Voulez-vous danser avec moi?

"Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" (= French for 'do you want to dance with me?'), shows competent acting in a well-built crime plot.

Set in color in the late 1950-s, this film openly deals with the Paris homo & travesty scene. Which was pretty groundbreaking for the staunch Roman Catholic France of those days.

Brigitte Bardot's appearance in "Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" shines all the way down. Showing off her dancing talents (you may know Brigitte qualified at the Paris conservatory as a classical ballet dancer). While shooting this film, Brigitte was pregnant with her only child -- according to some this shows off in her advantage as well. The third show-off is made by Brigitte's dress in a cross-striped pattern - known to this day in fashion as the 'Brigitte Bardot - design'.

In spite of her dazzling appearance, one cannot escape the conclusion that Bardot plays the wrong part here. Apart from being beautiful, Brigitte has a definite talent for light comedy. Acting crime & mystery just isn't her trade.

My last words should be for male lead Henri Vidal. In December 1959, aged 40, he died from a heart attack. This happened shortly after the completion of "Voulez-vous danser avec moi?".

Brigitte Bardot was so completely feminine, playful, beautiful, and witty, she couldn't miss connecting with the male sector of any movie-going audience. And the women must have hated her, or at least envied her to tears.

Bardot's face is so luminous, focusing upon it is more stimulating than seeing close-up, revealing body shots of her contemporaries such as Eckberg and Lollobrigida. She could take a mediocre, or in this case, convoluted plot, and save a film which would have been a dud with just about any other female star.

The film is fast-paced, and suspenseful, in so far as the futility of trying to guess the culprit's identity, prior to the odds and ends being tied up neatly, in the end. And it far surpasses Bardot's collaboration with director Michel Boisrond, in "Mme. Pigalle," produced three years earlier. That one is filled with artifice and "mannerisms." such as fake auto rides, background landscape fakery, lip-synch singing, fake piano playing, and the stereotypical bumbling, "moronic cops" syndrome, so prevalent in films of the time. This film contains no artifice, or editing "tricks," whatsoever, and while it lacks for substance, it is entertaining, and the Bardot charisma at this most appealing stage of her life, stays with one, long after the curtain rings down.

Henri Vidal, in his final role before his untimely death at age 40, is well-cast, as Bardot's husband who is being blackmailed by femme fatale Dawn Addams, herself a red-headed stunner who exits the film much too soon to suit the male voyeur contingent.

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After a discussion with his spoiled wife Virginie (Brigitte Bardot), the playboy dentist Hervé Dandieu (Henri Vidal) goes to a bar where he meets the sexy dance teacher Anita Flores (Dawn Addams). She invites Hervé to dance with her and while dancing, his father-in-law arrives in the place and Hervé sneaks out with Anita. Hervé drives Anita home, and she invites him to have one last drink; Anita seduces him and they kiss each other on the sofa, while her hidden partner takes pictures of the intimacy of the couple. Hervé leaves Anita without having sex, but is blackmailed by her. She schedules a meeting with him in the dance school, but Virginie listens to their conversation and believes that Hervé is cheating her. Virginie is snoops Hervé in the dance school, and he finds Anita dead and becomes the prime suspect of the police. Virginie asks for a job in the dance school and decides to investigate the case by her own.

The silly and naive "Voulez-vous Danser Avec Moi?" has a predictable screenplay and is supported by the charm and beauty of Brigitte Bardot. Dawn Addams has a minor participation, but she is astonishing with her blues eyes and beauty. In the end, forget this flawed story and enjoy Brigitte Bardot acting like a detective and Dawn Addams that you will have a nice entertainment. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Quer Dançar Comigo?" ("Do You Want to Dance with Me?")

I just want to take note of the great Serge's Gainsbourg stunning appearance, short but classic! "L'homme a la-Tete-De-choux" enters with class, sets his line, and the rest is history...Check out Gainsbourg the artist: jazzman, musician, singer, poet, provocateur, precursor of rap, pop idol, eighties cult, through his musical career. Not to mention Brigitte Bardot in all of her splendor, a must see for any BB fan (check out the song "Bonnie and Clyde" for another Bardot/Gainsbourg collaboration). Good stay-at-home and somewhat suspenseful movie. Worth watching. I found this movie very enjoyable, definitely not a classic, but reminiscent of the pre-60's French thrillers.

"Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" intends to be a light-minded humoristic thriller. As a matter of fact, it is very easy to realize "who done it", and the humor of the script is rather poor. Moreover in the plot one finds several flaws, too evident even for a movie with no pretension of likelihood.

Well, the preceding remarks have no relevance at all. Indeed, here we have a twenty-five-years-old Brigitte Bardot, folks! In Italy "Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" was entitled "Sexy Girl", a coarse and totally unsuited choice, we all agree about it... but... but in the movie Brigitte IS a sexy girl, you can bet your head on it. The film is just a long (and very welcome) promotion of her earthquake-like sex-appeal: among uncountable instances, look at her dancing...

After all, it is interesting to see a movie like "Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" to realize why, despite the low quality of many films featuring BB at the beginning of her career, people fought to get tickets to see Brigitte on the screen. And when she showed herself in flesh... according to BB's auto-biography, there was an explosion of riots, in France and in Italy and in Spain. See this movie and you will easily trust this statement of the French screen-legend.

A due final remark: also Dawn Addams gives a relevant contribution of beauty and charm to the bliss of the audience. All this considered, 90 minutes to view this movie are not wasted at all.