: Fun facts, you know, I love a good and almost cast of fact, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: She turned down splash and risky business.
[SPEAKER_04]: for the movie streets of fire in nineteen eighty four that was with michael paray i believe how you say is listening uh... yeah maranis amy mad again while i'm to full um... and bill packed in among others i just can't couldn't see her in splash you only in my mind it's only daryl hand and i'm assuming it's for that role of daryl break bad reviews of that movie streets of fire and the cotton club remember that's a big movie
[SPEAKER_04]: Let her to take a break to live with her mother in Georgia, but she returns to acting in the late eighties, notably with her role in the TV many series loan some dove, which we mentioned in our many series episode.
[SPEAKER_04]: Also another fun fact, she came very close to being cast as Vivian Ward in Pretty Woman.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, did you see that?
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, listen, think about that.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think I could see it.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, I don't because these roles are iconic.
[SPEAKER_03]: They've become iconic for Julia Roberts and for Daryl Hannah.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hannah is true, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: And both of those roles were their breakout roles.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's like those roles were just meant for those people.
[SPEAKER_03]: It wasn't meant for Daryl Hannah.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was meant for Daryl Hannah.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I'm for Daryl Roberts.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did read that when Diane Lane was considered for that role in pretty woman.
[SPEAKER_01]: The script was a little different.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was dark.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you have to say that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: The script was darker when she was.
[SPEAKER_04]: But she, I mean, she had costume fittings and everything.
[SPEAKER_04]: But that's how far the role fell to joyer Roberts.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: She had scheduling conflicts with another, um, another acting gig.
[SPEAKER_04]: So she couldn't do it.
[SPEAKER_04]: But yeah.
[SPEAKER_03]: So she had the role.
[SPEAKER_03]: Wasn't even that she was being considered.
[SPEAKER_03]: She had it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I got it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, I don't know at what point do you do costume fittings?
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_04]: I have a list of just so many great and memorable roles.
[SPEAKER_04]: And this is just a short list of some that are more popular.
[SPEAKER_04]: But the movie Jack, a walk on the moon, the perfect storm, my dog skip.
[SPEAKER_04]: My favorite of her performances was in two thousand twos unfaithful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that was my husband and I love that movie.
[SPEAKER_04]: So good.
[SPEAKER_04]: Man of steel, she played Martha Kent and then went on and Batman versus Superman Dawn of Justice, Justice League.
[SPEAKER_04]: Did you guys know that she's the voice of Riley's mom and inside out?
[SPEAKER_04]: No.
[SPEAKER_04]: We can start moving inside out and the and inside out too.
[SPEAKER_04]: I know.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then of course last year's feud, Capote versus the swans.
[SPEAKER_04]: That was good.
[SPEAKER_04]: Which she was nominated for that.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think it's, I think it's, you know,
[SPEAKER_04]: Suffice it to say, we love her.
[SPEAKER_04]: We love her all-caps.
[SPEAKER_04]: She is pure class and grace and elegance.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then Laurence Olivier was a highly acclaimed English actor.
[SPEAKER_04]: We know this.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, we're not, I'm not going to give his bio.
[SPEAKER_04]: But, you know, he's an actor, director, producer, best known, obviously, for his iconic performances of Shakespearean plays.
[SPEAKER_04]: Also recognized for his iconic roles in films like Weathering Heights and Marathon Man.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, basically he, you like you said earlier, Kristen, he was seventy nine when he did this movie.
[SPEAKER_04]: He would only go on to do.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think two more appearances in movies because he died in nineteen eighty nine when he was eighty two gosh.
[SPEAKER_04]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he was so good in this movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so just charming.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, really the definition of charming is, is what he was.
[SPEAKER_01]: The charming, a lot of the gentleman is who he was.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think, you know, when you watch this movie and you see how instantly smitten Lauren Diane Lane's character is with him.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: As like a grandpa figure.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's how I felt even at fifty six watching it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was like, Oh, I love him.
[SPEAKER_04]: I know.
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to take them home with me.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, because he was sort of like a protector plus entertainer a little bit.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so yeah, so Diane Lane is the thirteen year old is almost like she needs a grandpa and he's going to be the grandpa.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then, of course, we have Philonius Bernard, who, like Kristen, like you said, this was his first film.
[SPEAKER_04]: He was actually just discovered by the director when he was like playing soccer.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sorry, football.
[SPEAKER_04]: Like in the square.
[SPEAKER_04]: Because he's in front.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's French.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's French.
[SPEAKER_04]: And he lived with the director for a month, so he can learn English.
[SPEAKER_04]: He didn't know English.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, he didn't know English English is very halting, but it's very understandable.
[SPEAKER_04]: And he's adorable.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's so cute.
[SPEAKER_04]: His only other film was, I can't say it because I'm not friends.
[SPEAKER_04]: It was a French film.
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's just say a couple of years later in nineteen eighty one.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then he chose not to remain in the film industry, but take just keep going to school, keep working on his education, and he currently lives in France where he is a dentist.
[SPEAKER_04]: And all I picture is in root off the red nose of the reindeer.
[SPEAKER_04]: I just want your pony like, I really want to be a dentist though.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, and he's like tap tap tap tap tap tap.
[SPEAKER_04]: To think that he had never acted before and that he lived with the director for and he kind of like gave him acting lessons on the fly, right?
[SPEAKER_04]: He did a great job because he was super confident.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's kind of scrappy, he's, um,
[SPEAKER_04]: He's street wise.
[SPEAKER_04]: And so he brought that confidence to this character.
[SPEAKER_04]: I will say I kind of ran hot and cold with him.
[SPEAKER_04]: Just because sometimes he was super abrupt with Lauren and I didn't like his hot temper and his bursts of anger and then he would get really jealous of his rich and his rich.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, ultimately, at the end of the movie, my feeling is, I loved it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I know.
[SPEAKER_04]: Or, I'm sorry, I shouldn't say it like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's just be clear that overwhelmingly, I have positive feelings for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, before we move on, I want to talk about one of the other actors in this movie, because as soon as I laid eyes on this person,
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought what is he from you know we get those moments like what else have they been in and so I'm talking about Arthur Hill who played Diane Lane's stepfather richer and I knew I knew him I mean I got this just warm feeling when I saw him and I was thinking
[SPEAKER_01]: No, he's not James Broderick.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is not Buddy Lawrence's dad from, no family, but that's the vibe I got.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, of course, after the movies over, I've got to look up what I know I'm from.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I got so who screwedude.
[SPEAKER_01]: I keep saying when I get who screwedude.
[SPEAKER_01]: This might be the most who screwedude I've ever gotten.
[SPEAKER_01]: But this was something that I would have never, ever, ever remembered.
[SPEAKER_01]: He actually starred in a show during the early seventies, and it was called Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law.
[SPEAKER_01]: And as soon as I saw this title, I was like,
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that show.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know I know what I know that name and it was a show on ABC also Lee Majors was in it and he Arthur Hill was a kind he was a lawyer but he had a twelve-year-old daughter in the show.
[SPEAKER_01]: and she was a main character.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember, my mom, I think really loved this show.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it would be on, and I'd be like, probably half listening or doing whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: But whenever there was this, the young girl would come on, I would pay attention.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was such this loving relationship.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I felt like I felt that fatherly loving feeling when he was on the screen.
[SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't pinpoint why until I looked all of this up.
[SPEAKER_01]: Isn't that weird brainster?
[SPEAKER_01]: It just was living in me somewhere.
[SPEAKER_01]: And
[SPEAKER_01]: So then I just wanted to read a little bit more about that show and here is rabbit hole rabbit hole.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go down the rabbit hole Carolyn because we have to write here guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_01]: I got to do this with you because I looked up the show and yes, Lee majors was one of the stars.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is obviously pre, six million dollar man.
[SPEAKER_01]: All of that good stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: You guys the guest stars on this show.
[SPEAKER_01]: They put love boat to shame.
[SPEAKER_01]: They like
[SPEAKER_01]: Annie, Jen, Axe, Battle of the Network stars, anything to shame.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to read them all, but I'm just going to read you a careful few.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had everybody from John Davidson and Pat Boone to John Denver, Mickey Dolan's Patty Duke, Fairfosset.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had Sharon Glass.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had Lou Gosset.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had Mark Hamill.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had Pat Herrington Jr.
[SPEAKER_01]: We had Randolph-Man, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Donald Man, too.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if that's his brother or his dad.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tim Matheson, Darren McGavin, Donna Mills, Ricky Nelson, Susan Sarandon, Dick Sargent, Tom Selleck, William Shattner, Martin Sheen, O.J.
[SPEAKER_01]: Simpson, and the best of all I've saved it for last.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't even believe I'm gonna save this.
[SPEAKER_04]: Ready?
[UNKNOWN]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: Sorry, Caloo.
[SPEAKER_04]: No!
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh my god, you're kidding.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, you'll hurry, Caloo.
[SPEAKER_03]: No, you don't hurry, Caloo.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh my god.
[SPEAKER_03]: I started it every day.
[SPEAKER_03]: Which is a coincidence by the way, people who have read World Wide Christ.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's the pop star in World Wide Christ.
[SPEAKER_03]: But I thought I made it up in my head.
[SPEAKER_03]: But there was an actual, like supercrush named Rory Caloo in the fifties, who then became an aging love boat star.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, and he was on Owen Marshall counselor at law as a guest star.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, that is hilarious.
[SPEAKER_03]: This show that we only Carolyn knows about and all these.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, all of these people were on it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: And lastly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Arthur Hill was one more character that you might not have known you knew, but you knew he went on to play landsford angles.
[SPEAKER_01]: This would be Charles is dad in several houses of little house on the brewery.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I remember that he because he was doing depressed because the mom had died.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, and that's when they shoot money.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and yes, yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I had to turn off the TV.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's what I was going to say.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's in several episodes and perhaps one of the most traumatic.
[SPEAKER_01]: If not the most traumatic for Kristen is the two-part journey in the spring.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Arthur Hill has played some.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's a guy that you don't know.
[SPEAKER_04]: You know, right, but you know.
[SPEAKER_04]: And would be remiss also to talk about this movie without just mentioning Sally Kellerman playing.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, mother because she's so, oh, she's so dramatic.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, right.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just so Houston.
[SPEAKER_04]: But, you know, I mean, starting in, you know, she played Margaret, you know, Hollywood to a hand in the movie.
[SPEAKER_04]: The movie, Mash, and then she was, I mean, a million, a million screen credits.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, she was Jodie Foster's mother and Foxes was Scott.
[SPEAKER_04]: And these are two real, and we're embracing.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're small.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're not the stars of the show, but Sally Kellerman and Arthur Hill are Lauren slash Diane Lane's parents.
[SPEAKER_03]: She only died three years ago.
[SPEAKER_04]: She was in her eighties, which is a nice long life, but yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: This movie really had some heavy weights.
[SPEAKER_01]: They really did.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's go back to Diane Lane.
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you guys know that on March third, when she was featured on the cover of Time Magazine?
[SPEAKER_01]: with the title Hollywood WizKids on the front cover.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was prior to the movie being released.
[SPEAKER_01]: So a little romance had not been released yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the article was actually highlighting this new wave of exceptionally talented young actresses in Hollywood.
[SPEAKER_01]: So they chose Diane to represent that on the cover.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the article also includes information about Brooke Shields and Jody Foster.
[SPEAKER_01]: And talks actually a little bit about Christy McNickle as Buddy Lawrence in
[SPEAKER_01]: family.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think it's interesting that she gets the the cover of time.
[SPEAKER_03]: She doesn't get tiger beat, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: Like that's just how elevated Diane Lane is as a child.
[SPEAKER_03]: She gets the cover of time.
[SPEAKER_03]: That says so much about who she was even as a thirteen year old and even as people are falling in love with her.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like people so if you go online and look up a little romance, it'll be all people saying how they fell in love with Diane Lane at thirteen years old.
[SPEAKER_03]: That was their first crush.
[SPEAKER_03]: Not tiger beat.
[SPEAKER_03]: Time magazine.
[SPEAKER_03]: That just makes so much sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I think going to what we said earlier, how she just portrays this maturity that you know, she's thirteenish on this cover, but she also doesn't appear to be thirteen.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, she was the right female actor to put on the cover, I think.
[SPEAKER_01]: to actually get people to pick up time magazine and say, who is this?
[SPEAKER_01]: And what is this?
[SPEAKER_01]: She wasn't like a household name or anything prior to this, yeah, to this article coming out.
[SPEAKER_04]: So I kind of hate though when you go back and look at her early pictures when she was thirteen and you can just Google darling and image search.
[SPEAKER_04]: So many enemies, same with Brook Shields and people.
[SPEAKER_04]: So highly sexualized, all the pictures of her at age thirteen.
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't know how to take pictures of women without making it sexualized.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just didn't.
[SPEAKER_01]: right and I what was interesting in this article I thought the writer did a really good job of kind of trying to explain how these actresses now are playing sometimes these roles like you you're saying that you know pretty baby at all that
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, they were sexualized.
[SPEAKER_01]: We can look back on that now.
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't come at it.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, from that angle at these movies were, I mean, they were highly acclaimed to movies.
[SPEAKER_03]: They weren't trashy movies.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And these actor well, yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that these young actresses really portrayed these
[SPEAKER_01]: pretty deep roles as they definitely might look now looking back.
[SPEAKER_01]: They were not just these little children in, you know, a Disney movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's younger being actually a big thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pull it off.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: But it's just sad when you see the photos, though, and it's so contradictory, it's such a contradiction of Lauren of the character she plays.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's not, and so different than Brooke Shields is like pretty baby or endless love roles.
[SPEAKER_04]: Lauren,
[SPEAKER_04]: So, wasn't like that.
[SPEAKER_03]: No.
[SPEAKER_03]: Lauren has her little blazer and her knee-high socks and her kilt.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you guys, we talked about some of the actors that were famous in this movie and what they'd gone on to do.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I want to tell you guys a little bit about the director, okay?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he just wasn't some shlep off of the screens.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was a big deal.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, not only are we getting Lawrence Olivier and are we getting Sally Colorman, but George Roy Hill was our director for a little romance.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you guys know he was born in Minneapolis?
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
[SPEAKER_01]: Went to Yale.
[SPEAKER_01]: Eventually went into the film industry.
[SPEAKER_01]: His film career actually took off with which Cassidy and the Sundance kids love that movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: I always love that movie.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, what was him?
[SPEAKER_04]: I just a child.
[SPEAKER_04]: I loved that movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's the two of those two men as buddies.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think we love a buddy movie and those were good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and they had some.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I was like, I know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you just pick up on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, you just pick up on the fact that these two guys get along.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're kind of goofy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that chemistry was so apparent that George Roy Hill went on to direct them again in the sting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, he did the sting.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he won.
[SPEAKER_01]: Best picture and best director for the sting.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's not knows.
[SPEAKER_03]: What is that?
[SPEAKER_03]: What is the?
[SPEAKER_03]: Is the entertainer?
[SPEAKER_03]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's another piano one right here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he also directed a slaughterhouse five, the Great Waldo Pepper and slap shot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I remember slapping the hockey movie with Paul Newman, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: All those are all Paul Newman movies.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: And they're all like on the list of right movies you can watch right in your lifetime.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, based on these are all prior to a little romance.
[SPEAKER_01]: So again, this isn't some director that's trying to get his first film.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, a little romance is this is a big named director.
[SPEAKER_04]: Such a departure from those other movies.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is different, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, actually George Roy Hill has said that all of his movies have some element of coming of age within them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that's a theme that somehow weaves itself in and he can connect that through all of the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: So from slap shot to Butch Cassidy to a little romance.
[SPEAKER_03]: And this is the ultimate coming of age movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, well we shall not be outdone with our director.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to take it one more notch and your guys are going to find out who the incredible man was who wrote the screenplay for a little romance.
[SPEAKER_01]: which earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was the Distinguished American Screenwriter Allen Burns.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure there is any other television producer and writer whose work significantly shaped the American landscape of television, particularly for us, then Allen Burns.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, small people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this goes from his very beginning of his career when he was a part of creating the iconic series The Rocky and Bull Winkle Show Dudley do right and George of the jungle.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then he went on to create the beloved Captain Crunch character for Quaker Rose.
[SPEAKER_03]: She created the Captain Crunch.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Captain Crunch.
[SPEAKER_03]: The screenplay for a little romance created.
[SPEAKER_03]: Captain.
[SPEAKER_04]: Captain Crunch.
[SPEAKER_04]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_04]: Captain Crunch.
[SPEAKER_04]: I have you ever in your whole life until right this moment stopped and thought someone had to create it never happened.
[SPEAKER_04]: No, no.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm created, Captain.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, he's always been.
[SPEAKER_03]: He just like came down from right with Adam and Eve with Adam and Eve.
[SPEAKER_03]: What came first?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't just stay.
[SPEAKER_01]: animating characters.
[SPEAKER_01]: He went on then to create the monsters and my mother, the car, which I totally forgotten about.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was so good at that show.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, my mom loved that show.
[SPEAKER_01]: When I look at the chronological timeline of his career, it's really interesting that it really follows kind of our
[SPEAKER_01]: on a logical growing up because he goes on then to do some more adult like show so he collaborates with James Brooks and joins the writing staff of room to twenty two.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that show.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean my mom watched it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't remember all of that story lines but I loved it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I loved the outfits they wore and it was so like hip and cool.
[SPEAKER_01]: But you guys, it didn't stop there because Alan Burns and James Brooks partnered for what might be the most iconic gen X show, at least for in some ways the three of us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that would be the Mary Tyler Moore show.
[SPEAKER_03]: And now I can see his name.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, now I see his name on that same thing in the past.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_01]: And of course, that show earned him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Emmy Awards, including outstanding comedy series.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is all prior to a little romance.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, so here's a question.
[SPEAKER_04]: If those, like especially the director and the writer, I mean, have this just amazing bodies of work behind them, why wasn't this released more widely?
[SPEAKER_04]: Or why was it this?
[SPEAKER_04]: The PR, you know, amped up for something like this.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm shocked.
[SPEAKER_03]: I am shocked too.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't recall really any PR.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't recall any promo.
[SPEAKER_03]: If we had seen the trailer for this movie, we would have been there in a hot second.
[SPEAKER_04]: And if I wouldn't have been there in nineteen seventy nine, although I would have some ten, but even so this would have been like required viewing at every slumber party I was at in nineteen eighty one, because it would have been like on VHS by then or something.
[SPEAKER_03]: So before we start talking about the storyline itself, let's talk quickly about the music.
[SPEAKER_03]: Did you guys notice the score?
[SPEAKER_03]: Did it add to your experience?
[SPEAKER_03]: And most importantly, I want to ask, did it remind you of anything?
[SPEAKER_03]: Because the music in this movie is important, and we'll talk about why in a second.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I can say, I think it definitely drove the movie for me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was part of the, the feelings I got, you know, when certain, certain music was playing, whether it's fast or slow or whatever, it really added to the scene.
[SPEAKER_01]: I, it reminded me of something, but I don't know what.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I just was in Italy, so I just, it felt like that could have been playing as I was walking the streets of Florence or something, some of it.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm gonna tell you in a second, but I reminded you, you're gonna go, oh my God.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but I won.
[SPEAKER_03]: George Delaro is the composer and he won an Oscar for the score for a little romance.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the reason that it sounds familiar to you, Carolyn, is because it might be reminding you of Cramer versus Cramer.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I have Cramer versus Cramer written down later in my notes.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want this movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I did with Mary.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, she did.
[SPEAKER_03]: Please, the circle.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so crazy that you say that because a little later in my notes, I have the vibe that this movie gave me was a Kramer versus Kramer vibe and like with those movies still be made today because they're just so
[SPEAKER_01]: Good, and you know, it's just, but they're not quiet.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's quiet.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, yeah, like unassuming.
[SPEAKER_04]: The type of movies that creep up on you and then just grab hold.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: So the reason it reminds you of Kramer versus Kramer is because the composer wove the work of Vavaldi into his own composition love the wealth of all
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, and we, as children in particular, came to Nova Valdi because it was incorporated into the Kramer versus Kramer soundtrack.
[SPEAKER_03]: All of a sudden, everyone knew the word Valdi.
[SPEAKER_03]: Nobody knew the one in our parents may have known it, but we kids didn't know Valdi until Kramer versus Kramer.
[SPEAKER_03]: So this is why the score sounds both like sounds vaguely familiar.
[SPEAKER_03]: So the love theme in particular in the movie is a melding of his own composition along with Vavaldi's concerto for loot and violence and de-major.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's bringing two things together.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it's both familiar and perfectly matched to these two little lovers, to their love story.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like adult music with sort of a child like vibe to it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's also Alice's classical music, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's elevating the crushing experience, the teenage crushing experience of seventh grade.
[SPEAKER_03]: Which, you know, let's be honest, that tends to get trivialized by adults or dismissed by adults is not real or not important.
[SPEAKER_03]: But when you set the seventh graders love theme to Vivaldi, you are taking it seriously.
[SPEAKER_03]: You were saying that those feelings are important.
[SPEAKER_03]: But it's still very innocent.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not solterier dramatic.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's tender.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it brought me to tears numerous times.
[SPEAKER_03]: Especially, I'm sure we'll talk about this in a minute.
[SPEAKER_03]: At the end, the very final scene.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I'm not going to say anything right now, but the music, but the music combined with that end scene, I was sobbing.
[SPEAKER_03]: I was just sobbing.
[SPEAKER_03]: So like I said, it won the Academy Award for Best Score and the other nominees that you're included, the Amityville Horror.
[SPEAKER_03]: the champ, which had music by Dave Grooson, so that's super legit, Star Trek, and ten with Bauderic.
[SPEAKER_03]: And all of that music... Oh, I remember that.
[SPEAKER_03]: That was big, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: That was huge.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that was composed by Henry Mancini.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he wins against these heavy hitters.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's quite amazing.
[SPEAKER_04]: OK, so let's get to our story.
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's do.
[SPEAKER_04]: And you might think I copied this synopsis from Wikipedia, but nope.
[SPEAKER_04]: I didn't.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is straight from my memory.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, nice.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I'm done.
[SPEAKER_04]: Welcome.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, the movie follows the burgeoning romance between Lauren, um, Diane Lane on a fluent thirteen year old American with an IQ score of one hundred sixty seven, FYI, one hundred forty and above is considered genius or near genius.
[SPEAKER_04]: I did not know that with my own IQ score, I had to look that out.
[SPEAKER_04]: she's living in Paris with her mother and stepfather and we love him by the way, Carolyn told us all about him and right away we love him and right away what don't you guys say just movies have taught us this your skeptical you're like he's going to be mean I know he's got your skeptical and you're so happy when you're like oh he's so nice I think because I think because I have that like in my bone I knew the counts are a law
[SPEAKER_04]: Right.
[SPEAKER_04]: The first scene where he's like sitting there with his paper and his whiskey, I'm like, well, he's going to be mean.
[SPEAKER_04]: And she comes right in and like kisses him on the cheeky.
[SPEAKER_04]: So she's living with with mother, who's Sally Keller, man and stepfather.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then there's Daniel, a classic movie loving Robert Redford super fan, French boy.
[SPEAKER_04]: And now we know why those movies were coming in there for that together.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he's watching in the very first movie of the very opening of the movie.
[SPEAKER_03]: He's watching Bush Cassidy in the Sundance Kid.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yep.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, he loves classic movies, but he really loves Robert Reddy and that'll come back at the end.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's also a thirteen who lives with his kind of conniving and grumpy taxi driver father.
[SPEAKER_04]: Also Daniel is also a genius.
[SPEAKER_04]: What are the odds?
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, what funny you should ask that because Daniel bets on the horses on paper.
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, he's only thirteen.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's like his hobby.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: And he wins like forty three percent of the time.
[SPEAKER_04]: Lauren and Danielle's meet-cute happens at a very shetowy museumee type place where a movie is being shot and there's actually it's actually a very famous place I can't pronounce the name so let's just go with shetowy museum.
[SPEAKER_03]: It shouldn't show to a place which I only know because there's not French so I don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a shetowy hotel on the north side of Minnesota.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, so yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, Daniel's class is on a field trip there and Lauren is there with her mother who was in the throws of flirting with the movie's director, but really she's throwing herself at him.
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you see what I did there?
[SPEAKER_04]: throws and throw.
[SPEAKER_04]: Just a case anyone out there miss that.
[SPEAKER_04]: That would be me.
[SPEAKER_04]: I missed it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Laura and Danielle hit it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, it wasn't that good.
[SPEAKER_04]: Hit it off immediately and quickly start planning ways to go on dates.
[SPEAKER_04]: Now after Daniel kicks a soccer ball, I mean a football into an elderly man at the park literally just floors him.
[SPEAKER_04]: He just goes,
[SPEAKER_04]: And that's Sir Lawrence or Livia by the way, and he plays Julian.
[SPEAKER_04]: They all go for hot chocolate naturally as you do after you injure an old man at the Harris establishments with the coolest little glass pictures of hot chocolate.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm gonna chocolate.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm gonna do that.
[SPEAKER_04]: I made a note as I was watching like mental note.
[SPEAKER_04]: Winter I'm getting little glass pictures to pour my hot chocolate in first so then I can pour it into my cup.
[SPEAKER_04]: Um, and Julianne looks her Laurence Olivier tells them the love story of him and his dead wife.
[SPEAKER_04]: And Lauren is particularly smitten when he tells her of this tradition.
[SPEAKER_04]: If a couple kisses in a gondola beneath the bridge of size and Venice at sunset while the church bells toll, they will be in love forever.
[SPEAKER_04]: And she's like, let's do it.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's do it.
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm I'm pausing for everyone to go.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_04]: Now we're going to speed up.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to fix for it through this a little bit after Danielle punches the movie director in the stomach for insulting Lauren at her birthday party.
[SPEAKER_04]: That was adorable.
[SPEAKER_03]: That was so adorable because he's being that gross.
[SPEAKER_03]: Seventy's dude like the ice castles thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Were you kidding me?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, dude.
[SPEAKER_03]: She sang to the little thirteen year old boy about the thirteen year old girl.
[SPEAKER_03]: Did you get any?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, like, did you score?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you were up in her room in front of the girl's mother.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was, and Sally, I was like, oh, oh, yeah, she's just like whatever, and then he just halls off.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the thirteen year old boy punches him in the stomach.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was awesome.
[SPEAKER_04]: But, and this tells you a lot about the mother's character because she then forbids the two from seeing each other again.
[SPEAKER_04]: And Lauren knows there's only one way out of her despair to run away with Danielle to Venice.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well now what follows is a delightful series of adventures and misinformation as Lauren's parents think Julian kidnapped them and they do the whole bingy or anti scene with the FBI has been called in and there's a lot of important men on television in different rooms.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and oh my gosh, there's a mad cat bicycle race where Danielle Lauren and yes, even old man Julian hop on bikes and pretend to be contestants.
[SPEAKER_03]: I love that they all had the little cats not helmets remember we don't have bike helmets.
[SPEAKER_03]: We have a little Italian biking hats because that'll protect you right and Lawrence trying to write in her gene reference.
[SPEAKER_04]: We've got some clueless American tourists who save the day and then they don't.
[SPEAKER_04]: We have a lot of running.
[SPEAKER_04]: We have some keystone cops and blunders.
[SPEAKER_04]: We have more running.
[SPEAKER_04]: We have so much running.
[SPEAKER_04]: Lot of running.
[SPEAKER_04]: And spoiler alert.
[SPEAKER_04]: We have a Godzilla ride in Venice.
[SPEAKER_04]: And we have more than a little romance.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like it actually, these kids may get happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: They take it upon themselves and they may get happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: And we have to emphasize the setting for all of this are the cobblestone streets of either Paris or Verona or Venice.
[SPEAKER_03]: Like the whole setting for every one of these scenes, even though it's the Keystone Cops, there's this European vibe throughout.
[SPEAKER_03]: And when the Keystone Cops are running, they'd be like, oh, let's eat!
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_01]: And also, I think this is where the score that we talked about early really plays a significant role because that music is playing and it doesn't sound keystone copy, but at the same time you're getting that sense of urgency or are they getting away or the bike ride?
[SPEAKER_01]: And oh, no, we've got to wait for, you know, Laura.
[SPEAKER_01]: Julian, and anyway, the music helps propel and tell that story, but not in a goofy slapstick anyway.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I tell you why, because as I'm watching this movie, movie in the exact scenes that you're talking about, I was able to identify the style of music that they're playing as Baroque.
[SPEAKER_03]: Why?
[SPEAKER_03]: Because the class that I took in high school where I got a D in humanities, I learned about Baroque music.
[SPEAKER_03]: I learned to identify Baroque music in humanities, but I didn't do the work and I got a D.
[SPEAKER_01]: Was that your senior year?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, but I can still identify Baroque music.
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that what you guys are both saying is is spot on because I said way at the beginning, this did not feel this whole movie as a whole did not feel campy at all.
[SPEAKER_04]: So even though in my synopsis and my recap, I was saying, you know, a series of adventures and misinformation and there's this and this and this and
[SPEAKER_04]: you know, Keystone cops.
[SPEAKER_04]: I made sure and say it's a delightful series of that.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: That felt um it all just it all drinking game everyone for the as many times as Michelle is going to say authentic in this episode, but it felt it didn't feel can't be it didn't feel sealed.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was laughing.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, like of course they were just here and now the cops are there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not Benny Hill.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's not Benny Hill.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it was all it all worked.
[SPEAKER_04]: And I think you guys what you said is exactly right because the score helped that.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_03]: It elevated the entire experience.
[SPEAKER_03]: And when you talked about the what their their meet cute and when they start to make a plan like they meet each other and they're going to make a plan to see each other.
[SPEAKER_03]: That moment to me.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's almost cried when they actually succeeded in finding and making a date because it's the most analog experience ever.
[SPEAKER_03]: They don't have phones, they don't know where each other lives, they have no email, they have no way to contact each other, which means they have to
[SPEAKER_03]: make a plan on the spot in person and commit to it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's very urgent.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's very urgent.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're like, where?
[SPEAKER_03]: Where should we go?
[SPEAKER_03]: They are free off.
[SPEAKER_03]: What time?
[SPEAKER_03]: At three pm.
[SPEAKER_03]: Where do you live?
[SPEAKER_03]: And they're both smiling.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're doing there's this urgency because I have to go.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have to get on the bus.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a field trip and I have to go.
[SPEAKER_03]: But we're going to meet at this place.
[SPEAKER_03]: And there's this urgency.
[SPEAKER_03]: Will they show up?
[SPEAKER_03]: And then the scene ends.
[SPEAKER_03]: And you can tell that both of their hearts are just swelling.
[SPEAKER_03]: But the tension of
[SPEAKER_03]: Are they going to show up at the architecture field for the right time?
[SPEAKER_04]: How are they going to make this happen?
[SPEAKER_04]: And you don't know.
[SPEAKER_04]: And one thing we haven't mentioned that maybe we pause to talk about here because as the date starts to unfold, they rely on their friends, their best friends.
[SPEAKER_04]: And holy cow, I love these two characters so much.
[SPEAKER_04]: We don't even have time.
[SPEAKER_04]: I don't think to do a whole deep dive on them, but uh, the brace is wearing white.
[SPEAKER_04]: I just have to get her name.
[SPEAKER_04]: Please remind me of Natalie.
[SPEAKER_03]: Natalie, Natalie with the brace.
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: Also went on to do just become a regular.
[SPEAKER_04]: That was pretty much a little romance was her only film that she ever did.
[SPEAKER_04]: So funny.
[SPEAKER_04]: So real.
[SPEAKER_04]: She just went.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, God.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, God for everything.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then a boy.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, I can't stand it, who is he?
[SPEAKER_00]: His name is Danielle.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's French God, what else?
[SPEAKER_00]: He lives in London and his father drives a cab.
[SPEAKER_00]: God, your mother will have a fit if she finds out.
[SPEAKER_00]: You better not tell her.
[SPEAKER_05]: Are you in love?
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't fall in love with the boy you just met?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: And then his best friend has like the fedora has been on and he's like all of like four feet tall.
[SPEAKER_04]: Just the the the side of those two slow dancing.
[SPEAKER_04]: His head is pressed up against her.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm getting an image a very similar image.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's Joan Kewsack, a long duck dog.
[SPEAKER_03]: These two, with the braces and their dancing.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they're writing for this best friend.
[SPEAKER_03]: First of all, there are some complaints about this movie that the children are too sophisticated.
[SPEAKER_03]: But they're contrasted with these two best friends who are absolutely not sophisticated at all.
[SPEAKER_03]: And at one point, the best finale is talking about her cousin, and how she has this crush on her cousin, and Lauren's like, that's gross.
[SPEAKER_03]: You can't love your cousin.
[SPEAKER_03]: She's like, it's a second cousin.
[SPEAKER_03]: The kids don't turn out funny or anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Kristen you said something that I realized was another reason I really enjoyed this movie because to me it was so sweet and it was charming but it was also kind of bitter sweet because of those analog moments.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think part of me was saying
[SPEAKER_01]: This isn't necessarily going to ever happen again this way, whether it was them making that day or something really struck me a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: There were several scenes where there was a newspaper in the scene.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it just really made me pause.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like the way that somebody, I think the very first one was Arthur or the father was reading the newspaper.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the way he was holding the newspaper and kind of that, you know, that sound you kind of make when you open it up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yes, and then we go to Danielle when he's like circling the movie times and he's got it like folded into quarters.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the couple, the American couple, they're looking at the newspaper at one point and so is
[SPEAKER_01]: Julian, and it just made me miss newspapers and the way we held them and the way we would fold them in certain ways to read certain parts of it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like tactile memory.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a timeless story.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a universal experience as we know from your writing and worldwide crush and Scott Fenwick.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do think that there is an age group that would enjoy a movie like this today.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, I think so.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think we never get
[SPEAKER_03]: today, which is, it will never happen again.
[SPEAKER_03]: And there's a, it's interesting.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a lot of talk online about how they could never make this movie again because it's so dependent, the tension in the story is so dependent on it being analog.
[SPEAKER_03]: There's another great scene.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a total Scott Fenwick scene where it's after their first date and they're, and they're walking around Paris and Lauren quickly kisses Danielle on the subway platform right before hopping on her train.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all,
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, no, there's no thirteen year old who is wandering around the city of Paris and hopping on a subway by herself.
[SPEAKER_03]: I just don't think parents today would allow that to happen.
[SPEAKER_03]: And she is the one who grabs him and kisses him super fast.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like the most chased kiss you've ever seen, but it's ever so exciting.
[SPEAKER_03]: And as soon as she does it, she turns around and runs and she hops on the train and the train pulls out of the station.
[SPEAKER_03]: And she waves out the window at him as the train pulls away.
[SPEAKER_03]: And they are both just giddy.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're giddy.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I am smitten.
[SPEAKER_03]: This is a total Scott Fenwick moment.
[SPEAKER_03]: But you realize part of the excitement is that there is no, I'm going to text him from the train.
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll maybe we'll start talking when I get home.
[SPEAKER_03]: All they can do is wait for the next date that they've planned and will they show up?
[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, it's so innocent.
[SPEAKER_04]: And what it happens today is that because of technology and everything, thirteen-year-olds aren't that innocent as they were.
[SPEAKER_04]: And they may be so undeniable.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that there are elements of the story and the crush experience that, again, are timeless and universal.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, yeah, you might have to change it out to be a phone and there are some things that would be different.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that longing and that gittiness, you know, you were in play practice together, let's say, and then your mom's picking you up and you're
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, it's the last day of school, whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you can still recreate those kind of moments of longing and gettingness in today.
[SPEAKER_03]: I want to talk about the last scene because there are several places where I cried in this film because my heart is just bursting.
[SPEAKER_03]: You're so sad for them and happy for them all at the same time, which is, you know, the very definition of bitter street, what, bitter sweet, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: And we want to tell you exactly what happens except to say that, you know, these kids are in seventh grade.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're not going to get married.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right, there has to be an inevitable parting.
[SPEAKER_03]: There just has to be.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I want to read this to you from a film blogger named Scott Ross, seventy-nine.
[SPEAKER_03]: And everything that this blogger said about the film is like, well, I'm not even going to try and say anything because he just says it perfectly.
[SPEAKER_03]: So he says, when the two must part at the end, the reprise of that melody of the music, the George Delaware wrote, becomes nearly unbearable.
[SPEAKER_03]: And by the time George Roy Hill gives us the emotional release of the Lonious Bernard's leap up into the unforgettable freeze frame with which the movie ends, and that suspends the boy in an attitude of joy as hope, it would take a stronger emotional constitution than mine not to be moved.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's that that young love.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, there's was kind of very similar.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was, oh, I'm going away, but I want to still be waving to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you know, we'll see each other soon.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'll see you soon, Lauren.
[SPEAKER_03]: We are going off.
[SPEAKER_03]: We will see each other.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's, I'm going to tell you, listeners, just a little bit more without giving away the end.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let me just say that it involves running after her car that is departing.
[SPEAKER_03]: Is it not everybody's like nightmare slash fantasy that the person who loves you is like running after you as you're departing for the airport?
[SPEAKER_03]: And there is just this, there's this freeze frame moment and it is moving making at its finest.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's so good.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's so, so good.
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you think that leap in the air that they caught in freeze frame?
[SPEAKER_03]: Do you think that was improvised or do you think that he was directed to do that?
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, that's, let's, you know what, let's just leave that as an open thought.
[SPEAKER_04]: We can all think what we well.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I'm for some reason.
[SPEAKER_04]: I was, I want to say
[SPEAKER_03]: I was feeling improvised and I was, you know, two Thalonius Bernard's credit.
[SPEAKER_03]: He was so good at his job and I thought, could he have been so wrapped up in the moment that he just leaped into the air?
[SPEAKER_03]: It's so possible because I think if you were scripted to leap, you might be like, one, two, three, two, three.
[SPEAKER_04]: You're saying to the director, am I going to leap?
[SPEAKER_04]: Is it one, two, three, jump?
[SPEAKER_04]: You know how when you're trying to get everybody to jump at the same time?
[SPEAKER_04]: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
[SPEAKER_03]: It is absolutely perfection.
[SPEAKER_03]: And the critics hated it.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's bad.
[SPEAKER_03]: Roger Ebert gave this movie two stars.
[SPEAKER_03]: The New York Times said the film was so ponderous.
[SPEAKER_03]: It seems almost mean spirited.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's been a long time since I've seen a movie about Burish American tourists.
[SPEAKER_03]: and felt sorry for the tourists?
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm sure nothing mean spirited was intended, but such is the film's effect.
[SPEAKER_03]: This may be the main hazard when one sets out to make a film so relentlessly sweet tempered that it winds up like Pauliana alienating everyone.
[SPEAKER_04]: And you know what I'm sorry he's never he never was in real love.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, the show was uncomfortable right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like she wants to shed her skin and he wasn't the audience who the movie was made for and if you put yourself maybe in the eyes or seat of the people that the movie was made for you might have looked at it a little different
[SPEAKER_03]: He sounds like such an adult.
[SPEAKER_03]: He sounds like an adult who is no memory of being a routine.
[SPEAKER_03]: The Washington Post said, the intentional comedy in the film always seems on the verge of working, but then is quickly bludgeoned to death.
[SPEAKER_03]: I know bad.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't get that at all.
[SPEAKER_03]: These people are dumb.
[SPEAKER_01]: Are any of these people women?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that was Judith Martin with the Washington Post.
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, Judith Martin has never been in real love.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then so here's Roger Ebert's review.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to read parts of it to you.
[SPEAKER_03]: So you can just see why he gave it a two star review.
[SPEAKER_03]: A little romance has been described as a movie about the way kids behave when adults aren't looking.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it's quite the opposite.
[SPEAKER_03]: A movie about the way kids behave when adults are looking, and when adults are writing the dialogue and directing the action too, it gives us two movie kids in a story so unlikely I assume it was intended as fantasy.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it gives us dialogue and situations so relentlessly cute we want to squirm.
[SPEAKER_03]: The kids are played by Thelonius Bernard and Diane Lane,
[SPEAKER_03]: who are really pretty good.
[SPEAKER_03]: If you can separate how they act from what they're acting in, it's not their fault.
[SPEAKER_03]: The little romance is about two thirteen-year-olds who could only exist in fiction, and whose witty one liners often sound as if they were authored by the writer of the Mary Tyler Marshall, as indeed they were.
[SPEAKER_03]: These are attractive kids and they look interesting.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know why that's relevant.
[SPEAKER_03]: I wonder what they talked about between takes and how they acted when the cameras weren't rolling.
[SPEAKER_03]: There might be a movie there somewhere.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, first of all, I'm gonna say this.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is like I'll say next week when we talk about the Scott Finwick Diaries.
[SPEAKER_04]: This is so, it's done so authentically.
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, everyone take a drink, drink, drink, and real.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: We're a conversation you're gonna hear next week is talking about how, when you're, thirteen, twelve and thirteen, you're very, you're often very, it's not everybody, not a hundred percent of the people, but I would say most,
[SPEAKER_04]: This is all new and you're unsure and you're scared and it's complicated and it's confusing and I think they did it amazingly and all I want to do is I want to can we just walk down the street and hold hands yes and that's what so to me Roger Ebert is that's such an ignorant yeah exactly ignorant review
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that that's just a lot what we talked we'll talk about next week when we talk about Scott Fenwick and why this movie might not have made an impact like we thought it should and made it around to theaters because these adults and maybe a lot of men, at least the way right in your ebert is talking are just
[SPEAKER_01]: making these caricatures really of what thirteen-year-old kids were highly.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just, it makes me really mad because it's like the people that are the furthest away from thirteen-year-olds, whether being them or living with them or whatever, are making these blanket statements about this is nothing what a thirteen-year-old would be doing.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really what's behind the scenes.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, tell us it's that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because it's not that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, you've got three women here who grew up who were thirteen once.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we remember it.
[SPEAKER_01]: We remember it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: No Roger Ebert.
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's all I got to say.
[SPEAKER_04]: And let's not forget that the the goal of her of Lauren, especially, but in this movie is just to ride in a guy.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's so romantic.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's all the little romance.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's just to ride under the gond under the bridge in a gondola and have a kiss and spoiler alert.
[SPEAKER_04]: So closure ears if although we've already.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, we know.
[SPEAKER_04]: any time they kiss, so there is another scene where they kiss, I believe it's another birthday party after he gives her a present and then and in front of the friends because because Natalie's like, oh gosh, she wants to happen.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's it's just an innocent Kelly.
[SPEAKER_04]: There's no, it's not the big open mouth back and forth sloppy suction face.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a handholding.
[SPEAKER_04]: It's a kiss on the cheek and it's just very, very sweet.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not Jenny and Greg right.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not a teenage romance.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's all yes or thirteen, but it's a preteen romance.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's first love.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not teen love.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's not
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not leader of the pack.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not Jenny and Greg and from all my children.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a step before that.
[SPEAKER_03]: So it retains as innocence.
[SPEAKER_03]: They're not on their way to getting married.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know they won't be together forever.
[SPEAKER_03]: And what I think Roger Ebert misses about this movie is that
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, these kids are extremely sophisticated.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, they, they bond over German existentialism.
[SPEAKER_03]: I think that's funny.
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, I think that's really funny part of the story.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's part of the story, like, is very well.
[SPEAKER_03]: Nobody else will talk about German existentialism with me except Danielle.
[SPEAKER_03]: And so what these are, yes, they're sophisticated, thirteen year olds.
[SPEAKER_03]: but they are aspirational thirteen-year-olds.
[SPEAKER_03]: They are very grown-up and they are what we aspire to be.
[SPEAKER_03]: So this cancels out his criticism of it being unrealistic because Roger Ebert is saying a thirteen-year-old would never say that, but the real question should be what a thirteen-year-old want to say that, which makes it believable.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because would I get that out of my mouth?
[SPEAKER_03]: No, but do I want to be that way?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, I do.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay, so the critics hated it, but what about regular people?
[SPEAKER_03]: And so here's what regular people had to say.
[SPEAKER_03]: And these are like film bloggers commenters and most importantly, kids, because that's the audience who saw it back in nineteen seventy nine.
[SPEAKER_03]: So journeys and classic film said, a little romance is perfect.
[SPEAKER_03]: Ten out of ten.
[SPEAKER_03]: No notes.
[SPEAKER_03]: The moderator at the TCM, the Turner Classic Movies Classic Film Festival said, I don't know if I'd call this movie perfection, but is about as close as movies come.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then we have Scott Ross, seventy-nine again who said, a little romance completely fulfilled my ideal of satisfying romantic whimsy.
[SPEAKER_03]: So those are real people.
[SPEAKER_03]: And then let's talk about the viewers, Michelle.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_04]: While the viewers loved it too, and we're viewers, and I think we've just given a really great, you know, our long review on it.
[SPEAKER_04]: But we have things like a little romance is one of the cutest teen romances ever made, strongly recommend this film for anyone who has teens, but really for anyone looking for something wholesome and heartwarming, a little romance is a masterpiece.
[SPEAKER_04]: A teacher saying, I teach eighth graders, and I love how realistic the kids are in this.
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, one says I watched this on TCM tonight, and I've been feeling grouchy all day, and this chased away my grumps.
[SPEAKER_04]: I know, I love that, and enchanting, lovable film.
[SPEAKER_04]: Here's a good one.
[SPEAKER_04]: I saw a little romance two more times before it ended its brief run at Teton Cinema, there in my hometown of Jackson, Wyoming.
[SPEAKER_04]: I sat in the darkened theater, my blood quickening for those two hours, memorizing Diane Lane's face while she was on screen.
[SPEAKER_04]: I fell asleep each night with Diane flickering across the back of my eyelids.
[SPEAKER_04]: I fantasized about this new Hollywood princess telling her parents should like to vacation at the grand t-tons that summer and on that vacation that come into town one day and on that day that decide to stop in Jackson drug for an ice cream Sunday and on that day I'd be sitting on the second stool from the end at that very same lunch counter and she would take the third stool from the end and her arm would brush mine
[SPEAKER_04]: God, right.
[SPEAKER_01]: My drop.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's what they wanted.
[SPEAKER_01]: The director wanted somebody to experience after that film.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_04]: They, they're, um, you know, fantasizing about their own little romance.
[SPEAKER_04]: Right.
[SPEAKER_04]: But, you know, like, here's a boy of who's that age.
[SPEAKER_04]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_04]: He's fantasizing about something just as innocent as that whole movie.
[SPEAKER_04]: So again, I say it.
[SPEAKER_04]: Ice cream, Sunday, Robert Ebert, Roger Ebert.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: And brushing her arm brushing up against my, it's as innocent as it gets.
[SPEAKER_03]: And real, it's as real as it gets.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the joke really is on Roger Ebert.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would have to say because guess what?
[SPEAKER_01]: A little romance won a shit ton of awards.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we said earlier, the film won the nineteen seventy-nine Academy Award for Best Original Score.
[SPEAKER_01]: It received two additional nominations for that year as Academy Awards for Best Adapted Screenplay.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it received nominations in the Golden Globe Awards for Best Supporting Actor for Lawrence Olivier and Best Original Score again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the films young leads slony as Bernard and Diane Lane both received young artists
[SPEAKER_01]: award nominations as best actor and best actress respectively as well as earning the film a win as best motion picture featuring youth Roger Ebert.
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, come on.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody knew the smart people knew that's what I say.
[SPEAKER_03]: They did.
[SPEAKER_03]: So obviously, our final recommendation of the movie is a thumbs up.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, thumbs up.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm going to wind up this conversation by again, reading from the film blogger Scott Ross, seventy-nine, because again, everything that she says is exactly what I want to say except better.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he says, as with anything in life, from a pleasing odor to a symphonic masterwork, there are movies that encountered at an especially vulnerable moment can resonate with you for life.
[SPEAKER_03]: and that merely thinking about return you to a time and a place when you are, if not happy, at least hopeful of happiness.
[SPEAKER_03]: A little romance for me is one of those works of popular art that, while perhaps less than perfect, because exactly what is, it retains its sweetness and its charm, and more than justifies my long ago fondness for it.
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, the ache, the movie elicits from me now may be infinitely more bitter sweet.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I just have nothing more to say.
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, right?
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's also perfectly.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's the reason we talk about the movies and music from our childhoods because we were vulnerable and innocent and full of feelings once and that's a nice thing to remember.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you for listening everybody and we will see you next time.
[SPEAKER_04]: And we'd like to give a special thank you shout out to some of our supporters over on Patreon.
[SPEAKER_04]: Today we're saying thank you to Sheila, Christina, Linda, Jill, Erica, Rosarita, MP, Cheryl, Julie, Susie, Mel, Stephanie, and Kevin.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you to all our patrons.
[SPEAKER_03]: And like I said at the top of the show, my next novel The Scott Fenwick Diaries is as on sale on July, twenty second, but you can pre-order two days starting now anywhere where you buy books.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that would be really nice if you did that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you so much.
[SPEAKER_03]: In the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast courtesy of the cast of three's company.
[SPEAKER_03]: Two good times.
[SPEAKER_03]: Two happy days.
[SPEAKER_03]: Two little house on the prairie.
[SPEAKER_03]: Cheers.
[SPEAKER_04]: Cheers, everyone.
[SPEAKER_03]: The information opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture preservation society podcast belong solely to Carolyn the crushologist and Hello Newman and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates, and though we truly believe we're always right, there's always a first time.
[SPEAKER_03]: The PCPS is written produced and recorded in Minneapolis Minnesota home of the fictional W. J.M.
[SPEAKER_03]: studios and our beloved Mary Richards, man and man and keep on trucking and made the force be with you.