.jpg)
Director Jack Cardiff (Dark of the Sun)
Adaptation by Jack Cardiff and based on the novel "La Motocyclette" by André Pieyre de Mandiargues, The screenplay was written by Ronald Duncan, The thought sequences dialogue was by Gillian Freeman
Cinematography was by Jack Cardiff and René Guissart Jr. The composer was Les Reed.
The film stars Alain Delon ( Le samouraï, Purple Noon, Any Number Can Win, Once A Thief. Le cercle rouge, Flic Story) as Daniel, Marianne Faithfull (I'll Never Forget What's'isname) as Rebecca, Roger Mutton as Raymond, Marius Goring as Rebecca's father, Catherine Jourdan as Catherine, Jean Leduc as Jean, Jacques Marin (Hijack Highway, Love Is My Profession, La vérité, The Train, Flic Story) as gas station attendant.
.png) |
| Marianne Faithfull as Rebecca |
.png) |
| Alain Delon as Daniel |
.png) |
| Roger Mutton as Raymond |
.png) |
| Jacques Marin in a cameo as a gas station attendant |
Girl on a Motorcycle was actually the first film to receive an 'X' rating from the MPAA in the United States, and since we consider the Noirs made between 1960-69 to be the Transitional Noirs these ended in November of 1969 when the MPPA finally began assigning the new rating system. This consisted of four ratings:
G (for general audiences),
M (later changed to PG, parental guidance suggested),*
R (was restricted, no children under 17 without parent/guardian),
X (no one under 17 admitted).
*The "M" rating, initially meant for mature audiences, but was soon changed to "PG", becoming "Parental Guidance Suggested" (Ai)
So, when you do get around to watching this, you are probably going to scratch your head and say to yourself, this got an "X" rating? WTF, right? It's more conservative than a lot of recently produced films.
The opening credits play over a wild POV race down a highway. Reminds me of Lost Highway
.png)
This segues to a provincial stone farmhouse
.png)
Story
We are in a bedroom, but focus first on the base, of what is revealed to be, in a slow rise of POV, a viola. then cut back to Rebecca.
.png)
.png)
.png)
Rebecca is in bed. Her new husband Raymond is sleeping beside her. It could be the morning of her wedding night or it could be just days or weeks after. It's actually 2 months.
.png)
She wakes up momentarily then falls back to sleep and we see her dream sequence begin with a fall into a milky pink psychedelic colored whirlpool. There's mucho subtext about the two men in her life. The one she married and the one she should have married.
.png)
.png)
The psychedelia dissolves into a view of a big top, the inside view under the tent of an ersatz one ring circus. We hear discordant circus organ music. The organ segues into a viola piece.
.png)
Raymond is wheeled by circus clowns into the one ring. Raymond is playing a viola solo on a red canvas draped flatbed trailer. It's a de facto stage.
.png)
The crowd points and laughs. Into the same ring rides Daniel on a 750cc Norton Atlas motorcycle. Daniel rides rings around Raymond's platform, the Norton drowning out the viola. The crowd cheers. Rebecca is crying. The cycle with Daniel runs out of the tent. We go back to hearing circus organ music again..
Now, we see Daniel dressed it white tails and a top hat. He is a circus ring master escorting Rebecca, dressed in a black skin tight racing suit, by hand out into the ring.
.png)
He swings her around by her one arm. her other arm is outstretched towards the crowd. She is smiling acknowledging her audience. A white horse appears and as it circles the ring Rebecca runs along side and mounts, She is then riding the horse standing upon its back, as it circles the ring. Daniel cracks the whip at Rebecca. At every crack of the whip, it removes a part of her leather suit, until she is finally totally naked.
.png)
.png)
This now segues to Rebecca galloping along a beach in a solarized psychedelic sequence.
.png)
.png)
We cut to Daniel sitting in an easy chair. Then a large owl appears flapping its wings. This startles the horse. It throws Rebecca to the sand, and begins to trample Rebecca under its hooves while Daniel laughs. She is using her arms to ward off the blows when she awakens again in her bed.
.png)
.png)
.png)
We hear Rebecca's V.O. (voice over) it's her conscientious debating what to do.
At first, she wants Raymond to wake up, then wants to wake Raymond up, by reaching over to him, but she barely touches his hair, She pulls back. Rebecca breaks bad.
Breaking Bad
.png)
.png)
.png)
Making her decision, she slips out of the covers, stands naked beside the bed, and then strides around it's end to the door of the bedroom.
.png)
.png)
.png)
There at the door she pauses for a goodbye gaze at Raymond, before opening the door and striding down the hall
.png)
.png)
.png)
At a closet, she stops, reaches up and grabs a black leather one piece racing suit. The whole "Breaking Bad - Racing Suit" sequence is stylistically well done and quite impressive.
Rebecca and the Racing Suit sequence
.png)
.png)
.png)
She presses it against her naked body, cupping her breasts with a sexual excitement. She reaches down to the red rhinestone zipper ring and pulls it further down, and quickly steps into it one leg at a time.
.png)
.png)
.png)
She wiggles pulling the suit further up her naked body, fitting first one arm and then the other into each of the leather sleaves. When she pulls the ring of the long zipper tab up from below her bellybutton to finish at the turtleneck she zips into Noirsville.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
When she pulls the ring of the long zipper tab up from below her bellybutton to finish at the turtleneck she zips into Noirsville. Its a nice sequence bravo Jack Cardiff.
.png)
.png)
She finishes by slipping on her boots, grabbing a helmet and then heads out to the garage in her riding togs to her wedding present, from Daniel, a Harley Davidson Electra Glide.
.png)
.png) |
| 1967 Harley Davidson Electra Glide |
.png)
.png)
.png)
It's a foggy early morning. She opens the garage doors and looks lovingly over her Harley. Then wheels the bike out of the garage and down the driveway and out to the road before finally kicking it started. She revs the motor a few times before hopping on the Harley and taking off in the mists of early morning.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
When she stops at a BP petrol station to fill up, she realizes that since she is naked under her leathers, she didn't bring any money and she's also left her watch behind.
.png)
.png)
.png)
However the attendant recognizes the bike and knows who she is, and charges it to Raymond's account. After the attendant checks the air pressure in her tires, with a full tank of gas, Rebecca takes off for Heidelberg to find Daniel.
.png)
.png) |
| He's checking both the pressure and her ass |
After the attendant checks the air pressure in her tires, with a full tank of gas, Rebecca takes off for Heidelberg to find Daniel.
.png)
.png)
From here on the film becomes a road trip towards Heidelberg and her lover Daniel. Interspersed with the stylistic sequences of gorgeous Cycle & Strada cinematography, are Rebecca's flashbacks and also daydreams revealing, for us, not only her wishes and dreams but also the incidents and complications of a backstory that got her to this point.
The first is of spineless Raymond and his confrontations with the pupils in his class. He's a wimp and they have neither respect nor fear of him. This revelation segues into another psychedelic cycle interlude.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
The sequence ends when she stops along the side of a two lane to rest upon a wooden bench. She lays down upon the bench and as she is enjoying her interlude with nature her head turns towards the Harley and as she gazes at it we get another daydream that wish casts herself to Heidelberg and into Daniel arms.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
Just as Daniel hooks his thumb into her zipper ring and begins to pull it down.... She is awakened from the dream by the approach of tracked vehicles and soldiers on early morning army maneuvers.
.png)
She hops the Harley and continues her trek. At a stop at a RR grade crossing a passing train sends us into other flashbacks, of the skiing trip she and Raymond took with friends. It was on this trip that she first met Daniel at the ski lodge where they were staying. She and Daniel make love in another psychedelic sequence. She also flashes back on Daniel at her fathers bookshop and of Daniel teaching her how to ride a motorcycle.
Noirsville
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
Its a pretty good Woman's Noir, with some excellent road trip cinematography. All the actors are quite believable, and the soundtrack fits with the times depicted. However, both the rear projections and psychedelic sequences do look dated now 57 years later.
Another minor, but even noticeable to me, faux pas, that you'd think director, Cardiff who you'd think is obviously "into" motorcycles, would have noticed, and should have mentioned to Marianne is that when you are riding around on bike without a windshield you don't keep your mouth open. It's a good way to swallow a lot of bugs. lol.
Anyway a nice surprise. 7/10
.png){kind=link}
No comments:
Post a Comment