Another French rarity: La Fille Aux Yeux D'Or (1961)

A beautiful girl without a name...! WHO was the mysterious rival who kept her captive in a world of luxury?

THE GIRL WITH GOLDEN EYES - This routine film by novice director Jean-Gabriel Albicocco handles the subject of a relationship between women, set in the haute couture world of Paris circa 1960 - so it is naturally tres chic, though the story implies that if a man falls in love with a lesbian she can change her sexual orientation. Loosely based on a novel by Honore de Balzac, a skirt-chasing fashion photographer and "modeliser" who seduces models like the young Francoise Dorleac (while his friends listen as it is tape recorded) meets a mysterious young woman who captures his interest immediately. She is not wholly forthcoming, but after a period of time, he realizes that he is in love with her — she is not just another conquest. It takes awhile before he also realizes that she is the partner of his female associate who is possessive, at the very least.

Paul Guers is the attractive hero (he was in the Bogarde A TALE OF TWO CITIES as well as Demy's BAY OF ANGELS, Demy label), Francoise Prevost is the chic lesbian (she was also in the English PAYROLL with Michael Craig in '61, and the female part of the triangle in Griffi's IL MARE, in 1962 - review at Italian label). The Girl herself is the marvellous Marie Laforet, who dazzled me as Marge in Clements' PLEIN SOLEIL the previous year (see label on that...). Marie sings as well as acts and is still working now.



The drama here escalates as the three characters grapple, and a knife comes into play .... Chabrol did more of the same 6 years later with his popular LES BICHES, the first of his successful series with Stephane Audran. THE GIRL WITH GOLDEN EYES is photographed by the director's father, Quinto Albicocco, and must have been quite daring for its time. My friend Jorge advises that the film's director, Jean-Gabriel Albicocco, abandoned the director's chair in the early 70s to live in Brazil, he fell in love with the country, and opened several art cinemas in Rio and in São Paulo. This is certainly an oddity to see now.

Plein Soleil / La Piscine / The Fascinating Mr Ripley

1960 was such a key year - not only PSYCHO and L'AVVENTURA but also PLEIN SOLEIL (PURPLE NOON), my introduction to continental movies, when I was 14 - its been a lifelong love affair! It was a whole new way of seeing movies for the young me. Left: that classic Delon pose; above: Delon and Marie Laforet - they look so good together.

Did the blue mediterranean ever look more attractive than as captured here by ace cameraman Henri Decae? Its the look Anthony Minghella tried to re-capture for his version, THE TALENTED MISTER RIPLEY in 1999, but there they are self-consciously designed to look '50s period, whereas in the original its that real 1959/1960 look. Alain Delon at 24 though as the cool killer is aeons away from the needy nerd portrayed by Matt Damon - though the later film is also a fascinating spin on the Highsmith original.

Patricia Highsmith's orignal, for a novel published in the mid-50s, is fascinatingly explicit about her anti-hero's psychology and its one of my favourite books which I can happily re-read every few years and led to my endless fascination with Highsmith and her works, including those other Ripley novels. Clement's film is a stripped down, more enignatic telling as Tom, Dickie Greenleaf (the very under-rated Maurice Ronet) and Marge (dazzlingly attractive Marie Laforet) play out the drama in that perfect setting and on the boat. Bright, complementary hues and high color contrast translate into eye-popping reds and yellows. And there's the deep blue color of the sea, and a brilliant sunlit sky, as Clement allows the amorality of his characters to run loose. I was fascinated by it at the time. I still love that introduction to Marge as the camera pans over those Fra Angelico prints while Laforet strums the guitar and sings in that terrific decor, as we just see her eyes initially in closeup.

The film remains fascinating as Tom twists and turns to avoid the law and those looking for the real Dickie. The one flaw is the ending though I dare say its perfect in its way for that time.

Minghella's expanded version in 1999 makes Tom's attraction to Dickie and his lifestyle more obvious with that bathroom scene as the bored Dickie toys with Tom and fatally taunts him about Tom's dependency on him. This Dickie is more of a heel with the (invented by Mingehlla, who also did the script - a labour of love obviously) pregnancy of the local girl who drowns herself - so we don't feel that bad about Dickie's fate - though we miss the charismatic Law. Very intriguing new ending with those expanded roles for Blanchett and Jack Davenport.

Thankfully the 1960 original is still in circulation and looks even better on dvd. It is perhaps Delon's defining role. Antonioni's L'ECLISSE and then Visconti's THE LEOPARD made him the prestige young actor, just as Romy Schneider was becoming the prestige actress of the time, as their romance wound down. He was fun and attractive too in a French comedy FAIBLES FEMMES. He also had a flirtation with Hollywood making a few inconsequential films there, before returning to France and classics like LE SAMURAI and BORSALINO with Belmondo, remaining one of France's most intriguing stars. One could write lots about his later films and scandals. There are several dvd box-sets too, worth investigating. I recently discovered Clement's 1954 KNAVE OF HEARTS (or MONSEIUR RIPOIS) with that pre-Delon charmer Gerard Philipe (reviewed here in an earlier post) - it was worth the wait.

Ronet had a great career too [I particularly like him in Malle's LE FEU FOLLET and in Chabrol's LE FEMME INFIDELE]- he and Delon had a (murderous) re-match in Jacques Deray's 1969 thriller LA PISCINE (THE SWIMMING POOL) also re-teaming Delon with Romy Schneider. Its certainly fascinating (if too long) for those who like these players; Delon and Schneider also team up for Losey's ASSASSINATION OF TROTSKY in '72 by which time Romy had become one of the stars of French cinema.

Ripley continued in another favourite: Wim Wenders' THE AMERICAN FRIEND with Bruno Ganz (and, oddly, Dennis Hopper as Ripley) in '77 and in Liliana Cavani's very intriguing RIPLEY'S GAME in 2002 with John Malkovich and Ray Winstone.
Above: Romy Schneider in her one shot appearance at the start of PLEIN SOLEIL.
Below: Delon, Schneider, Ronet and Jane Birkin in the 1969 Deray thriller LA PISCINE. Jane looks like she is still in BLOW-UP mode.

Francoise Hardy, Marie Laforet & those Ye Ye Girls

When I was 17 in 1963 I saw a photo of this stunning new French singer with that angular face and the long hair so I had to get her record - so, the first record I ever bought was by Francoise Hardy (THEN The Beatles came along...). Her voice was little but the music was nice, even if I did not understand a word of it. She was a hit with Eurovision and her records were everywhere. She was likened to look like Mick Jagger! She was as hip as say Marianne Faithfull in London. I bought all her Vogue (record label) EPs - like these:

She went into the movies too - with Vitti in Vadim's CHATEAU EN SUEDE (a Francoise Sagan adaptation), popping up at the end of WHATS NEW PUSSYCAT? and was the girlfriend of Antonio Sabato in Frankenheimer's '66 GRAND PRIX. England may have led the pop field in the early and mid '60s, but French pop music was a separate world of its own which we liked to visit frequently.

Decades passed and Francoise is still singing - now with short grey hair, as stylish as ever, and sounding much the same. Its been fun downloading her tracks from iTunes and copying over some CDs. She has been discovered all over again and her recent album is as fascinating as she ever was - she is still a style icon. She also guests (as does Catherine Denueve) on Malcolm McLaren's "Paris" CD.

The other French Ye-Ye girls incudes Slyvie Vartan and there are lots others on YouTube - one could spend all day watching them; there is a terrific one of Francoise, Sylvie and Etienne Daho. Sylvie also does an amazing "Bette Davis Eyes". There is a nice Hardy site at: http://sweetfrancoise.blogspot.com/

Marie Laforet came to my attention as Marge in Rene Clements' PLEIN SOLEIL where she is mysterious and stunningly attractive - again, like Hardy and Vitti its a stunning face. She is still acting,and sings too - I have an album of hers. Vive le French girls. Greco may have been the template but Francoise, Marie, Sylvia and the others are still up there.