Friends (1971 film)

Plot

In this teen romance, a neglected 15-year-old English boy named Paul Harrison (Sean Bury), living in Paris with his wealthy businessman father, befriends an orphaned 14-year-old French girl named Michelle Latour (Anicée Alvina). She is recently arrived in Paris to live with her cousin but soon finds the situation in her cousin's Montmartre apartment to be disturbingly unwholesome.

Together, Paul and Michelle decide to run away; they travel to the idyllic marshlands of the Camargue where Michelle has in her keeping a very small cottage. She and her recently deceased artist father periodically escaped to the cottage from their home in Arles. There, Paul and Michelle set up housekeeping, become lovers, have a baby, and play at being responsible adults. Along the way, both Paul and Michelle discover many of the troubles that can be involved with family life. Ultimately, however, police who have responded to a missing-persons report from Paul's father find and separate the two, presumably taking their baby into protective custody.

Sequel

In the 1974 sequel, Paul and Michelle, the young family has been reunited, and Paul Harrison has to cope with not only a new love interest for Michelle Latour, but also the difficulties he faces balancing work, college, and trying to maintain their family.

Critical reception

The film received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best English-Language Foreign Film at the 1972 Golden Globe Awards. Additionally, it was nominated for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture at the 1972 Grammy Awards.

Roger Ebert gave the film a one-star rating, criticizing it heavily for its portrayal of teenage sex: "The archness of their 'innocence' toward sex is, finally, just plain dirty. And the worst thing is that the movie seems to like it that way."

Cast