The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968)

I saw this film in the 1970s at a Cleveland Drive-in, then titled "Naked under Leather", and enjoyed it as a peculiarly big-name (stars in the cast) exploitation film. I later have realized it was perhaps the first of its kind and influential.Of course, it is compared to Easy Rider, though predating that hit by a year. The use of the road movie format to present an existentialist story was later to reach its apotheosis in 1971 with Monte Hellman's "Two-Lane Blacktop" and Richard C. Sarafian's major cult classic "Vanishing Point", the last-named becoming my favorite film of the time. I even bought a Dodge Challenger and enjoyed watching "VP" and other similar movies at the drive-in sitting in my favorite car.This Jack Cardiff original is being revived at the New York Public Library upon the suggestion of staff from Film Comment magazine, so it's due to be taken seriously. My problems with the film are worth this short review.Similar works by French authors were quite popular at the time, my choice being Sebastian Japrisot's "The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun", a strange work that was filmed twice, the first one being vastly underrated: Jean Negulesco's glossy movie starring Samantha Eggar and Oliver Reed.Cardiff adapted the screenplay and rather adventurously presents the story almost exclusively in voice-over from the heroine's point-of-view: much of the action is mere fantasy on her part. Mick Jagger's girlfriend at the time, singer Marianne Faithfull, stars, and the movie unfolds almost as a love letter to her - endless closeups and enough smiles for her to audition for The Sound of Music.The director in his commentary emphasizes the participation of Alain Delon as her co-star: a subordinate role but crucial as he was the top leading man in Europe for the 1960s. But Cardiff is off-base in his self-praise for the frequent use of positive/negative post-production alteration of the visuals, that create a "psychedelic" effect intended to fend off the censors. The technique is crude and ineffective. Similarly, his yeoman work to disguise the fact that Faithfull cannot ride a bike, let alone a magnificent Harley at high speeds, goes for naught -most of the footage looks fake or clearly second unit (with a stunt guy doubling for the beauty).But as an experiment its power continues, even to the extent of the Tom Hardy one-man-show "Locke", which I thought was imitating "Vanishing Point" with its protagonist behind the wheel for an hour and a half, but owes more to Cardiff's single-minded creation.And the sex that earned the movie an X-rating (though at a time when X rated movies included "Midnight Cowboy") is more of the fetish kind. You know, the British kink for rubber and leather and such, best epitomized in the '60s by Diana Rigg's fabulous fetish outfits in the hit TV series "The Avengers".We get to see tasteful nude shots of Marianne, which now should prove amusing to her fan base as she morphed from Jagger's ""As Tear Go By" to a fine, mature folk singer over the years, and an emphasis on her leather costume that puts to shame the thousands of ridiculous bondage/fetish videos that clutter up this IMDb database (search for odd-ball names under the Genre "Adventure" and you'll find them.

Motorcyclist Perspective From a Motorcyclist Perspective I enjoyed this film. The European landscape and a hot, leather clad, horny babe on a FL Harley-Davidson American motorcycle really turned my crank. This is a classic with a lot of riding scenes this is the type of material I crave to digest when I am not on my motorcycle, a kind of substitute ride if you will. Sexy women wrapped in tight leather are you kidding why not give this film a ten it is the greatest.I would compare it to Easy Rider only a female version I bet Peter Fonda saw this film and was then inspired to make Easy Rider. I put this in my top ten list of motorcycle saturated films. I saved it on my DVR and will watch it again and again and encourage every other motorcyclist to do the same. It even had the psychedelic visuals like Easy Rider. I wish someone would remake a modern version of Girl on a Motorcycle.

Jack Cardiff co-wrote, directed and photographed this low-rent film about a girl (on a motorcycle!) rushing to see her former lover on a whim after being unhappily married to a milquetoast teacher for two months (Cardiff shows us a snippet of the teacher at work; he can't control his pre-teen students and trembles when they get rowdy). Wretched script combines the usual rebel pretensions with the young woman's wistful thoughts about Life, some of which are fairly funny (while passing a cemetery, she thinks, "Not everyone who is buried is dead!"). Padded with flashbacks and dream-sequences, which are also amusing, we do get to see Marianne Faithful nude, which seems to have been Cardiff's Modus Operandi (so much for his classy reputation). The picture does have a moody, misty-morning feel which, despite being somewhat enervating, is certainly fascinating, but the slim budget and the lack of real imagination keeps this "Girl" grounded. *1/2 from ****

I can't get enough psychedelic silliness, and the DVD revolution has given new life to several 60s/70s gems. First 'Ciao Manhattan' with commentary, now 'Girl On A Motorcycle', also with commentary (by veteran cinematographer Jack Cardiff, who directed). Most people who have seen this movie don't seem to rate it very highly, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Marianne Faithfull looks absolutely beautiful, and watching her race across Europe in a leather jumpsuit is my idea of a good time! Faithfull's acting talent is difficult to gauge. She spends so much time "emoting" over the endless voice overs that her expressions sometimes border on the absurd. There are quite a few unintentional laughs just looking at her face, and there are some naff lines in the script that will provoke smirks. That added to the impressive photography, a couple of solarized freak outs, some swingin' soundtrack music, and super cool Alain Delon ('Le Samourai') makes this lots of psychedelic fun! It would make a great double bill with Roger Corman's exploitation classic 'The Trip'.