Musiquarium

July 4 2023

SUPER BRIGITTE

I've shattered censorship barriers and redefined French cinema! My work here is done!

French cinema luminary Brigitte Bardot is easy to recognize even in a wig and wild costume, as shown here in an image from 1967. It was made when she appeared in singer Serge Gainbourg’s music video (yes, a few visionaries were making them that far back and ever farther) “Comic Strip.”

Serge went the literal route for his clip, which is why Bardot is dressed as a superhero and echoed by a comic strip-like version of herself. The song is literal too, with lyrics that include fight sound effects: “J’distribue les swings et les uppercuts. Ça fait VLAM !Ça fait SPLATCH! Et ça fait CHTUCK!” That all translates as, “I distribute swings and uppercuts. It’s VLAM! It’s SPLATCH! And that go CHTUCK!” You can hear the tune and see the video at this link.

Bardot made other videos in 1967 and 1968. We think “Contact” is particularly interesting. But only a few years after achieving something as cutting edge as helping to popularize the most important promotional tool used by music artists even today, she retired from performances on both the small and large screen to focus on other pursuits. Below, you see her with Serge.

France, Brigitte Bardot, Serge Gainsbourg

Intl. Notebook

May 26 2020

BOUND FOR EUROPE

Continental Film Review ties modern cinema up in a tidy little package.

Above and below, the cover and assorted interior pages from Continental Film Review, with all the rare imagery and erudite commentary from the European cinema scene readers had come to expect. The cover features German actress Brigitte Skay bound with rope, and those of note inside include Anna Gaël, Romy Schneider, Alain Delon, Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin, and Edwige Fenech. Skay and Gaël are featured because of their roles in the 1969 sci-fi film Zeta One, aka The Love Factor, which it happens we discussed way back in 2010. Shorter version: Barbarella it ain’t. Continental Film Review had a secondary focus on non-performance visual arts. This issue looks at animation from Sweden and talks about some hot illustrators of the time, including Jan Lenica and Per Ahlin, drawing comparisons between them and famed painters like René Magritte. All of that and more in thirty-plus scans.

Sweden, Britain, Germany, Continental Film Review, Brigitte Skay, Anna Gaël, Romy Schneider, Alain Delon, Edwige Fenech, Michèle Mercier, Serge Gainsbourg, Jane Birkin, Jan Lenica, Per Ahlin, magazine art, cinema

Vintage Pulp

May 16 2020

FRENCH UNDRESSING

Everyone in Paris hopes for a glimpse of Nico's velvet underground.

Una ragazza nuda, for which you see two beautiful Angelo Cesselon posters above, was originally released as Strip-Tease, and called in the U.S. Sweet Skin. It was an Italian/French co-production starring Krista Nico, née Christa Päffgen, better known as just Nico, future collaborator with the Velvet Underground. Her supporting cast includes Dany Saval, Jean Sobieski, and American jazz pianist Joe Turner playing a character named Sam (IMDB has him incorrectly listed as playing himself). Basically, the movie is the story of an ambitious dancer who can’t catch a break, and takes a job stripping at Le Crazy Horse, the famed Parisian cabaret.

Nico goes through the typical stages of becoming the jaded, empty woman viewers have been taught to expect in movies like these. But what isn’t typical is the setting. If you’re looking for a film with overwhelming Parisian atmosphere this is the one. Streets, cafés, restaurants, the Seine, the wintry countryside, Hippodrome de Vincennes, and the Crazy Horse (or a fictive stand-in) are all on prominent display, and the stripteaseuses are beautifully showcased. And keep an eye out for cameos from Serge Gainsbourg and Juliette Gréco. We just came back from Paris last year and thanks to this flick we’re already trying to figure out how to return.

On a technical level, the direction by Jacques Poitrenaud and cinematography by Raymond Pierre Lemoigne both take advantage of the film’s many wonderful settings, but the on-camera performances aren’t quite at the same level. Nico is a novice actress at this point and it shows, but her minimal emotional range fits with her character. Joe Turner isn’t an actor at all and that shows too, but as the conscience of the film his role also works. Some movies are more than the sum of their parts, and Una ragazza nuda adds up to an excellent ninety-five minutes. It premiered in Italy today in 1963.

Intl. Notebook

April 6 2019

WEST WORLD

French magazine celebrates essential American film genre.

A few years ago we used this image of German actress Dorothée Blanck as a femme fatale, but didn’t scan the rest of the magazine in which we had found her. By now you know why—the pages of these old film mags are large and we have to scan them in halves and put them together in Photoshop or GIMP, which is time consuming, something that’s a real problem for lazy people like us. But here we are three years later and we’ve finally done it. Above is the full cover of the issue of Cinémonde—“cineworld” in English—from which Blanck came.

Cinémonde was first published in October 1928 and ran until being interrupted by World War II in 1940. Post hostilities the magazine reappeared, running from 1946 until 1968, taking another pause, running again from 1970 to 1971, and finally folding for good. This issue hit newsstands today in 1965. Like other European magazines of the era, the main attraction with Cinémonde is that its photos generally have not been seen online before. This issue was devoted to the American western, and the subjects include some of the biggest cowboy stars in cinema history, including John Wayne, Glenn Ford, Clint Eastwood, and Jimmy Stewart.

That’s the first half of the issue. Afterward editors move outside the western milieu, and you get Marlon Brando, David Niven, Francois Dorléac, Barbara Bouchet, Serge Gainsbourg, hair secrets of the stars, the top ten Don Juans of French cinema, and more. Do we have other issues of this magazine? You bet. We own a group that includes Cinémonde, Ciné-Revue, and others. Will we ever scan them? Well, we make no promises at this point, but you never know—maybe we’ll splash out for a bigger scanner and solve the problem with money instead of effort. Seems to work for everyone else. Thirty plus images below.

Intl. Notebook

May 17 2018

A JOBERT WELL DONE

Redhead risks serious sunburn to get a base tan.

Belgium’s Ciné-Revue is one of the best film magazines of the mid-century era. It’s also one of the hardest to scan. Not only do the pages need to be scanned in halves and joined via computer, but the tiny text makes lining the halves up a real challenge. We didn’t think about that when we bought a stack of these in Paris several years back, and now the sheer effort involved causes us to doubt we’ll ever get them all uploaded. But we managed to carve out a few hours, so today we have this issue from May 1975 with French actress Marlène Jobert doing a little topless boating on the cover, hopefully well slathered in sunscreen. Jobert also features in the beachy center spread wearing even less clothing (and theoretically more sunscreen), but the real star of this issue is Bette Davis, who receives a career retrospective with shots from seemingly every movie she ever made. You also get William Holden, Jane Birkin, Dominique Sanda, Sidney Poitier, Sophia Loren, Rita Hayworth, Agostina Belli, a feature on Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, and much more, in forty-plus scans.

Vintage Pulp

December 28 2017

DANCING WITH THE STAR

Bardot uses smooth moves to solve a murder.

Brigitte Bardot graces a black Clément Hurel promo poster for Voulez-vous danser avec moi, and a Belgian poster as well, where the film was known by both its French title and as Wilt jij met mij dansen? In English it was called Come Dance with Me!, and in it Bardot indeed dances, but also pouts, flirts, schemes, and sleuths. It all starts when she weds a dentist. The couple are in love, but within months they’re in constant marital conflict. The husband goes out one night and gets fishhooked by Dawn Addams, though he doesn’t go all the way. Doesn’t matter though, because it looks like he did in the photos shot by sneaky ass Serge Gainsbourg, who’s photographing everything through the French doors—or as the French probably call them, the doors.

Nearly cheating makes the dentist realize how good he has it with Bardot—duh—but blackmail rears its ugly head when his almost affair shows up with the heavy petting photos. Though it may not sound like it, Voulez-vous danser avec moi is a comedy, or perhaps a dramedy. It’s generally considered lesser Bardot, but is there really such a thing? It’s satisfyingly wacky like Bardot films tend to be. For example, when Addams turns up dead, Bardot connives her way into a position at Addams’ dance studio in order prove her husband is innocent of murder. The rest of the film is basically a caper comedy with dance numbers. Lesser Bardot or not, we suspect it’ll get the job done for you just fine. Voulez-vous danser avec moi premiered in France today in 1959.

France, Belgium, Wilt jij met mij dansen?, Brigitte Bardot, Henri Vidal, Serge Gainsbourg, Clément Hurel, poster art, cinema, movie review

Musiquarium

December 24 2013

JUST FOR THE RECORD

Alain Gourdon finds a musical outlet.

You know we love the French illustrator Aslan’s, aka Alain Gourdon’s work around here. We shared some of his genius here, here, and here. Today we thought we’d show you some of the work he did for Fontana Records, a subsidiary of the Dutch label Philips Records. These six pieces were used by Fontana during the early 1960s for its Après Minuit series, which featured such performers as Johnny Hallyday, Juliette Gréco, and Serge Gainsbourg. Aslan’s work was used for other record pressings as well, fronting bootleg music by the Cure, Joy Division, as well as legal releases by other groups. We’ll show you some of those later.

Netherlands, France, Fontana Records, Philips Records, Aslan, Alain Gourdon, Johnny Hallyday, Juliette Greco, Serge Gainsbourg

Vintage Pulp

November 28 2008

FOU POUR BARDOT

They don’t make them like they used to.

Brigitte Bardot started as a dancer and model, but soon moved into film, debuting in 1952’s Le trou normand. But it wasn’t until today in 1955 that she exploded onto the international scene in Roger Vadim’s Et Dieu… créa la femme, aka …And God Created Woman. As Bardot’s career blossomed she embraced the role of luscious sex symbol, and was eventually voted honorary sex goddess of the 1960s—though by whom we aren’t sure. Anyway, if she’s a sex goddess, she’s pulp, so here she is on a collection of vintage posters.

Later in her career Bardot released several albums, charting hits in collaboration with French musical legend Serge Gainsbourg. As Bardot aged she became reclusive, but still speaks out on political issues. Recently she slammed U.S. vice-presidential candidate and fellow sexpot Sarah Palin for, among other transgressions, downplaying the environmental harm caused by humans. There’s much more to Bardot’s life than we can describe here. We recommend checking out her Wikipedia entry and renting her movies.

France, Germany, La femme et le pantin, Les bijoutiers du clair de lune, Le fil de Caroline Cherie, Et Dieu... créa la femme, Le repos du guerrier, Le mépris, Das Ganseblumchen wird entblättert, ...And God Created Woman, Brigitte Bardot, Roger Vadim, Serge Gainsbourg, Sarah Palin, poster art, cinema

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

October 5

1945—Hollywood Black Friday

A six month strike by Hollywood set decorators becomes a riot at the gates of Warner Brothers Studios when strikers and replacement workers clash. The event helps bring about the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, which, among other things, prohibits unions from contributing to political campaigns and requires union leaders to affirm they are not supporters of the Communist Party.

October 4

1957—Sputnik Circles Earth

The Soviet Union launches the satellite Sputnik I, which becomes the first artificial object to orbit the Earth. It orbits for two months and provides valuable information about the density of the upper atmosphere. It also panics the United States into a space race that eventually culminates in the U.S. moon landing.

October 4

1970—Janis Joplin Overdoses

American blues singer Janis Joplin is found dead on the floor of her motel room in Los Angeles. The cause of death is determined to be an overdose of heroin, possibly combined with the effects of alcohol.

October 3

1908—Pravda Founded

The newspaper Pravda is founded by Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles living in Vienna. The name means “truth” and the paper serves as an official organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party between 1912 and 1991.

October 3

1957—Ferlinghetti Wins Obscenity Case

An obscenity trial brought against Lawrence Ferlinghetti, owner of the counterculture City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, reaches its conclusion when Judge Clayton Horn rules that Allen Ginsberg’s poetry collection Howl is not obscene.

October 3

1995—Simpson Acquitted

After a long trial watched by millions of people worldwide, former football star O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Simpson subsequently loses a civil suit and is ordered to pay millions in damages.

October 2

1919—Wilson Suffers Stroke

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson suffers a massive stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed. He is confined to bed for weeks, but eventually resumes his duties, though his participation is little more than perfunctory. Wilson remains disabled throughout the remainder of his term in office, and the rest of his life.