And God Created Woman

Roger Vadim's remake of his own film opens with a ridiculous jail break from what appears to be a soccer mum in a mullet and tracksuit and leads to a number of other embarrassing sequences that are at least saved with an early nude scene from Rebecca DeMornay. The moment is quickly ruined by a music sequence or however else Vadim over idealises his leading lady. It turns out this scene indicates DeMornay's desire to escape from prison and pursue her realistic dream of being a famous rock and roll star. The whole experience starts getting humorous when DeMornay is sent back to prison and arranges to marry a young carpenter to beat parole on the advice of Frank Langella, a candidate running for governor of New Mexico that ran into DeMornay during her failed escape from prison. Despite the obvious predictability of the love triangle that film will pursue the film is redeemed from plenty of comedic moments thanks to the strong performances from DeMornay and a whole cast of unknown actors. It turns out irresponsible screw ups are a great source of comedy. However, plenty of embarrassing moments continue to show up in the film including a cringe worthy disrobing of some random actress who rocked up to work in granny panties and a nauseating navel gazing Langella. It is pretty depressing seeing how easily the men in this film can be led just because someone is attractive regardless what a terrible human being said person is. I think the film is meant to be a farce, it's all very light hearted with some tacky New Romantic 80s pop thrown in.

In New Mexico, the prisoner Robin Shea (Rebecca De Mornay) has an intercourse with the simple carpenter Billy Moran (Vincent Spano) and in order to get her probation, she proposes him US$ 5,000.00 to get married with her for one year. Billy accepts, expecting to have sex with her, but she does not include this type of service in their deal. Meanwhile, she uses and is used by a powerful politician, James Tiernan (Frank Langela), who is trying to be elected the next governor of New Mexico. What a corny movie is this "And God Created the Woman"! The story is quite ridiculous and the flick is worthwhile only due to the sexy body of Rebecca De Mornay, always naked or half naked. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "E Deus Criou a Mulher" ("And God Created the Woman")

...or at least gorgeous. I only watched the movie to see her. Did I say she was really beautiful and amazing? Otherwise, the movie was frightful. It was not a good way to lose an hour and a half of my life. Rambling, pointless and poorly developed, this story did not need to be told. A remake of a bad Bardot movie. Shame on the director.

One thing I've always admired about 80's movies is that they all have that "Miami Vice look". The groundbreaking show featured hip clothing for the time as well as lots of music playing (hits or otherwise) when there was no dialogue. Today, we don't have that in films or T.V., but in the last great decade, it was everywhere. I've wondered if there ever was a true 90's movie?

And God Created Woman continues this trend. This film was made during the "hip" trend of the late 80's, when people gave up their feathered mullets and ugly tank-tops and started wearing the suits, hats, and skinny ties that were in style. The ladies would wear acid-wash jeans and what-not.

This story is a different version of the original Bardot film that made Roger Vadim a star. In this one, Rebecca De Mornay plays Robin Shea, a convict who wants to make it big as a rock 'n roll star. However, she is doing time for something and she has to wait for her parole. The story that unfolds is the kind of unbelievable pap that came out in the 50's but is set in the 80's. It's just a fairy tale. The story is too mundane to even explain, because you've seen it before.

I will say that the acting is mediocre at best. Only Vincent Spano, who plays a decent guy who ends up in cahoots with De Mornay delivers a good performance. Frank Langella sleepwalks his way through his role as a prospective candidate for the governship of New Mexico who also gets involved with De Mornay. De Mornay herself is very cute, but plays a rogue who nobody would approve of. Everyone else is just a cardboard extra. The soundtrack is decent (all movies came out with a soundtrack, it seemed). All in all, not good, but better than the crap coming out today, I guess.

Roger Vadim's 1956 film 'And God Created Woman' created the sensation that was Brigitte Bardot with its then shocking portrayal of a woman who would use her sexuality to get what she wanted or on a whim with equal abandon. Thirty years later, a parallel portrait of feminine caprice had little impact on movie-goers jaded by 70s excesses. The film itself is moreover less visually interesting than the earlier one, replacing the splendor of the Cote d'Azure with the drabness of the American southwest. In place of a woman as tropical orchid, we get a cactus flower. The plot moves forward in arbitrary jumps that make little sense. Somebody needs to remind Vadim that capriciousness and randomness are not synonyms. Add in that the male leads seem to be sleepwalking through the movie and there is little here to like. And the urban cool of Rebecca deMornay does nothing to evoke the energetic spunkiness of Bardot in the original. Avoid.