A Few Hours of Sunlight (1971) from Tuna

This is a very French love story in which Claudine Auger and Marc Porel get 110 minutes to soak your hankie, abetted by a soundtrack full of treacle from Michel Legrand and a back-up cast that includes a very young Gerard Depardieu, the ubiquitous Frenchman who is the only living human with a facial feature bigger than De Gaulle's nose.

For those that care, here is a:

spoiler plot outline.

Porel is tired of porking Barbara Hershey, so he takes off for a country vacation at his sister's. There, he meets a married Claudine Auger, and the two fall madly in love. She is an instant cure for his depression, so he takes her to Paris, after kicking Hershey's butt out of his flat. Things are fine for a while, until the relationship gets comfortable, then she overhears him telling his buddy that he is beginning to resent her for doing too much for him. So she checks into a hotel and swallows a pharmacy. He pretends to be sorry.

End Spoilers

You might be wondering how they managed to fill the 110 minute running time with this minimal plot. The answer is: they didn't. For instance, there is a long scene with the two lovers frolicking in a field of sheep. We also see them walking through Paris in real time.

In case you haven't yet guessed, I did not care for this film.

Further, I would treat anyone who did with a great deal of suspicion.

 

DVD INFO (left)

 

NUDITY REPORT

  • Claudine Auger shows her buns and gets around to both breasts eventually, one in each of two scenes.

  • An unknown shows her left breast.

The Critics Vote ...

  •  No major reviews online

 

The People Vote ...

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

Our own guideline:

  • A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre.
  • B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. In order to rate at least a B-, a film should be both a critical and commercial success. Exceptions: (1) We will occasionally rate a film B- with good popular acceptance and bad reviews, if we believe the critics have severely underrated a film. (2) We may also assign a B- or better to a well-reviewed film which did not do well at the box office if we feel that the fault lay in the marketing of the film, and that the film might have been a hit if people had known about it. (Like, for example, The Waterdance.)
  • C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by people who enjoy this kind of movie. If this is your kind of movie, a C+ and an A are indistinguishable to you.
  • C means it is competent, but uninspired genre fare. People who like this kind of movie will think it satisfactory. Others probably will not.
  • C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie, but genre addicts find it watchable. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film, but films with this rating should be approached with caution by mainstream audiences, who may find them incompetent or repulsive or both. If this is NOT your kind of movie, a C- and an E are indistinguishable to you.
  • D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-. Films rated below C- generally have both bad reviews and poor popular acceptance.
  • E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre.
  • F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

 

Based on this description, this film is a D.

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