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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Les Bijoutiers Du Claire De Lune (aka The Night Heaven Fell) (1958)

A convent girl (Brigitte Bardot) is sent to live with her aunt (Alida Valli) and her lecherous uncle (Jose Nieto). But she falls in love with her aunt's lover (Stephen Boyd) and after he accidentally kills the uncle, the two go on the lam from the law all over the Spanish countryside and seaside. Has there ever been a more startling carnal presence in cinema than Brigitte Bardot in her prime? The way she walks, her tousled hair, her pout and that sensational body. And, at least it seems, it’s natural as opposed to the often manufactured, sexed up Hollywood counterparts. If I dwell on Bardot rather than the film, it’s because she’s the reason to see it. Directed by Roger Vadim (who thrust Bardot upon the world in ... AND GOD CREATED WOMAN), the storyline is jumbled and motivations seem unclear as if we, the audience, are not privy to something unspoken. Amusingly, Bardot is all done up like a schoolgirl when we are first introduced to her but it doesn’t take long for Vadim to have her prancing around in her slip or underwear. The score is by Georges Auric. In CinemaScope, with Fernando Rey.

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