La Motocyclette

I can't get enough psychedelic silliness, and the DVD revolution has given new life to several 60s/70s gems. First 'Ciao Manhattan' with commentary, now 'Girl On A Motorcycle', also with commentary (by veteran cinematographer Jack Cardiff, who directed). Most people who have seen this movie don't seem to rate it very highly, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Marianne Faithfull looks absolutely beautiful, and watching her race across Europe in a leather jumpsuit is my idea of a good time! Faithfull's acting talent is difficult to gauge. She spends so much time "emoting" over the endless voice overs that her expressions sometimes border on the absurd. There are quite a few unintentional laughs just looking at her face, and there are some naff lines in the script that will provoke smirks. That added to the impressive photography, a couple of solarized freak outs, some swingin' soundtrack music, and super cool Alain Delon ('Le Samourai') makes this lots of psychedelic fun! It would make a great double bill with Roger Corman's exploitation classic 'The Trip'.

I'm an admirer of Jack Cardiff's earlier work as a cinematographer with name directors which included Hitchcock, Huston and Powell & Pressburger amongst many others although I must admit that this very much of its time film with elements of art-house, psychedelia, road movie and soft porn isn't one I'd normally associate with him.

It's an odd film, thin on plot but thick on plastering Marianne Faithfull and to a lesser extent Alain Delon's naked bodies over the screen. She's Rebecca the stuffy old village bookkeeper's daughter, drifting into marriage with stuffy young schoolteacher Raymond, until she encounters Delon's mean and moody Daniel on the continent and it's not long before she enters the lion's den in establishing a physical connection with him. But tortured soul Daniel isn't interested in a lasting relationship and seems quite happy to leave the girl in torment which he compounds by gifting her a spanking new motorbike as a teasing reminder of their tryst as in between their lovemaking sessions he's handily taught her how to ride his motorbike.

The ending you can almost literally see coming round the corner in a way that Rebecca clearly didn't and it is most shockingly and effectively done, but you have to say that pretty much all that went before it was rather dull, pretentious stuff and nonsense. For every carefully crafted landscape shot, with Cardiff employing so many airborne tracking shots you wonder he didn't invent the drone shot fifty years early, there are just as many awful back projection shots of Faithfull in particular but also Delon tearing it up on the road. Then just to firmly date-stamp his film as being made in 1968, he employs weird saturated colour effects usually when the horny couple are in bed.

Of course both Delon and Faithfull for different reasons, were hot at the time but they're hardly required to act. One suspects in fact the film was little more than a vehicle (sorry!) to get them naked together, although I had to smile at one point at the strategically placed vase of flowers covering Delon's manhood while elsewhere of course, pretty much all of Faithfull's anatomy is on show, even if only in glimpses.

Weighed down in addition by a dull soundtrack, I'm afraid this feature just never clicked into top gear (sorry again!) for me at all.

First off, the video I saw claims to be the uncut version; this wasn't the heavily censored version released in North America (not that much of it would be cut today.)

The most interesting thing about this movie is how typical it is of the 60s - from the psychedelic effects to the long-winded talk about freedom.

It's also an hypocritical movie, in a way - while using nudity and strong sexual imagery, the film is a thinly-disguised attack on the 60s concept of freedom and "free love". This is a film that simultaneously tries to use the freedom ideal of the 60s and to criticize that ideal.

The director is best-known as a cinematographer, and it shows; while the film is very shallow in terms of plot and message, the cinematography is often brilliant.

Rating: worth seeing for historical reasons, not on its own merits.

Cult movies don't come much 'cultier' than "The Girl on a Motorcycle". This film was British in name only; fundamentally it was French through and through from its source novel, (La Motocyclette by Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues), to its leading actor, Alain Delon. Pop singer Marianne Faithful, naked but for a black leather jump suit, was really only standing in for Bardot. There's no real plot to speak of but there's a lot of sixties psychedelia, sex, nudity, cheesy dialogue (Your body is like a violin in a velvet case), and, of course, Faithful tearing along the highways and byways of Europe on a big, phallic motorbike to the bed of her lover, Delon.

The director was a somewhat unlikely Jack Cardiff whose superb cinematography also gives the film its texture. Faithful's non- performance is really rather appealing while the film itself is ripe for rediscovery. It's not actually very good but it's certainly weird enough to be of more than passing interest.

What annoyed me about this film was the fact that Alain Delon got top billing for the movie, which is somewhat unfair to Marianne Faithfull seeing as though Alain Delon is only in the film for a collective 40 mins.

But despite that small annoyance, the film is very interesting, but I do believe I say that out of sympathy. The film basically follows Marianne Faithfully on a large motorcycle, which does look like a shocking studio prop a lot of the time, through Alsace to Heidleberg in Germany, to meet up with her motorcycle lover Alain Delon. The story of their relationship is told via flashbacks which is told through flashbacks which are then told through flashbacks etc.

On the whole the film was a daring 1960's movie which aimed at showing raunchy sex scenes through hip psychedelic camera shots and just general 60'sness, if you know what I mean.

It won't be great cinematic viewing (although the shots of Marianne Faithfull bouncing around on a motocycle in nothing but a leather catsuit is somewhat great!) But the movie will offer you something different that you don't see everyday.