A difficult film to discuss, partly because it is unique and so comparisons seem possible or pertinent. A UK/French co-production, it comes towards the end of the late 50s/early 60s British realist film movement and coincides with the flourishing French New Wave. Elements of both are evident here in a tale centred around a troubled fifteen year old girl living in isolation on the coat of Brittany with her elderly father and home help. The cinematography by Marcel Grignon is tremendous, ranging from beautiful sweeping shots of the coastline to constantly moving shots within the confines of the dilapidated house. Music by the prolific composer George Delerue seems to convey as much as the dialogue in what is an extremely emotional and involving film concerned exclusively with the relationships between the various characters. A very moral film that makes no moral judgement.

Producer: Christian Ferry. Copyright 23 August 1965 by Panoramic Productions. U.S. release through International Classics: September 1965. New York opening at the Paris: 23 August 1965. U.K. release through 20th Century-Fox: 3 September 1967 (sic). Australian release through 20th Century-Fox: 17 March 1966. Sydney opening at the Town (ran one week). 105 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Agnes Larbaud (Patricia Gozzi) is a beautiful but withdrawn girl who lives with her father, retired Judge Frederick Larbaud (Melvyn Douglas) and Karen (Gunnel Lindblom),their maid, in an old house located on a remote seacoast of France. She exists in a world of her imagination, because the Judge has kept her isolated from civilization.

For companionship, she builds a scarecrow upon which she lavishes all her attention. Then one night, Joseph (Dean Stockwell),a wounded young Army deserter, arrives at the lonely house. When he sees the scarecrow he puts on its ragged clothes and collapses. The Judge and Karen discover from newspapers that Joseph is wanted for murder, but do not notify the gendarmes of his presence. The Judge is pleased to have someone intelligent with whom to talk and play chess, and Karen soon becomes romantically involved with Joseph.

NOTES: The story of "Rapture" involves the interrelated search for love by its four leading characters. Douglas plays a retired judge who feels that his dead wife never loved him, and who hopes to win the affection of his teenage daughter. She, played by Patricia Gozzi, is in turn desperately in love with a fugitive merchant seaman (Dean Stockwell) who comes their way and is captivated by her. Gunnel Lindblom, as the servant girl, solves her own romantic needs by taking love wherever she finds it.

These performers bring to the screen a wealth of contrasting personalities: veteran actor Douglas, who has been a stage and screen luminary for the past thee decades and has appeared in a wide variety of roles; young Stockwell, who went through an entire career as a child star before growing up to adult roles in such films as Compulsion and Long Day's Journey Into Night, for both of which he was awarded the prize as best actor at the Cannes Film Festival; sixteen-year-old Patricia Gozzi, who gave an unforgettable performance with her touching and sensitive role in Sundays and Cybele; and Gunnel Lindblom, the exciting Swedish beauty seen recently as the heroine of Ingmar Bergman's The Silence. Rapture was filmed mainly on location on the coast of Brittany in an old farmhouse on a hill above the fishing port of Erquy. The farmhouse was designed in the Breton style of the early 19th century on a site completely lacking in such amenities as water, gas and electricity. — Fox Publicity.

COMMENT: This film looks very attractive from the trailer, with its arresting compositions, superb black-and-white CinemaScope photography and fine music score. The film itself, however, suffers from a rather slow script, which is made to appear even more laborious by the sluggish delivery of some of the players, especially Melvyn Douglas.

Believe it or not,Patricia Gozzi is virtually forgotten in her native France.Not only "Cybèle Ou Les Dimanches De Ville D'Avray" is NOT available on DVD ,but it's also NEVER screened on French TV!But at least ,it's included in the French Dictionnaire Des Films whereas "Rapture" aka "La Fleur De L'Age" is nowhere to be seen.It was broadcast today on satellite TV.I knew Patricia Gozzi was outstanding,but in "Rapture " she is even better an actress than in "Cybèle".Her decision to call it quits after her marriage was a major loss for French cinema.(Gozzi had made her real debut in Melville's "Leon Morin Pretre" but she only had a supporting part.

It's hard to admit that the director who made "Tower Inferno" or "Death on the Nile" made this art house work.But it is so."Rapture" is an exceptionally original movie,with complex characters (one user wrote ,and he was right ,that the relationship father/daughter remained extremely mysterious ,running the whole gamut,from desperate love to hatred and resentment),a gloomy cinematography which takes advantage of the splendor of the landscapes of Bretagne.Some scenes are absolutely phenomenal: the rag doll on the rocks (and the final scene which is its exact equivalent),the fight in the shed,the insane asylum where Agnes is irresistibly attracted ,the chemistry between her and James Deanesque Dean Stockwell .There are similarities between Gozzi's parts in "Cybèle" and "Rapture" :in both works,we find a little girl or a teenager in love with someone much older than her.The endings are very similar too.Both are heartbreakingly beautiful .

To write that Georges Delerue's scores are simply magnificent is to state the obvious.He too was never replaced.