MOVIE REVIEW : A Whirlwind Parisian ‘Romance’ : The film falls short of recapturing the high style of old American-made romantic comedies.

Once upon a time, there was a wondrous realm of satiny glamour, ribaldry and opulent wit evoked regularly on American movie screens: the high-style world of the elegant romantic comedy. Star couples flirted, fought, misunderstood and sank into forbidden and mostly unseen bliss. Violins soared, firelight flickered and outside it was either Paris or a city that obviously wanted to be Paris. That’s the world the makers of “A Fine Romance” (selected theaters) want to recapture. And it’s a shame they can’t, that the genre has fallen into such disrepair, the old smooth tools gone so rusty with disuse.

It’s doubly unfortunate, because director Gene Saks, stars Marcello Mastroianni and Julie Andrews and company are playing against the backdrop of the real Paris and the real Biarritz while, in the ‘30s, Ernst Lubitsch had to work his wonders on a facsimile: “Paris, Paramount.”

“A Fine Romance” is based on Francois Billetdoux’s comedy “Tchin Tchin,” and that tart and sentimental Parisian stage hit--about the mostly chaste love affair of a couple who meet when their spouses cheat with each other--has been so aggressively “opened up” that it sometimes seems a whirlwind tour.

As we skip from street to suite, boulangerie to bistro, following the increasingly amorous peregrinations of the mismatched pair, starchy Britisher Pamela Picquet (Andrews) and sloppy alcoholic Italian Gramaldi (Mastroianni), the trip becomes pretty but skittery. Most of the time Saks takes his camera outside, he somehow finds the Eiffel Tower, looming over the exteriors like an omnipresent postcard or phallic symbol. After a while, it seems Saks may actually own the tower, which perhaps is why it’s visible under his director’s credit.

The film seems shortchanged, even though its decor is unfailingly opulent, its backgrounds invariably rich. Playwright Ronald Harwood (“The Dresser”) wrote the script, but he can hardly be happy with it. There are strange continuity jumps throughout, a feeling of restlessness and disjointedness. And, though Andrews and Mastroianni are performers of such great talent and flair that no evening spent watching them is empty of delight, somehow their rapport becomes disjointed and restless too. Strange real estate scandals, bizarre car accidents, alcoholic benders, randy trips to the spa and botched assignations glide past us like five-minute stops on the tour bus.

The superb Mastroianni gives his part a tremendous hangdog warmth, a loony longing. But he’s never been comfortable in English--though he’s made one great English-language film, “Leo the Last”--and here, as usual, he seems to be speaking some lines phonetically. Andrews, by contrast, is a little too comfortable, too in control. Her trim nanny responses to Mastroianni’s shaggy-dog sexuality don’t deepen and develop enough.

It’s often said that Saks is a fine stage director who never mastered the movies, who became too dependent on his main source, Neil Simon. And it’s true that, as you watch “A Fine Romance,” you often wonder what Stanley Donen or Blake Edwards would have made of it. But the problem is almost certainly deeper; it lies in the loss of a tradition. Elegant American romantic comedies were made with great style from the ‘20s through the ‘70s. Then, like most of the adult movie genres, they were dropped from the schedule. The ones since, Woody Allen’s hybrids excepted, have mostly been pastiches, and they often have a borrowed-tuxedo feel. So does “A Fine Romance.” A pity, because we just don’t get to Biarritz and Paris, especially with charmers like Andrews and Mastroianni, that many times in life.

‘A Fine Romance’

Julie Andrews: Pamela Picquet

Marcello Mastroianni: Cesareo Gramaldi

Ian Fitzgibbon: Bobby Picquet

Jean-Pierre: Castaldi Marcel

A Castle Hill Productions Inc. presentation. Director Gene Saks. Producer Arturo La Pegna. Screenplay Ronald Harwood, based on Francois Billetdoux’s “Tchin Tchin.” Cinematographer Franco Di Giacomo. Editors Richard Nord, Anna Poscetti. Costumes Gianni Versace. Music Pino Donaggio. Art directors Jean Michel Hugon, Michel Albournac. Running time: 1 hour, 23 minutes.

MPAA-rated PG-13.