Brigitte Bardot: 5-Film Collection – DVD Review

Film, Reviews

Available at Amazon.com

Cette sacrée gamine (Naughty Girl)
Directed By:
Michel Boisrond

Cast:
Brigitte Bardot. Brigitte Latour
Jean Bretonnière. Jean Clery

Lionsgate and Studiocanal present Cette sacrée gamine. Written by Roger Vadim and Michel Boisrond. Story by Jean Périne. 83 minutes. Not Rated. Originally released in 1956.

Voulez-vous Danser Avec Moi? (Come Dance With Me)
Directed By:
Michel Boisrond

Cast:
Brigitte Bardot. Virginie Dandieu
Henri Vidal. Hervé Dandieu
Dawn Addams. Anita Florès

Lionsgate and Studiocanal present Voulez-vous Danser Avec Moi? Written by Gérard Oury, Jean Charles Tacchella, L.C. Thomas, Michel Boisrond, & Annette Wademant. Based on the novel by Kelley Roos. 91 minutes. Not Rated. Originally released in 1959.

Le Repos Du Guerrier (Love On A Pillow)
Directed By:
Roger Vadim

Cast:
Brigitte Bardot. Geneviève Le Theil
Robert Hossein. Renaud Sarti
Jean-Marc Bory. Pierre Leroy

Lionsgate and Studiocanal present Le Repos Du Guerrier. Written by Roger Vadim and Claude Choublier. Based on the novel by Christiane Rochefort. 102 minutes. Not Rated. Originally released in 1962.

À Coeur Joie (Two Weeks In September)
Directed By:
Serge Bourguigon

Cast:
Brigitte Bardot. Cecile
Laurent Terzieff. Vincent
Jean Rochefort. Philippe

Lionsgate and Studiocanal present À Coeur Joie. Written by Serge Bourguignon, Pascal Jardin, & Vahé Katcha. 92 minutes. Not Rated. Originally released in 1967.

Les Femmes (The Vixen)
Directed By:
Jean Aurel

Cast:
Brigitte Bardot. Clara
Maurice Ronet. Jérôme
Christina Holme. Marianne

Lionsgate and Studiocanal present Les Femmes. Written by Jean Aurel & Cécil Saint-Laurent. 87 minutes. Not Rated. Originally released in 1969.

Lionsgate and Studiocanal present Brigette Bardot: 5-Film Collection. 5 films on 3 DVDs.

The Films:

There is no denying that Brigitte Bardot is the definition of beautiful. Her picturesque face graced the silver screen many times over the years and this collection gives us five of them from her earlier years. But just because we like to look at such a beauty, does that mean we want to watch her movies?

With the first film in the set, Naughty Girl, Bardot plays a young girl named Brigitte. She doesn’t know it, but her Dad owns a nightclub. When he is accused of being involved in a counterfeit money ring, he goes into hiding to prove his innocence. Meanwhile, he charges the entertainer of the nightclub to protect her and hijinks ensues. The jokes are bland, as is this movie, which mirrors many of romantic comedies of today – as far as blandness goes. Perhaps this film could be called forerunner of the genre. It’s very predictable and uninspired with few laughs, however the climactic ending is surprisingly entertaining in a physical comedy kind of way.

Next we have Come Dance With Me, which is a much better film than it’s predecessor. When Virginie’s (Bardot) husband, Hervé (Vidal), is accused of murder, it’s up to her to figure you who the real killer is. In order to do this she goes undercover at the dance studio where the murder was committed as a new dance teacher. I think this plot device was put in place solely to have scenes in the film of Bardot dancing, which she does quite well. Part comedy, part mystery it is easy to see how Bardot’s acting improved during the three years between this film and Naughty Girl. This film also seems to be way ahead of its time having an openly gay character in the film. Something that was not looked to kindly upon at the time. Then again, it is a French film. This one is cute and although very predictable for a mystery, it’s fun and enjoyable.

In Love On A Pillow, Bardot takes the leap into drama. Directed by Bardot’s then husband, Vadim, this is a very strange film. While on a trip Geneviève (Bardot) saves a stranger, Renaud (Hossein), from suicide. He comes home with her where a strange relationship begins, despite the fact that she has a fiancé. He lies around the house all day drinking, smoking, reading books and making her clean the house in the nude. He abuses her emotionally and psychologically then he makes love to her. For some reason she falls in love with him and calls it off with her fiancé. The awkward relationship in this film is somewhat reminiscent of The Last Tango In Paris, although not nearly as racy and was made ten years earlier. This is a peculiar film and at times uncomfortable to watch, but is still an improvement in the career of Bardot.

The fourth film is Two weeks In September. Cecile (Bardot) loves her husband (Rochefort), but is bored with her marriage so she goes with some friends to London to participate in a photo shoot. There she meets a young adventurous young man, Vincent (Terzieff), who steals her heart. Now she must choose which man she loves more. Trust me when I say that the last couple sentences are far more exciting than the film they describe. This is a dull lifeless film that trudges along and never seems to go anywhere. Maybe it’s the translation, but most the dialogue is ridiculous and makes little sense. This film it a total stinker and it’s a wonder they put it in this collection. There must have been a better choice than this.

The collection concludes with The Vixen. This time around Bardot plays Clara, a girl who gets a job as a secretary for novelist Jérôme (Ronet). Jérôme is having writer’s block so his publisher suggests he get himself a muse, thus the hiring of Clara. Her is job is to offer him “everything a woman can offer a man.” Then film then follows the formulaic girl meets boy, girl and boy hate each other, then boy and girl fall in love. However, the ending isn’t so formulaic, which is nice. You know what’s not interesting in a film? An author dictating his book to his secretary while she types, which is what half this film is. While dictating we get to see some of the story visualized in what looks like really grainy stock footage, although it’s not. This film has the potential to be good as the scenes between Bardot and Ronet are interesting. However, it spends way too much time in his story, which is completely boring.

There is no denying Bardot’s importance in bringing sexuality to the forefront of the stuffy 50’s America. But besides her beauty, she did make a few good films along the way such as And God Created Women. Sadly, the films contained in this collection are from her best work.


Ladies and Gentlemen: Brigitte Bardot.

Naughty Girl: 5.5
Come Dance With Me: 6
Love On A Pillow: 6.5
Two Weeks In September: 3.5
The Vixen: 4.5

The DVD:

The Video:

Naughty Girl, Love On A Pillow and Two Weeks In September are presented in 2.35:1 widescreen. The Vixen and Come Dance With Me are 1.66:1 widescreen. The transfers on all these films are fine. The only complaint is the aforementioned stock like footage of The Vixen.

The Audio:

All the films are presented in Dolby Monaural. All films are in French with English and French subtitles. The sound is adequate considering some of these films are over 50 years old. Also, none of the sound in these films seem natural. More like constructed and put together in post.

Extras:

The only disc that offers anything is the third one:

Larger Than Life: Brigitte Bardot and the Mythology of the Sex Symbol: Who better to talk about the ultimate Sex Symbol than Mr. Hugh Hefner. This is an interesting expose about her life and frankly is more interesting than any of the films. It runs just over fifteen minutes.

About the best thing about this collection is the puffy vinyl packaging, but you can’t judge a book, er, DVD by it’s cover.

The DVD Lounge’s Ratings for
Brigitte Bardot: 5-Film Collection
CATEGORY
RATING
(OUT OF 10)
THE MOVIES

5
THE VIDEO

7
THE AUDIO

6
THE EXTRAS

5
REPLAY VALUE

1
OVERALL
4
(NOT AN AVERAGE)

The Inside Pulse
If you curious to see a Brigitte Bardot film go rent something along the lines of And God Created Women. None of these are really worth your time, unless you’re an obsessive fan.

Mike Noyes received his Masters Degree in Film from the Academy of Art University, San Francisco. A few of his short films can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikebnoyes. He recently published his first novel which you can buy here: https://www.amazon.com/Seven-Days-Years-Mike-Noyes-ebook/dp/B07D48NT6B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1528774538&sr=8-1&keywords=seven+days+seven+years