Anouk

Anouk Aimee remains as alluring and mysterious as ever, as per my other posts on her. Best known of course for Demy's LOLA and THE MODEL SHOP, Fellini's LA DOLCE VITA and 8 1/2 and of course Lelouch's UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME [I can watch that "Samba Saravah" sequence over and over], here are some stills from some other of her choice movies: I love the flawed version of Durrell's JUSTINE (completed by Cukor in '69), top with Michael York and (middle) Anna Karina in that very exotic recreation of 30s Alexandria, and of course Aldrich's 1962 SODOM AND GOMORRAH is choice camp now with Anouk as the lesbian queen Bera with her penchant for slave girls, with Stanley Baker as her jealous brother and those assorted Euro-babes Scilla Gabel, Rosanna Podesta (HELEN OF TROY herself) and Pier Angeli, and of course Stewart Granger as Lot! It's delirious fun ...

Dirk Bogarde knew Anouk since she was a teenager, he is also in JUSTINE, and she later played in a tv version of one of his novels VOICES IN THE GARDEN. She is also good in Altman's PRET A PORTER, FESTIVAL IN CANNES and so many others. It was nice to discover some of her earlier ones like THE GOLDEN SALAMANDER in 1949 with Trevor Howard, and it is always a pleasure tracking down some of her other French films. She wasn't too bothered with being a star or an actress though and more or less retired when she married Albert Finney, she then returned to the movies after that marriage finished. His loss, our gain....

Above right: Anouk and Claudia Cardinale