"A Few Hours of Sunlight" is a relatively obscure French film from 1971 that ultimately fails to fully satisfy. I originally rented this one because it stars Claudine Auger, an actress that I (and probably 40 million other male baby boomers) have had the hots for ever since her appearance in 1965's "Thunderball," and whose work I recently enjoyed in a couple of superb gialli, "Bay of Blood" and "The Black Belly of the Tarantula" (both also from 1971). "A Few Hours," however, centers on a handsome Parisian journalist named Gilles, well played, I suppose, by Marc Porel. On the verge of a nervous breakdown and bored with his current girlfriend (Claudine's "Black Belly" costar Barbara Bach), he escapes to his sister's country home in Limoges, where he meets the equally bored (and married) Nathalie Silvener, played by our Claudine. The two enter into an instant affair that ultimately leads to tragedy. Unfortunately for the viewer, it is a tragedy that is largely unearned by any previous knowledge we have of the characters. The film's main problem, I feel, is that it never reveals why we should care about these two unsympathetic people (Gilles is at first gruff and morose, turns decent when love strikes him, and then grows detached and caddish again; Nathalie, though beautiful, impresses us as one of the bored idle rich just flitting around for some diversion, her actions at the film's end those of emotional immaturity). Still, the film does have its compensations, including some gorgeous scenery (Limoges AND Claudine), another wonderfully romantic score from Michel "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" Legrand, and an early appearance by Gerard Depardieu. But with two ambiguously motivated and only barely likable lead characters, the picture is never as involving as I'm sure director Jacques Deray intended. Anyone know the French expression for "crocodile tears"?
Review of A Few Hours of Sunlight
