Sommernächte mit Manina

On the face of it an unremarkable film concerning a young man's search for treasure with much murky underwater cinematography. However the young man is Jean-Francois Calve who is convincing and handsome enough to go on to considerable success in many albeit minor French films and the older guy looking to outwit him is played by Howard Vernon. Here, the much loved Vernon, is fine as he would be in many of his supporting roles including Wages of Fear (1953) but it is his work with Jess Franco for which he is probably best known and the poor man's quality of output tended to drift downward with that of his master, helped no doubt with a tipple or two. The main reason though for watching this is for the early cinema appearance of Brigitte Bardot, then seventeen. And even though the youngster does well enough it is probably the bikini wearing aspect that really caught the attention. Apparently one of the very first times a bikini would be seen on the screen and sufficiently scandalous, apparently, for the British censors to cut the film by almost half an hour, which must be all of poor Brigitte's screen time. As I say, there is nothing very special about the film apart from its participants and the place in history of an article of female swimwear but it is jolly enough and probably what used to be referred to as suitable Sunday afternoon fare, except for those 29 minutes, of course.

Manina may have been sold as a Bardot film but she is merely the love interest of lead Jean-Francois Calve, and she does not make an appearance until 40 minutes into the film. Calve gives an interesting, unique, and slightly mannered performance, yet does hold your attention when he is on-screen. Bardot is lovely to look at but the sections where she is supposed to be singing are poorly executed. There are a couple bits of nice dialogue, but overall most of the film isn't really all that engaging. The final section does however pick up and captivates, but by then it's a matter of a too little too late. If you're a Bardot or Calve fan than you will want to check Manina out, but for everyone else maybe not.

The editing is overly brusque generally, and the sequencing, specifically, is pretty dubious in some instances. The sound design is quite imbalanced, to the point that some moments are very suddenly grating on one's ears, and almost painful. In some measure it's comforting to know that just as American pictures of the 1950s - of any genre - were often downright plagued by major ham-handedness and substantial artificiality, French cinema was not uniquely free of these traits. Indeed, no small amount of the writing, acting, and direction all serve up instances of definite kitsch, unseemly overacting, and contrivances that are almost haphazard, nearly from the very start, not to mention songs that are included mostly just to pad out the length. Save for the primary language being spoken (and, you know, a certain clause of the Hays Code) this could just as easily be mistaken for a product of Hollywood. In that regard I speak as well to a scene of police brutality that's supposed to be played for laughs, but boy howdy, it has not aged well. All this is to say nothing of somewhat mild, almost indifferent treatment of the plot and its progression for a fair bit of the length, or very poor elucidation of the passage of time; we're intended to believe that five years have passed between scenes, with nothing to meaningfully indicate the turning of the calendar except for "blink and you miss it" throwaway dialogue and the fact that the uncredited child actor who initially portrays the title character is suddenly replaced by a young Brigitte Bardot.

Moreover, there's something very sketchy about the fact that the script ages Manina to 18 so as to get around the most egregious questions of indecency, or what is or is not appropriate (though certainly not all of them, especially as the protagonist is stated to be 7 years older), while Bardot herself was only 17 when the film was released in 1952. In fairness, I didn't exactly expect much to begin with from a movie called 'Manina, la fille sans voiles,' or 'The girl in the bikini.' Nevertheless, as one tries to set all these matters aside and consider the picture on its own merits, it's not half bad. The story is nothing remarkable, but it's passable, and modestly engaging. I appreciate Michel Rocca's cinematography, even if it's sometimes rough around the edges; the filming locations are lovely. While I think the songs are unnecessarily tacked on, they're pleasant in and of themselves, and the cast are fine. Broadly speaking this is well made, if less than revelatory. And hey, sometimes that's all a picture needs to be; there's no rule that says every title has to change one's life. Yes, there are aspects of this that are questionable, and the layman can discern ready room for improvement, but I can't say this isn't duly entertaining on some level. Even if you're a huge fan of someone involved I don't think this is anything one needs to go out of their way to see, but it's something light that doesn't require significant investment as a viewer, and suitable for a lazy afternoon. Keep your expectations low and mind the faults, but 'Manina, la fille sans voiles' is softly enjoyable if you come across it, and good enough as it is.

Jean-François Calvé receives an amphora from a young girl while vacationing in Sardinia. A few years later, he learns that there was an almost legendary shipwreck with Phoenician amphorae filled with gold coins a couple of thousand years ago. He takes the amphora to the lecturer, who confirms it is a Phoenician one. Calvé decides that there are other amphorae down there, with hundreds of millions of francs worth of gold. He raises enough money to hire cigarette smuggler Howard Vernon and his boat for half the loot. When they arrive at Sardinia, he discovers that the girl has grown up to be Brigitte Bardot in her second movie. Eventually he will find out who he can trust.

Willy Rozier wrote and directed this as a straight adventure story, with Calvé exceedingly naive, and Mlle Bardot extremely fetching in her itsy-bitsy bikini. Cinematographer Michel Rocca shoots Miss Bardot and the ancient-looking rocks of Sardinia with equal verve, which should keep the audience distracted from the lack of novelty in the story, even though they'll have to wait for more than half the movie before seeing La Bardot.

Considering that this 1952 Rom-Com/Adventure tale was, indeed, titled - "Manina: The Girl in the Bikini" - I was certainly expecting the Manina character to be the most prominent factor in its plot-line.

But, oddly enough, about 80% of this picture's contrived story-line actually had nothing to do with her, at all.

Like, for instance - It took approximately 40 minutes of other stuff to take place in the story before the darling, young Manina was finally introduced into the action.

And, speaking about the 17-year-old Brigitte Bardot, as the title character - Yes. She sure was quite appealing to behold. - But, with that said - It was certainly hard for me to imagine that in 4 years time this young woman would, indeed, be catapulted into super-stardom by becoming one of cinema's most desirable sex-symbols of all (next only to Marilyn Monroe).

All-in-all - This Parisian production was, pretty much, a disappointing dud, from start to finish.