Going out on whim is what makes life grand. I can relate to the girl in the movie. Lauren King(Diane Lane),an American girl living in Paris, France has a high IQ, spends most of her time reading a book, while her mother (Sally Kellerman) is an actress who is married and has a boyfriend who is a movie director. Speaking of movies, there's a young man named Daniel(Thelonious Benard) loves American cinema. Both Lauren and Daniel meets during a set on the film her mother was filming. The mother forbids the relationship. Only the stepfather seems to like him after he decks the mother's boyfriend. The two get away and meet a man named Julius(Sir Laurence Olivier) who claims to have traveled all over. He bores Daniel, but intrigued Lauren with the love of poetry. The young couple take advantage of the advice of going to Venice and kiss in a gondola at sunset. Daniel is good at the horse races, and he gets the money to go to Venice. But he and Lauren aren't old enough to go there. So they get Julius to help them out. And he does. However, Julius isn't the man he claims to be. He did some time for pick pocketing. So when they found out the truth after Julius left the winnings on the train. When the parents decided to go back to the states, the young couple decided to make it be the love of the lifetime despite the obstacles they faced. This is one love story no one wants to miss. I enjoyed this very much. A big keeper in the video library. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Let yourself go and just enjoy. Sometimes it seems that any movie about 'non-adudlts' is always rated lower than strong, heavy dramas about 'serious' topics. Lighten up, voters.Forget that the 'lovers' are pre-teens and appreciate this as a romantic story of two who will cross countries to fulfill a dream. Is there anything more romantic than "kissing under the Bridge of Sighs"? If you go to Venice you will see hundreds of other couples trying to create their own 'life time promise'. Not only is this a charming story but a lovely travelogue of Europe in the 1970s. Broderick Crawford has a wonderful time as a curmudgeon who satires his own stardom. A movie not really about a movie but about the movie business. Lots of inside tweaks that make fun of the world of movies, don't miss all the humor, irony and satire. That adds so much to the fun.Were this a story of adults rather than children, it would be better remembered. Give it a try. And enjoy. Freeze frame at the end.....priceless.

"A Little Romance" has become one of my favorite movies of all time. It's both innocent yet sophisticated, well-paced, impeccably cast, and has a beautiful, bittersweet finale. Best of all, it shows us the sweeping, guileless way kids first experience love before puberty and thoughts of sex get in the way. "A Little Romance" tells the story of such a love between two 13-year-olds: French boy Daniel, (Thelonius Bernard), an impish, quick-witted movie lover; and Lauren (Diane Lane), a prim, well-read American. They meet cute when Daniel tells Lauren to "call me Bogey", and then has to explain to non-movie buff Lauren about the famous romance between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. But they do have plenty else in common: they both have genius IQs, read philosophy for fun, and love math. It doesn't take them long to realize that they've found in each other a kindred spirit. One day, they have a chance encounter with the charismatic Julius (Laurence Olivier), an elderly, carefree dandy who enchants them with stories, poetry. and of an old Italian legend: if two lovers kiss under Venice's Bridge of Sighs at sunset when the church bells toll, their love will last forever. When Lauren discovers that her family is moving back to America, she becomes determined to run away to Venice with Daniel to make the legend come true and seal their fate of eternal love. Despite being terribly fanciful, "A Little Romance" touches on so many levels that people of all ages can relate to: the innocent joy of young love, the willingness to do anything to make that love last, and questions about destiny and eternity. Yet it never becomes too heady and you're just swept away in this lush tale. Diane Lane, a mere 13 in her film debut, already showed her trademark talent, poise, and beauty. Thelonius Bernard never acted before or since "A Little Romance", but he's incredibly charming as a young rogue. Laurence Olivier is predictably good as Julius, a smooth talker who isn't all he says, but at the same time isn't as bad as he seems. This is a superbly made cult classic directed by George Roy Hill (notice the shameless self promotion, as the movies Daniel watches include "The Sting" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"), and the perfect film to watch with your own true love.

Something about this movie was extraordinary and beautiful. Its genuinely pure and genuinely innocent. If you can handle that kind of stuff you will love this movie. I first saw it in 1989 and it is still one of my all time favorites. The quality of the dialog was well scripted and the story was very watchable, simple pure and something in this movie brought me back to my adolescence and I could relate to not only the memory of those experiences, but the feelings of those memories, and this movie really understood the sensitivity and struggle of those times in the lives of young teenagers. Diane Lane was so special and beautiful, she really helped this movie to be something special.