Friends
(il film) Page
La
trama del film, dretto da Lewis
Gilbert ed interpretato da Anicèe
Alvina e Sean Bury, è
incentrata sulla storia di Paul e Michelle.
Il sedicenne Paul Harrison, figlio di un inglese che ha i
suoi affari a
Parigi, non va d'accordo con il padre, severo ed autoritario; quando il
padre gli annuncia la sua volontà di risposarsi (la prima
moglie se n'è
andata), egli accetta di seguire, nella sua villa in Camargue, la
quindicenne Michèle La Tour, un'orfana che, già
ospite in casa di una
cugina, ha preferito andarsene, sentendosi appena tollerata. Tra i due
giovani, che si erano casualmente conosciuti allo zoo, non tarda a
sbocciare l'amore, timido e innocente all'inizio, vera passione in
seguito. Michèle, cui Paul provvede lavorando con un
vignaiolo, resta
incinta. Nasce una bambina e la felicità della coppia
è piena e senza
ombre. A distruggerla però giungerà la polizia,
chiamata dal padre di
Paul.
Il film in origine avrebbe dovuto
intitolarsi Intimate
Games, ma Bernie ed
Elton si rifiutarono di
comporre una canzone con un titolo simile e fu quindi trasformato in
Friends.
La Paramount aveva richiesto inizialmente solo tre brani, molto brevi,
ma
poi decise di produrre un'intero album e il progetto fu modificato
più
volte. Il disco venne inciso in quattro settimane, a cavallo
dei
primi due
tour americani e, al momento della pubblicazione, venne lanciato come
il
nuovo album di Elton John e non come la colonna sonora del
film.
In realtà il resto dell'album comprendeva anche brani e
rielaborazioni
di Paul
Buckmaster.
Elton rimase
anche molto contrariato dalla copertina che venne realizzata e dai
colori
scelti.
In Italia il film (e il disco) fu
trasformato in "Due Ragazzi Che Si
Amano"; si può trovare
sia la stampa italiana con il titolo Friends, sia quella, abbastanza
rara, con il titolo Due Ragazzi Che Si Amano.
Questo è il
poema originale scritto da
Richard
La Gallienne (1866-
1947) e usato nel film:
I meant to do
my work today
I meant to do my
work today,
But
a brown bird
sang in the apple tree,
And
a butterfly
flitted across the field,
And
all the leaves
were calling me.
And the wind went
sighing over the land,
Tossing
the grasses
to and fro,
And
a rainbow held
out its shining hand--
So
what could I
do but laugh and go?
Questa
che segue è la trascrizione del dialogo in Friends;
oltre
al parlato, è stata aggiunta una strofa di poesia.
la
parte della ragazza è in corsivo.
I meant to do
my work today
I meant to do my
work today
But
a brown bird
sang in the apple tree
I know that one
too
And
a butterfly
flittered across the field
And all the leaves
were calling me
And
the Buttercups
nodded their smiling heads
Greeting
the bees
who came to call
And
I asked the
lizard the time of day
As
he sunned himself
on a moss grown wall
And
the wind went
sighing over the land,
Tossing
the grasses
to and fro,
And
a rainbow held
out its shining hand—
So
what could I
do but laugh and go?
My mother died
when I was born
I lived with
my father on our own
And we had a
cottage where we'd go
And he died too,
now I'm alone.
Nel 1974 il
regista
di Friends, Lewis
Gilbert
(ha
diretto anche un film della serie 007), realizzò un seguito,
intitolato
Paul e Michelle.
ecco
alcuni spezzoni
di un'intervista dell'aprile 1971 dove Elton parla di Friends:
"It's
a film soundtrack
album which we contracted to do before Elton John was ever released.
....,
it represents what we had to write for the film. The whole story behind
the film was they contracted us to do three songs. There's two bits in
the film where they have a tape recorder sequence for 20 seconds or
whatever
it was, where everyone's leaping up and down, and a radio sequence for
30 seconds, and they said "You're going to have to write two songs that
last for 20 and 30 seconds, and put them on the album." I thought well
that's ridiculous. Bernie and I said, "We can't do that," so they said,
"We want three songs - the title song". They were going to call the
movie
The Intimate Game, and Bernie and I said "No, we will not write any
songs
named for a movie, and we suggested Friends, so we'll settle for
Friends."
And we had to write another song, which was Michelle's Song. They
wanted
another song, which was to last a minute and ten. And for film writing,
if they want a song that's a minute and ten seconds long, then you're
supposed
to write a song that's a minute and ten seconds long. You have to time
it, and all this rubbish. So we all got together, and we were panicking
like mad, and Bernie said write a song that's very short, and we did,
and
it was a minute and ten seconds long, and I don't know how, by the
grace
of God, that it was a minute and ten seconds. So that was Seasons. And
then they said, "We want a soundtrack album," and I said, "That's
awful,"
because there's very little music in the film. And we said "it's
terrible,
we've only got three songs." You can't put an album together with all
that
on. You know, with soundtrack albums, you get bits with motorcars that
beep, and horses galloping. So we said, right, we're going to do this
thing
with the 20 and 30 second songs, then we'll write two songs and
re-record
the whole album. So we recorded the whole album once for the film, and
then went back into our own studio which we always use studio and
recorded
the whole soundtrack album... so people would at least get a bit of
value
for their money. They get five songs instead of three and horses
galloping.
It was recorded and written in four weeks, in between the first song
when
I came to the States, which was a three-week promotional trip and my
first
major tour, so it was recorded in between September and October, in
September
in fact, as a soundtrack album... ah... the record company are
promoting
it as a new Elton John album, and kids will probably think it is a new
Elton John album. .... the guy in London (who's a
complete
idiot) who runs Paramount Records, said that he said he wanted a really
great sleeve. So the people that produced the film and made the film
were
really great -- it was independently produced film from Paramount --
they
said right, and they took the Tumbleweed Connection sleeve up and said
to this guy, "Isn't this great? Look, it's got a booklet. We'd like
something
like this for Friends." And like the guy who designed it, this friend
of
ours, said yeah, this is a great idea. And the guy said it was rubbish
- the worst thing he'd ever seen, and he said "Wait till we come up -
we'll
come up with something that'll sweep this off the board." And they came
up with that strawberry coloured rubbish. I suppose I can't blame the
Paramount
Record Company for putting my name on it in big letters, cause I would
have probably done that... I don't know... I don't want to get into
that
anyway. It's not an Elton John album, believe me. The album was gold
within
three weeks, so that's... it's amusing; I'm knocked out, I'm very glad
that it is a gold record. But it's not an Elton John album."
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