A Time for Loving movie storyline. At the same time as an English man, Geoff arranges a rendezvous with his first love, Patricia, to recapture their first affair in a Montmartre studio, the son of the concierge persuades his first love Simone to climb up to the same studio bedroom window thinking it would be empty for the night.
Meanwhile, Geoff finds Patricia has grown bitter over the years, and that the warmth has gone from their relationship, but when they disturb the two young lovers in the bedroom, the evening ends in a humorous and more light-hearted manner, as they are forced to crawl under the concierge’s door in order to leave unseen.
Running late to school the concierge’s son sees a young American girl, who is studying at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly, and who is having an affair with an older doctor. Not only must they keep the affair secret from the concierge, but also from the disapproving general public by having to meet in shady ‘hôtels de passe’. However an escape to the seaside in Normandy brings matters to a head between them, as the second world war begins.
In occupied Paris, Marcel, the managing director of an important cement business, arrives at the studio which he is renting for his mistress Josette, and bumps into a German Oberleutnant on the landing. As it is Christmas Eve, old enmities are put aside, but Marcel has to get his other Christmas presents home to his wife Hélioise and also to his mother, who lives the other side of Paris. All of whom offer Marcel the customary Christmas French dish of oysters, which are also given to him by his mistress for her party, along with her music teacher and her student Monsieur Grondin.
A Time for Loving is from an original screenplay by the French playwright Jean Anouilh, commissioned by the producer Anatole de Grunwald before he died in 1967, which was finally produced by his younger brother Dimitri de Grunwald with Christopher Miles directing in 1970. It is a bitter-sweet nostalgic look at Paris just before and during the second World War as seen by three couples, who over the years rent the same artist’s studio in Montmartre.
A Time for Loving (1972)
Directed by: Christopher Miles
Starring: Joanna Shimkus, Mel Ferrer, Britt Ekland, Philippe Noiret, Susan Hampshire, Mark Burns, Robert Dhéry, Eléonore Hirt, Lila Kedrova, Didier Haudepin, Ophelie Stermann, Gilberte Géniat
Screenplay by: Jean Anouilh
Production Design by: Théobald Meurisse
Cinematography by: Andréas Winding
Film Editing by: Henri Lanoë
Costume Design by: Rosine Delamare
Set Decoration by: Robert Christidès
Art Direction by: Marc Desages
Music by: Michel Legrand
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Hemdale Film Distributors, Anglo-EMI
Release Date: April 20, 1972
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