Serge Bourguignon could be said to have started his career at the top and worked his way down."Cybèle Ou Les Dimanches De Ville D'Avray" is considered a good movie in France -when people remember it ,which remains to be seen-and a masterpiece of poetry abroad ."Cybèle" is unquestionably an impressive work ,which is not even available on DVD in its native country and never screened on TV.Such a work promised great things.They were never to happen.
The follow-up,a western called "the reward" was the most inadequate sophomore effort after the golden start with "Cybèle";back in France ,he tried to repair the breach by casting our greatest sex symbol BB in his third work.It was a colossal flop and the beginning of the decline of BB at the box office :whereas "Viva Maria" was a huge success,"A Coeur Joie" did not make 25% of Louis Malle's movie gross .It got unanimous thumbs down .
The cinematography is splendid ,so is BB ,but the movie,seen today ,seems like a spate of clichés with a screenplay which could take up just one sheet of cigarette paper: will the beautiful cover girl leave her bourgeois husband(Jean Rochefort in a ten-minute performance) for the wild boy (and his dog;as an animal rights activist -even at the time-BB was in love with both ,obviously)she met in a ball?Highly talented Laurent Terzieff deserved better than this uninteresting character
The movie had enough in the sixties to make the audience dream;going to London was not as usual as it is today and BB has us visit the swinging London,its pop music -the choice of the songs is rather poor in the year which saw "Sgt Pepper's"-,its models in their miniskirts or in armors (?)photographed in London zoo (always BB's love for God's creatures )or down by the Thames .There's even an excursion in Scotland where they meet an ornithologist in kilt (James Robertson Justice:in her memoirs ,BB wrote he was a true gentleman)and where they play Draughts (checkers) with a board painted on one of their bodies -No,I won't write a spoiler and I won't tell you which one !
BB's fans can have have a look.
The follow-up,a western called "the reward" was the most inadequate sophomore effort after the golden start with "Cybèle";back in France ,he tried to repair the breach by casting our greatest sex symbol BB in his third work.It was a colossal flop and the beginning of the decline of BB at the box office :whereas "Viva Maria" was a huge success,"A Coeur Joie" did not make 25% of Louis Malle's movie gross .It got unanimous thumbs down .
The cinematography is splendid ,so is BB ,but the movie,seen today ,seems like a spate of clichés with a screenplay which could take up just one sheet of cigarette paper: will the beautiful cover girl leave her bourgeois husband(Jean Rochefort in a ten-minute performance) for the wild boy (and his dog;as an animal rights activist -even at the time-BB was in love with both ,obviously)she met in a ball?Highly talented Laurent Terzieff deserved better than this uninteresting character
The movie had enough in the sixties to make the audience dream;going to London was not as usual as it is today and BB has us visit the swinging London,its pop music -the choice of the songs is rather poor in the year which saw "Sgt Pepper's"-,its models in their miniskirts or in armors (?)photographed in London zoo (always BB's love for God's creatures )or down by the Thames .There's even an excursion in Scotland where they meet an ornithologist in kilt (James Robertson Justice:in her memoirs ,BB wrote he was a true gentleman)and where they play Draughts (checkers) with a board painted on one of their bodies -No,I won't write a spoiler and I won't tell you which one !
BB's fans can have have a look.