Strip-Tease aka Sweet Skin (1963) A Paris Woman's Drama Noir

Directed by Jacques Poitrenaud. 

Written by Jacques Poitrenaud and Jacques Sigurd from an idea that came from Alain Moury.

Cinematography was by Raymond Le Moigne, The Music composed by Serge Gainsbourg, and Alain Goraguer. Some music performed by Joe Turner. Turner was an American jazz pianist and a stride piano master, who lived in Paris for many years and was a fixture in its jazz scene.

The film stars Krista Nico as Ariane, aka "Nico."

Nico as Ariane

Yes that Nico. For anybody living through the sixties you always herd about Nico as part of Andy Warhol's Factory. This is just before all that. Nico was born Christa Päffgen, in 1938  Cologne, Germany. At the age of 13 moved to Berlin, and began selling lingerie in the exclusive department store KaDeWe, eventually getting modelling jobs. She moved to Paris and began working for Vogue, Tempo, Vie Nuove, Mascotte Spettacolo, Camera, Elle, and other fashion magazines. She dyed her brown hair blonde, claiming she was inspired to do so by Ernest Hemingway. She was deviding her time between New York and Europe when in 1959 she was invited to the set of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, where she attracted the attention of Fellini who gave her a minor role in the film playing herself. Other films followed, including this one. In the 1960s she also had careers as singer, and songwriter.

So for me, all I knew about her were the connections to Warhol, The Velvet Underground, and The Factory. This is the first time I've ever heard her voice or ever seen her act.

When you see the way she looks and you hear her husky voice the first American actress I though of, and you probably will too, is Eve Arden, a sexy German Eve Arden. 

Also starring are, American Jazz pianist Joe Turner as Sam, Ariane's good friend and advisor,  Dany Saval as Dodo Voluptuous, Paul's wife, Jean Sobieski as Jean-Loup, the rich playboy, Darry Cowl as Paul, the co owner and impresario of Club Le Crazy. 

Joe Turner as Sam

Dany Saval as Dodo 

Darry Cowl as Paul

Jean Sobieski as Jean-Loup

Serge Gainsbourg, Joe Turner, and Nico

Also appearing are Jean Tissier as Déodat a painter, Serge Gainsbourg as the pianist, Robert Rollis as the photographer, and Marcel Charvey as a reporter. 

Story

The film's stylish credit sequence features titles in neon, the song Strip-Tease written by Serge Gainsbourg, that is sung by Juliette Gréco. The sequence segues into shots of a dance troupe rehearsing.

Ariane is a dancer, in V.O. she tells us she's always wanted to be a dancer. She worked hard and was all set to headline a new show. She was happy and in a relationship with the shows choreographer Pierre. Their latest rehearsal was attended by both the shows producer and the main investor. They like what they see.

When the rehearsal is over Pierre tells her that the producer wants to see her in his office. Expecting good news about the upcoming show she is devastated to find out that the money man insists on having a famous singer headline it, claiming that a recognizable name especially after her recent scandal will bring people flocking to see it. 

Ariane quits the show then and there. She heads to The Blue Note and visits her friend, jazz pianist Sam (Joe Turner), and spills her troubles to him. 

She tells him that if she stayed with the show she'd have to watch her replacement do her part night after night. Sam feeds her, and tells her that she will find another dance job. When Sam is called away to do another set and Ariane splits.

She tells him that if she stayed with the show she'd have to watch her replacement do her part, night after night. Joe feeds her some food and tells her that she will find another dance job. When Sam is called away to do another set Ariane splits. 

So she goes to her agent who promises her some TV work, and she keeps up rehearsing to stay in shape, but she can't pay the hall where she does so. 

She's about to swallow her pride and go crawling back to the show and ask to be rehired when she literally bumps into an old friend Bertha who she danced with in Zurich.

Bertha tells Ariane that she goes by the name of Dodo now. Dodo invites Ariane to dinner. At Dinner Dodo tells Ariane that chorus dancing gets you peanuts. Dodo tells her that she quit chorus and became an exotic dancer. Dodo Voluptuous. She made enough money to open her own club.

Men adored her, but love happened. and her husband Paul, the impresario of her club, has retired her. When Ariane tells her that she looking for work, Dodo tells her to come with her and that she'll sort something out for her.

Dodo takes Ariane to the Club Le Crazy. There Ariane meets Dodo's husband and they begin to work out a routine for Ariane who at first is understandably shy about stripping. It goes Café au lait Noirsville as Ariane juggles her personal love life with her new career as a stripper. 

Noirsville

This was a nice surprise. It fits in well with New York Film School "C" Noir The Striptease Murder Case (archival footage of Manhattan's 52nd Street Jazz Clubs and actual lounge act strippers doing their on routines), sequences from 1959-60s The Savage Eye, and  a good Brit Noir, The Small World of Sammy Lee, and a couple of Neo Noir's, Dancing at the Blue Iguana, and The Killing of A Chinese Bookie. I'm sure that there's more out there to find and add.

Nico. Joe Turner, Dany Saval (who by the way was once a Can-Can dancer at the Moulin Rouge), and Darry Cowl, are all great. The Cinematography is excellent, capturing the strip and jazz club atmospheres, the original exotic dance strip routines of actual strippers, and Paris of the early 1960s. 

Serge Gainsbourg's and Joe Turner's music is superb. 8/10.