This is a charming film made in French which appears never to have been distributed with English subtitles, despite Susan Hampshire being the female lead. The French title is PARIS AU MOIS D'AOÛT, which literally translated is PARIS IN THE MONTH OF AUGUST. As everyone familiar with Paris knows, Paris is essentially deserted by the French during August, as they all go on holiday for a month, mostly in the South. Most Paris restaurants are also closed for the month for August, except for the brasseries and cafes. So Paris is left to the foreign tourists during that time, who have to struggle to find somewhere to eat because of all the seasonal closures. It is during just such a time that this story is set. Since so much of the action takes place in the streets, we get to see many views of Paris as it was in 1966, but the streets are essentially empty of traffic, and it is like a beautiful ghost town. Susan Hampshire is what was then called a 'cover girl', meaning a top model who appears on the front covers of magazines. She has come to Paris for a glamour shoot lasting many days, and by chance she meets a humble French man who works as a counter assistant in a department store, played by Charles Aznavour. Yes, that is Charles Aznavour the singer. At one point in this film he does sing an overwhelmingly emotional song, with his powerful voice, and for fans of Aznavour, it is worth seeing this film just to hear it. It was popular to put Aznavour into films at this time, which led to some anomalies, because he was a small man without the benefit of outstanding good looks. So he makes an unlikely romantic lead in any film, and that applies here as well. He and Susan Hampshire fall wonderfully in love, and although she could not be more convincing about finding him irresistible, one does wonder whether she might perhaps need spectacles. But putting that aside, the film has a tremendous sweep of romance about it and is very uplifting. The most fascinating thing of all is the kittenish, giggling, eccentric and lovable presence of the young Susan Hampshire. I knew her fairly well in the summer of 1963, and as we occasionally shared her car together (a Humber Super Snipe, which was a wonderful car then) supplied by MGM Studios to take her back and forth, we had occasions to chat informally. She was very much like she is in this film, so it was a truly wonderful evocation of memory for me to see her appear in a film just as I remembered her. I don't believe she ever made an English language film which showed this side of her so vividly. At the time I knew her, she was very keen on the Irish writer J. P. Donleavy and she told me most earnestly that he was about to get the Nobel Prize for Literature (I presume he assured her of that, in order to impress her), which of course never happened. One day at the studios, Susan found a baby bird which had fallen out of its nest, and she was so distressed at the fate of the bird that she nearly forgot to go back into the sound stage and do her next scene. She really was what D. W Griffith called 'a true heart Susie'. So anyone who wants to know what Susan Hampshire was like when young only has to watch this film, and there she is. It was directed by Pierre Granier-Deferre, whom she married and by whom she had a son. It was fortunate that Susan spoke such good French, or none of this would have been possible.
