Trivia / Friends (1971)

• Children Voicing Children: Paul and Michelle are said to be 15 and 14, respectively, but their actors, Sean Bury and Anicée Alvina, were actually 16 and 17, respectively during filming. Still, they look young enough to pass for their characters' ages (and make their characters' love scenes uncomfortable to watch).
• Divorced Installment: Lewis Gilbert wrote the story in 1961 as a script for a potential adaptation of The Blue Lagoon for United Artists that was to be produced by Walter Mirisch but was abandoned due to logistical issues arising from The Vietnam War. When he could not get the rights to Henry De Vere Stacpoole's story from his estate, he decided to turn his pitch into an original story instead. Later, he turned his original story as part of a proposed Anthology Film, Morning, Noon, and Night, containing three love stories, one about two children, one about two middle-aged people, and one about two old people. Gilbert had a lucrative contract with Paramount after the success of Alfie. He had just made The Adventurers for the studio and turned down The Godfather because they would not give him enough of a budget to make the movie the way he wanted. When Robert Evans, who ran Paramount at the time of the greenlight, read Gilbert's treatment of the young people he suggested they make the film just concentrating on them and Gilbert agreed.