A Few Hours Of Sunlight
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Film: B-
Gilles
(Jean Claude-Carriere) is a man in an unhappy marriage that he decides to begin
abandoning when he meets Nathalie (Claudine Auger) in Un Peu De Soleil L’Eau Froide aka A Few Hours Of Sunlight (1971).
Auger was Domino, the lead in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball, while his wife is played
by Barbara Bach, who would be the lead six years later in the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. Certainly a lack of good looks or beauty was
not a problem for the male part of this love triangle.
Co-Writer/Director
Jacques Deray has a great situation set up with some fine casting, but allows
melodrama and some formula to overtake what could have been much more of a
multiple character study. We never
totally learn why the marriage ran into trouble, or why the new couple falls in
love with each other. It eventually
feels like a less campy film out of the Valley Of The Dolls melodrama cycle, despite being
made in France and with no drugs in the
storyline. It is that aesthetic that
epitomizes the wall the film hits and also the male idea of what a woman’s film
was to men in many such cinemas.
The
letterboxed 1.66 X 1 is not only deserving of an anamorphic transfer, but is
from a videotape source that looks like a dated analog master with some tape
damage in places. It also has the
burned-in type of subtitles. Jean
Badal’s cinematography is moody enough to make the storyline more effective,
but nudity is dodged or concealed in a laughable, pretentious way that is
trying to be classy, but looks dated.
The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is compressed sounding, due in part to the
old sound, a few generations down from this master. There are no extras.
It should
be said that Gerard Depardieu is hardly in the film, despite getting top
billing when female lead Auger’s name is in small print on the DVD case! It also is worth noting that the acting is
good in the film, with a particular nod to Auger and Bach, proving Bond girls
are not the talentless stereotype that is always passed off as fact. A Few
Hours Of Sunlight may not be as bright as the title suggests, but it has
enough enlightenment that it made for interesting viewing, despite its flaws.
- Nicholas Sheffo
