French Dressing

It's disappointing that this film is so little known, even among 60s British film buffs. (I was surprised that Robert Murphy was so dismissive of it.) I set my VCR to record this one (it was on at some ungodly hour in the middle of the night), and watched it the next evening. It was only on re-watching it that I realized that it was directed by Ken Russell, and this surprised me, since it didn't really strike me as his style at all.

I can't understand why one of your reviewers disliked it so much that they had to post two condemnations of it. I found it utterly charming. The comical Mayor, his strange Council, their French counterparts and the bath-chair oldies are just the background against which Jim and Judy's faltering romance plays itself out. I loved the bit where Judy roller-skates in slow motion at the fancy-dress party, and I love the way this is cleverly reprised (with lovely music) towards the end of the film, when Jim realizes his mistake in neglecting Judy and pursuing the sexy but flighty Francoise Fayol.

It's a comedy, but there are some very poignant moments in it. (The scene in the boat underneath the pier, for example.) There are some funny lines, as well (it's not all slapstick), and it's amazing how much incident Ken Russell manages to pack in, considering that this isn't a very long film. I'd love to have the music on CD, as well!

Like a lot of films of the early and mid 60's (I'm thinking of films like Darling, Georgy Girl and Alfie), French Dressing has quite an old fashioned moral in tow. Men lust after girls like Francoise Fayol, but they settle down with girls like Judy (if they're lucky, because she's got brains as well as being cute).

Jim isn't always very PC (well, I suppose it was forty years ago!), but it's obvious that he really loves Judy at the end. It's also quite touching how good a friend Henry (played by Roy Kinnear) is to both Jim and Judy.

I liked this film a lot, and I'd like to see it on the big screen. The next time they have a Russell retrospective, I hope they show it!

Hadn't it been for Brigitte Bardot , Saint-Tropez would have been another season resort among so many others on the French Rivieira.

An English sea resort is deserted ; all the deckchairs are empty and the young man who is in charge of them has a good idea :during the film festival ,a female French actress could attract a lot of people and help the place become a big touristic draw; as BB was unavailable -or probably too expensive - they choose an ersatz ,Françoise ; there's the rub :although she's got a BB hairdo and tries to imitate her swagger ,she's Austrian Marisa Mell who has got no French accent at all and does not utter a single word in her first language : a French actress with un petit je ne sais quoi nohow .Blonde Mylène Demongeot would have been a much better French sex symbol, if they were not able to afford BB...

This black and white film, often recalling burlesque of the silent era ,may disappoint Ken Russel's fans ; one scene,however , may herald his future frenzy: on the screen ,a giant mouth "swallows" all the men in the audience .

This is one of a dozen efforts I will be watching in tribute to its late controversial director, whose big-screen debut the film was. Actually, he started off his cinema career with two uncharacteristic movies (the second being the "Harry Palmer" adventure BILLION DOLLAR BRAIN {1967}): this one, then, is a farce which, at least, comes up with an original premise (a small British seaside resort contriving to augment its inexistent tourist industry by organizing a Film Festival and inviting a Brigitte Bardot-type siren to be the guest of honor) – even if, in retrospect, the general lack of discipline on display would soon become a mainstay in Russell's work, it is the would-be fashionable technique adopted throughout (a remnant of the "Swinging Sixties" fad just then taking sway) which dates it most of all! Having said that, the harsh cinematography (by the stalwart Ken Higgins) is very typical of its era – though the panned-and-scanned TV-sourced copy I watched did the film's look no favors at all!; in addition, Georges Delerue's score is pleasantly evocative.

As for the cast, it may be second-rate but proves undeniably enthusiastic: leading man James Booth seemed to divide his time between serious and lighter fare but nevertheless comes across as a bit forced here in the role of the deck-chair attendant who comes up with the idea for the much-needed economic boost (initially, the Mayor is almost offended that he should even deign him the time of day, let alone take heed of his suggestion!) – the town's notion of an event had earlier been restricted to a dismally-attended skating competition in fancy dress!; rotund Roy Kinnear is predictably buffoonish as the eager but gawky bureaucrat; Marisa Mell (replacing Annette Stroyberg, who withdrew due to illness) does well in the first of her only 2 films – the other being Basil Dearden's espionage romp MASQUERADE {1965} – made outside the "Euro-Cult" spectrum in which she later thrived; Alita Naughton, too, is a delight in her only theatrical film (she would drop off the radar completely in a couple of years' time!), bafflingly decked-out in sailor's outfit(!) as a teen journalist whom Booth 'plays' with but forsakes as soon as Mell turns up; Bryan Pringle, a prolific character actor here in something of a showcase as the lecherous Mayor (shown watching pornographic slides in his office!) and ingratiating himself with Mell at every turn; and Sandor Eles as Mell's agent who prides himself of having fabricated her alluring image but scoffs at the sex kitten's wish to flex her acting muscles.

The film's most notable set-pieces involve a parade disrupted when the pier from which both Mayor and starlet are watching slides out to sea, the Film Festival itself – highlighting the spoof of a French art-house pic – which turns into a melee' when some puritanical locals object to smut being projected (with people even ripping through the screen via the mouth of Mell's enlarged image!), and the concluding nudist beach inauguration (for which the journalist impetuously decides to replace the actress after the latter has left in disgust, with Kinnear making a desperate run to the train station in vain in order to retrieve her). For what it is worth, the comedy would like to hark back to the Slapstick heyday of the 1920s (with one rather nice nod to Laurel and Hardy) but the end result is decidedly patchy and, in any case, owes more to the vulgar "Carry On" brand then in full force!

A special title: I had to go across the pond to retrieve it! Because this film has never been released on home video in the US, I bought the film on eBay in the UK and shipped it to my friend Darren in Scotland, who ripped it into a Quicktime file to send to me. I would safely say it is the most difficult film to acquire I have ever tracked down!

First, the negative: this process caused a messy, glitchy version of the film that was admittedly harder to watch. I could handle it, but I wouldn't show this copy to friends unless they were warned. It makes the case for why having restorations and good quality picture matters.

Nonetheless, the feature debut of Ken Russell is truly a delight. It's a short and sweet 80 minutes and impressively has a fair share of humor and stylistic wow moments. He knows how to create beauty and wonder in cinema form like few other filmmakers I've ever seen. Despite its reputation as being Russell's least innovative project (had to start somewhere) it still has a few brilliant set pieces and photography to ogle at (not even just of the bikini-clad movie star). I laughed out loud, I was moved by some of its beauty. There's something to this late-era black and white that's really magnificent. You can see it as a contemporary to "A Hard Days Night," released the same year to much greater success. Some of its humor has aged, some of it remains relevant today toward the objectification of women, especially in regards to how it is shown in film. And it's surprisingly blunt at times, perhaps this is why it's been impossible to find in the US.

I hope to one day see this movie again in a proper restoration, or at least the unpixelated version as described. Yet despite some visual setbacks, I could still relish in 'French Dressing' and can't wait to see the next entry in Russell's filmography.

This has always been a weakness of mine: one of Ken Russell's earliest made-for-cinema efforts after a prestigious early career in TV documentaries. It stars one of my favourite minor British actors, James Booth, who went on to appear so memorably in 'Zulu' the year after, the late Roy Kinnear as a corpulent side kick, as well as the irreplaceable Bryan Pringle, as the corruptible and egoistical Mayor. The weaknesses, and charm, can be put down to its time and some of Russell's own uncertainties on a larger canvas: EG the awkward apeing of some Nouvelle Vague mannerisms for outside shots, and the varying tone - psrtly due to Russell's attempts to reconcile so many disparate elements. But to offset that, his surreal vision of a small English sea-side resort (Herne Bay), seeking to raise its cultural and tourist profile was (and remains) delightful to anyone who was familiar with the run down, determinedly unsexy reality at the time. Its a film a long way from the later Russell's variable excesses and, although sometimes awkward, is never heavy handed. He works well in black and white, maintaining a narrative interest and drive which only falters at the end, even if wide boy Booth is unable to project the warmth and passion his character's infatuation ultimately needs. This is one of those rare British films in which the imported continental talent - in this case, Marissa Mell (who plays 'Francoise Fayol', clearly modelled on Bardot) 'works' as a character - her exotic sexuality, so out of place in drab Gormley-on-Sea, is the point of a film that pointedly contrasts expectations, then results, throughout. And, as a view of small town municipal life, 'French Dressing' would bear some closer investigation by British critics than it has hitherto received. It's good too to see a falling out of opinions on IMDb's hallowed pages about this film - a sure sign that it is alive and kicking...