Sundays and Cybele Reviews

After accidentally killing a young girl on a bombing mission in the Indochinese War, Kruger returns to France and takes up residence in a small town near Paris, becoming friendly with 12-year-old Gozzi, who lives in a nearby convent orphanage. Pretending to be her father, Kruger, who suffers from bouts of amnesia as a result of war trauma, begins spending Sundays with the precocious child. A close, warm friendship builds between them, and they decide to spend Christmas together. However, friends of the woman with whom Kruger lives, Courcel, take a dark view of his relationship with the girl and call the police, who arrive on the scene just as "Francoise" has revealed to Pierre, as a Christmas gift, her real name, Cybele. Director-cowriter Serge Bourguignon treats a sensitive subject with grace here to create a warm, often poignant film, although his presentation tends to call attention to the film's style at the expense of substance. The true heart of the picture is the marvelous chemistry between Kruger and Gozzi, with the added benefit of Henri Decae's fine photography. The film won an Oscar as Best Foreign-Language Film of 1962, and received nominations in 1963 for Best Screenplay and Best Score.