Ce corps tant désiré

Obliged by the Peronist regime to leave his home country, Luis Saslavsky did what every self-respecting writer/director would do: he settled in France! This is undoubtedly the weakest of the handful of films he made there. He and his production designer Serge Pimenoff have given it a neo-realist look but that is where the comparison ends. The poster makes it quite clear that 'the longed-for body' of the title belongs to Belinda Lee who is establishing a career in Europe after being 'dropped' by Rank. She looks utterly ravishing here as bad girl Lina whose sexual charisma wreaks havoc in the lives of both the Guillaume of Daniel Gelin and the Henri of Maurice Ronet. Add to the mix the exquisite Dany Carrel as Marinette who suffers the pangs of unrequited love for Henri and you have the recipe for passionate drama. It turns out alas to be the proverbial 'damp squib'. Not only is the tempo much too 'lento' to maintain our interest but the whole enterprise seems strangely tame and old fashioned compared to the similarly themed 'Et Dieu crea la Femme' of three years earlier. The dreary score does the film no favours at all. Ill-fated Belinda Lee possessed what Byron called 'the fatal gift of Beauty.' One would hope that it brought her at least a measure of happiness in her all too short and 'notorious' life.

Luis Saslavsky was an "influential Argentinian screenwriter, director and producer, as well as novelist and film critic who worked in France during the 1950's."

He made four movies here ;the best is probably "La Neige Etait Sale" which was his star Daniel Gelin's favorite movie;"Les Louves " was a fine Boileau/Narcejac adaptation which should appeal to "Les Diaboliques" fans ;"Premier Mai" is a pleasant comedy.

Sadly,his last French effort,this movie,is the least convincing.Marred by a mediocre script ,an obsolete story which could have been filmed before WW2,as a failed attempt at "Realisme Poetique".

A man (Maurice Ronet ,just before his sensational breakthrough in "Plein Soleil "-"purple noon-)falls in love with a hot girl (Belinda Lee) with a racy past ;because she's afraid he might treat her like a former prostitute ,she marries his friend, a dreamer who makes machines to extract pearls from mussels.But the rejected lover cannot get over the loss of this " desired body".He 's so blind he cannot see the love another girl,Marinette (Dany Carrel) ,feels for him.

It takes place on a mussel bed ,by the ocean, where Lee's statuesque beauty creates a sensation among the workers.

Generally well acted,mainly by Gelin with his hangdog look ,the story is clumsy and full of plot holes (the pimp has one scene and that's it)and of implausibilities (the ending).