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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.


Friends Due ragazzi che si amano - Elton John Elton John

Elton John - 2 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."