A Little Romance is a 1979 American romantic comedy film directed by George Roy Hill and starring Laurence Olivier, Thelonious Bernard, and Diane Lane in her film debut. The screenplay was written by Allan Burns and George Roy Hill, based on the novel E=mc2 Mon Amour (1977) by Patrick Cauvin. The original music score was composed by Georges Delerue. The film follows a French boy and an American girl who meet in Paris and begin a romance that leads to a journey to Venice where they hope to seal their love forever with a kiss beneath the Bridge of Sighs at sunset.
The film won the 1979 Academy Award for Best Original Score for Georges Delerue and received an additional nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for Allan Burns. It also received two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor for Laurence Olivier and Best Original Score for Delerue. As the film's young leads, Thelonious Bernard and Diane Lane both received Young Artist Award nominations as Best Actor and Best Actress respectively, as well as earning the film a win as Best Motion Picture Featuring Youth. It was the first film produced by Orion Pictures.
Plot
Lauren King, a "book-smart" and affluent 13-year-old American girl, lives in Paris with her mother and stepfather. Daniel Michon, a "street-smart" and movie-loving 13-year-old French boy, lives with his taxi-driver father. The two meet and fall in love in the Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte, where Lauren's mother is becoming romantically interested in movie director George de Marco. Daniel and Lauren meet Julius Santorin, a quirky elderly man, in an accident. Daniel is unimpressed, but Julius fascinates Lauren with stories of his life, telling of a tradition that if a couple kiss in a gondola beneath the Bridge of Sighs in Venice at sunset while the church bells toll, they will be in love forever. At Lauren's birthday party, which friends Londet and Natalie attend, Daniel punches George for making a crude suggestion about Lauren's current relationship, and her mother forbids the two to date.
Telling her family will return to America soon, Lauren hatches a plan to travel to Venice with Daniel. Though they have money from a horse race (in which Julius proves to be bad at gambling, but good at pickpocketing the racegoers), they cannot cross the border without an adult. With Julius's help, the pair travel by train but miss their connection to Verona after Julius gets into a conversation during an Italian border stop. In the meantime, Lauren's family spark an international investigation, believing she has been abducted.
They hitch a ride with American tourists Bob and Janet Duryea, who are headed to Venice. In Verona, the travelers go out to dinner, where Bob discovers that his wallet has been stolen. Even though their horse-race winnings were left on the train in Julius' vest, Julius offers to pay the bill with cash, perplexing Lauren and irritating Daniel, who suspects he stole it. The following morning, the Duryeas notice Lauren's "missing child" picture in an Italian newspaper. Julius has also seen the paper and intercepts Lauren and Daniel on their way back to the hotel, angry that Lauren lied to him about their true reason for going to Venice and that everyone will think he is a kidnapper.
Because they cannot return to the hotel, they join a bicycle race to escape Verona. When Julius falls behind, Lauren persuades Daniel to go back for him. They find him collapsed from exhaustion. Daniel worms his background out of Julius, who also confesses that he both picked Bob's pocket and stole the money for their train tickets, disappointing Lauren. Lauren then reveals that she will move back to the United States permanently in two weeks. She wanted to take a gondola to the Bridge of Sighs and kiss Daniel so they could love each other forever. She berates Julius by dismissing all his stories as lies. Julius admits he lied about some things but insists the legend can be true. Daniel decides he still wants to go to Venice with Lauren, and Julius joins them.