FemaleFirst.co.uk: DVD: Girl On A Motorcycle [DVD] [1968]

Girl On A Motorcycle [DVD] [1968]
enlarge	Director: Jack Cardiff Actors: Alain Delon, Marianne Faithfull, Roger Mutton, Marius Goring, Catherine Jourdan Studio: Prism Leisure Category: DVD Buy New: £23.00 as of 24/11/2009 14:54 GMT details New (4) Used (1) from £19.99 Seller: brightonbookhounds Rating: 7 reviews Sales Rank: 29102 Format: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen Language: English (Original Language) Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Region: 2 Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Number Of Discs: 1 Running Time: 86 Minutes EAN: 5055002550508 ASIN: B00005NBUG Theatrical Release Date: February 21, 1969 Release Date: September 1, 2003 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Editorial Reviews: Amazon.co.uk Review Caught midway between 1970s soft-porn clunker IThe Story of O/I and Bunuel's sado-masochistic fantasy IBelle de Jour/I, the 1968 erotic curio IGirl on a Motorcycle/I is one of Marianne Faithfull's chief claims to notoriety. She stars as Rebecca, a leather-clad, former bookstore clerk in search of sexual fulfilment who flees her dependable schoolteacher husband for a dangerous liaison with Daniel (Alain Delon), a dashing Professor addicted to speed. The story is told entirely in flashbacks as Rebecca rockets along the road, having donned her leathers and walked out on her sleeping husband at the crack of dawn. It all must have seemed fairly daring and provocative in 1968, providing viewers with ample opportunities to view a naked Faithfull at the height of her allure. But today the existential musings of the lead character seem achingly pretentious, the erotic symbolism merely gawky and unintentionally amusing: the sight of Alain Delon with a phallic pipe dangling from his mouth is like something out of a Rene Magritte painting. The sex scenes between Delon and Faithfull are all swamped in a polarised visual effect that, while garish and psychedelic, is dated and distinctly unerotic. Director Jack Cardiff is better known as a cinematographer on classics such as IThe African Queen/I and IBlack Narcissus/I. Among Cardiff's other directorial credits is a worthy adaptation of DH Lawrence's ISons Lovers/I, but IGirl on a Motorcycle/I is a saucy road movie with no final destination. p BOn the DVD/B: This DVD version is misleadingly presented as being the fully restored and uncut version of the film. Yet it was the US version not the European one that was heavily cut (and titillatingly re-titled "Naked Under Leather"). The restoration certainly does not refer to the print quality: although the colours are vivid and bright, the print used to master the DVD (in 16:9 anamorphic format) is extremely grainy and, at times, speckled with dirt and scratches. Included as one of the special features, a theatrical trailer loaded with innuendo shows just how much the film was marketed to a prurient audience. Director Jack Cardiff provides an audio commentary but has few revelatory things to say about his film beyond technical considerations, and even makes several clunking errors (recalling his casting decisions concerning a scene that takes place in a provincial German café, he raves about how he strove to find authentic French locals!). He does reveal that the film's use of a voice-over was inspired by the internal monologue that forms the basis of James Joyce's IUlysses/I. Given Cardiff's age and experience one feels that he must have more interesting anecdotes and insights, making this commentary feel like a wasted opportunity. --IChris Campion/I

Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 7 1 2 Next » Classic European "Easy Rider" July 13, 2008 Mr Happy (HERE!) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful I bought this un-cut in Germany, German packaging but English audio-track,a couple of extras but nothing much really to write about. br /Imagine Diana Rigg joining "Easy Rider's" Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda for a ride across France and Germany and you will have a pretty good idea what "Girl on a Motorcycle" looks like. Made one year before "Easy Rider"; this is an amazing 1960's road movie that includes hip camera angles, groovy music, a leather suit and a Harley Super Glide. br / br /While low-budget, it is not a thrown together "B" Movie but a thoughtful existential trip inside the mind of a flawed character who happens to be a sexy woman. On close examination, what appears to be yet another fruitless examination of the mysteries of female discontent is really a more expansive study of the human condition. Rebecca, the main character, illustrates life as a process of choosing between comfortable security and the need for freedom and excitement; a daily struggle with guilt and its consequent self-destructiveness, and the seductive lure of risk. Motivations familiar to almost all serious motorcycle riders. br / br /In voice-over, Marianne Faithful gives us Rebecca's story in a series of flashbacks, with minimal scenes of conventional dialogue. Most of these work very well although there is a ski weekend flashback about midway through the film that looks more like a travel advertisement than a movie scene. And while much of Jack Cardiff's film is beautifully shot, the action sequences are somewhat clumsy looking and obviously low budget. And there is excessive reliance on the Elvis movie technique of projecting moving scenery(shot by the second unit) with the star pretending to be cruising along the road while actually stationary in the studio. br / br /Cardiff was very creative with the editing and came up with some great match cuts, typically used to bring Faithful out of her frequent flashbacks/dreams. In one we see her lover slowing pulling open the zipper of her suit, then the film cuts to the tread of an Army tank moving past the place where she has been napping by her motorcycle. br / br /Cardiff's technique was quite revolutionary at the time as his camera has a love affair with the leather suit , the motorcycle, and Faithful's eyes. His extensive use of very tight shots is extremely effective and the most pleasing thing about the film. br / br /Faithful is on screen in almost all the scenes and gives a surprisingly good performance. Alain Delon as her lover gets a fair about of screen time (all in flashbacks). I've not been able to take Delon seriously as an actor since his performance as a character named "Baldy" in Dean Martin's "Texas Across the River" in 1966. Plus I get him confused with Jorge Rivero and his almost identical character "Capt. Pierre Cordona aka Frenchy" in "Rio Lobo". Maybe they are the same person and used two names as a tax dodge. br / br /The DVD include a nice stills gallery and a couple trailers. br / br /All in all I recommend this film. It has thoughtful themes and many well-shot scenes. If you like motorcycles, a sexy body in and out of a leather suit, the most beautiful eyes ever, and cute freckles you should view this film if your a real Faithful Fan. br / Classic movie from the close of the 60s. July 31, 2008 FAMOUS NAME (UNITED KINGDOM) br /This was Marianne Faithfull's greatest moment when she starred in what was to become one of the great films to close the 1960s era in 'Girl On A Motorcycle'. br / br /This film is beautifully shot with some fabulous early morning scenes. Some scenes are quite melancholic - others are simply exhilarating! With lots of psychedelic suggestions, the story of this great movie runs far deeper than is given credit for. br / br /A young woman attempts to 'save' herself from her own sexual addiction to a virtual stranger by rushing into marriage with a man she has become 'comfortably' engaged to, but he's somewhat boring and a little weak, which does not help her fight her temptations... The pathetic portrayal of her future husband is done without any sentiment at all with a great example being the humiliating scene involving the children in the classroom quite early on in the picture - this in particular ignites much sympathy from the viewer for the girl and her plight. The girl Rebecca, finds herself torn between love and excitement, but she becomes too embroiled in what will become her ultimate downfall... The flashbacks are cleverly interspersed in a way that keeps the viewer guessing as to whether she's arrived at her destination - or if it's just another daydream. This little quirk becomes more gripping as the film and story progresses. br / br /There's also some great dialogue from Faithfull's character as we enter her thoughts as she rides along on her bike at tremendous speed, that for any of those who woke up towards the end of the 60s decade, to find that nothing had really happened at all - this will be particularly poignant; there were still people living boring lives, people still got married, and people still died... Nothing had really changed at all... br / br /I think this movie is a sort of 'wake up call' for those who believed that the 1960s had changed everything. br / br /I find I have to be in a certain mood to really appreciate the absolute gems that some of the scenes in this picture are, and to also appreciate the devastating impact the whole story has. Anyone who falls asleep watching this, will most certainly wake up at some point with a start! br / br /Fabulous! br / br /N. B. The release I purchased could do with a 're-mastering'. br / Classic soft biker porn September 10, 2009 Glidd of Glood (Switzerland) There are only a couple of good reasons probably to want to see this film: br / br /One is for a nostalgia trip back to the 60s and here the film doesn't disappoint: it is totally of its era and couldn't have been made at any other time. It puts you in mind of Antonioni's Blow Up. br / br /The other, and probably far more powerful reason, is to see a sexy and youthful Marianne Faithfull zip herself into her leather one-piece. This isn't as fatuous as it sounds. It is obvious from the film's promotional material, and its poster, that this was meant to be its biggest draw. It is also hard to say that the film doesn't do the book justice. I imagine that few will have read André Pieyre de Mandiargues' prizewinning novel "La Motorcyclette" which is the basis for the film. It is hard to see how the book won any prizes, as it is as much an exercise in soft porn as the film, without anything much to say. But the film is remarkably faithful to the text. br / br /Living near Geneva, I know many of the areas dramatised in the film and have ridden them on my own bike. There is a fabulous atmosphere evoked by the film and the freedom it conveys is as true now as then. br / br /Marianne Failthfull is hugely seductive in her leather suit, and if you appreciate this, then you should enjoy the film, as she spends most of the movie clad in it. Should you be female, you can always spend your time admiring that hugely French sex-symbol, Alain Delon. br / br /On the other hand, if you want more than a period art-house movie, completely dated and offering little more than an excuse to revel in the bike and its riders as sex-objects, you are going to be disappointed. Girl on a Motorcycle October 25, 2003 6 out of 8 found this review helpful Classic bike movie or thinly disguided soft pornography? You'll have to decide which. This is a 'classic' film. Not one of the best but interesting for a number of reasons and with a real twist to the story. Watch as a flawed road movie April 23, 2007 MarkE (Oxford, UK) 1 out of 1 found this review helpful I bought this in a fit of nostalgia, having enjoyed it as a boy interested in motorcycles and women (at a time when both were beyond me). br / br /On watching it again I had a pleasant wallow in nostalgia, but the acting is wooden and the "erotic" scenes have dated very badly. The road movie aspect is a treat though; who wouldn't want to ride a bike across 1960s Europe? br / br /One to enjoy at the bottom of the second bottle with a group of friends who were there at the same time. Showing reviews 1-5 of 7 1 2 Next »

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