In Toronto, the fifteen year-old student and aspirant writer Sarah Norton (Tatum O'Neal) meets the sixty year old painter Ashley St. Clair (Richard Burton) in a cafeteria while hiding from her stalker boy-friend Paul (Michel Wincott). The former successful Ashley has stopped painting for ten years and accepts to read the poems that Sarah has written. They start seeing each other at his studio and Sarah falls in love with him. Ashley feels a platonic love for Sarah that becomes his muse and he decides to paint again. When Paul snoops Sarah in Ashley's studio, he misunderstands their relationship and tries to rape Sarah in a cornfield but she self-defends with a stone hitting Paul in the head. Sarah's parents discover that their daughter has secret encounters with Ashley and lock her in her room. On her sixteenth birthday, Sarah finds that Ashley has moved to New York and decides to travel to the Big Apple to meet him.
"Circle of Two" is a wonderful and sensitive unconventional love story. The last work of Jules Dassin discloses this coming of age romance between a teenager and an old man through a tight direction without any sort of exploitation despite the polemic theme. Tatum O'Neal is fantastic in the role of a girl that falls in love with a man that could be her grandfather. The soundtrack gives an additional touch of class to this wonderful film. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Círculo de 2 Amantes" ("Círcle of 2 Lovers")
"Circle of Two" is a wonderful and sensitive unconventional love story. The last work of Jules Dassin discloses this coming of age romance between a teenager and an old man through a tight direction without any sort of exploitation despite the polemic theme. Tatum O'Neal is fantastic in the role of a girl that falls in love with a man that could be her grandfather. The soundtrack gives an additional touch of class to this wonderful film. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "Círculo de 2 Amantes" ("Círcle of 2 Lovers")