Today, Angelina Jolie rules the digital roost, but back in the late 1950s and 1960s, one could more happily delight in the vogue antics of Jean Seberg, Anna Karina, Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Bardot, and other stars of the French New Wave / La Nouvelle Vague.
Above, Paris apartment scene with Jean Seberg in Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless / À bout de souffle (1960). Small time hoodlum hooks up again with American working on assignment as she waits to take classes at the Sorbonne. He's trying to raise money to head for Italy, she's along for the ride.
Godard's Bande à part / Band of Outsiders (1964), another breathless film about petty crooks. Based on American novel Fools' Gold (1958) by Dolores Hitchens, Danish-born Anna Karina carries the lead.
Jeanne Moreau stars in Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud / Elevator to the Gallows (1958), well-played tale of botched murder. Moreau is stunning in motion -- she has a mesmerizing aesthetic quality that's harder to capture in still photography. Original soundtrack by Miles Davis -- how much hipper can you get?
From Malle's Viva Maria! (1965) -- Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau star. Set during the Mexican Revolution with a zany touch of inconoclastic Sixties' farce, both characters are named Maria. C'est oh!
Today's Rune: Movement.
Happy Birthday to Luma! http://www.luzdeluma.blogspot.com/
2 comments:
I actually remember "Viva MAria." I think I watched it primarily for Bardot.
I remember "Viva Maria" from like the NBC Saturday Night Movie.
I'm always intrigued by French adaptations of American novels. Someone in France was once doing a John Ed Bradley novel adaptation. I've never seen it and I've always wondered how it would work because the book is about high school football.
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