The Girl with the Golden Eyes

"The girl with the golden eyes" although it became actress/singer Marie Laforêt's nickname ,has fallen into oblivion.Is it fair? Yes it is .It emphasizes the worst aspects of the Nouvelle Vague :youth cult,approximative screenplay,"meaningful" "deep" dialog,actors hamming it up -with the exception of Laforêt who does not play and who's just beautiful- ,the obligatory drunk scenes ...And to top it all,an overdone cinematography (Albicoco Sr) which exudes a chic magazine aestheticism !This aestheticism which would become Albicoco Jr 's trademark in such overblown works as "Le Petit Matin " (1971) or his adaptation of Alain-Fournier's "Le Grand Meaulnes" (1967) This is a Balzac book transferred to the screen,read the cast and credits.But it takes place circa 1960 .The daring subject (bisexual women,six years before Chabrol's "les Biches") is not daring anymore today.We' re left with uninteresting characters in luxury flats.

Some films are to be seen almost exclusively for their style, which can outlive story as a source to keep drawing on, and this is a most notable example. Its use of gorgeous, heightened B&W chiaroscuro grows out of silent classics and relates to Greg Toland's dramatic lighting with Welles but fits in with "Girl's" baroque, decadent theme drawn from Balzac of a a spoiled men's club with gambling, debauchery & women kept as slaves transposed to the world of late Fifties Paris fashion. I saw this twice when it was new in memorable circumstances, at Amos Vogel's Cinema 16 in 1961 and in a film series in Cairo in 1965. I've seen thousands of films since, and the memory of "Girl" never ceased to haunt me. Those lush shadows! Of course, this epitomizes the potentials of B&W that color loses, the contrast, the exploitation of pure light.

Finally I just ordered a PAL format DVD of the film, it came, and I watched it. Now I just learnt by coincidence it is in a film series, New Queer Cinema at Lincoln Center, showing in two weeks, 28 & 29 April 2016. Their brochure quotes Vogel from 1961: "A mysterious, perverse Gothic tale, derived from Balzac and transposed to a deceptively contemporary Paris, probes the secret of a bizarre love in an atmosphere of sophisticated decadence. . . Opulent in its artificiality, the film is especially noteworthy for its visual pyrotechnics, luxuriant imagination and unexpected continuity."

A re-watch confirms this, especially of the opening scenes (and the classical guitar theme is beautiful too; one can get the sound track on vinyl). I don't think such deliberately over-ripe, decadent, baroque, rococo B&W visual style has ever been so intensely achieved, though Armando Nannuzzi's intense chiaroscuro for Visconti's 1965 "Sandra"/"Vaghe stelle dell'orsa" comes close. Another rarity, never shown in the US; but you can watch it on YouTube entire w/o subtitles.

"Girl" showed at the Paris Theater in NYC in Aug. '62, it seems, and Bosley Crowther of the Times, not for the first time, didn't particularly get it, noting the graphic qualities were "rare and interesting" but damning it as "obscurantism," its characters as merely "weird," its action (despite Vogel) without "continuity."

It would be nice if the Criterion Collection would issue "Girl" with "Albicocco's other big success, his 1967 "Le Grand Meaulnes" (there actually is a French "coffret" of the two). They should issue Visconti's "Sandra" ("Vaghe stelle dell Orsa") too -- another decadent feast of voluptuous shadows (1965), and with Claudia Cardinale and Jean Sorel. There is a place for excessive style, fake glamor, and baroque visuals. Add a touch of humor and an exciting thriller plot and you get Beinix's film version of Delacorta's "Diva.

This time the decadent heir Henri Marsay (Paul Guers) is a fashion photog and (somewhat implausibly ) is a close friend/collaborator of lesbian couturier Léo (Françoise Prévost) who's been hiding the Girl (Marie Laforet) in the nifty secret pad. When I first saw Léo this time, I thought of Coco Chanel (the real Coco, Coco before Tautou). There are also fab sports cars. When you've got cigarettes, alcohol, deep shadows, amour fou, and fab sports cars, you've got classic movie glamour.

Another lost film decadence I want to rediscover: Roger Vadim's 1957 "No Sun in Venice" ("Sait-on jamais"), with its MJQ soundtrack.

Two films come to mind on seeing ' La Fille Aux Yeux D'or ' and one is Astruc's ' Le Rideau Cramoisi ' and Melville's ' Les Enfants Terribles. ' Along with Albicocco's arguably finest film they all have a cruel and rather perverse ( using this last word in its positive sense ) view of sexuality, and to the extreme ways of admitting to and denying love. Desire rules and in this film there is a group of men in a secret club capturing women by any means to satisfy their erotic needs. In one scene one of them played superbly by Paul Guers wears an animal mask as if to devour his prey. As well as trying to satisfy his cold needs he has a bizarre relationship with Francoise Prevost ( one of France's greatest actors ) who plays a bisexual fashion photographer. Both of them desire the girl with golden eyes played to the ambiguous hilt by Marie Laforet. Of the three protagonists I found her acting less interesting than the other two. She seems to desire both Guers and Prevost, and the outcome is inevitably complex and tragic. End of spoilers. I have no idea why this masterpiece of French Cinema has been so ' lost ' and was only available as a supplement to the DVD of Albicocco's ' Le Grand Meulnes. ' It can now be fortunately seen on YouTube with English Subtitles. Made in 1961 it shows a fashionable Paris crowd and filmed in black and white it superbly evokes that era of troubled times. Everything for pleasure and love a passport word for sexual needs; the downside being that real emotions creep in and destroy the erotic pleasure. A film well worth seeing for its visual beauty but also for Paul Guers ( what a great Valmont he could have been ) and for Francoise Prevost at her very best.

A perfect example of Nouvelle Vague A heartbreaking story Great music, wonderful direction & cinematography Merci! :)

the Girl With The Golden Eyes, one of the best French Cinema's secrets almost never replayed in art houses or festivals and I don't know why that is. I have been a fan of this movie for years since I first saw it at film school at UCLA . It is one of the most beautifully photographed French films of the 60's and was made by a father and son team, Cinematographer and director. I have been searching for a copy in ANY format: Beta, VHS, DVD (preferably) or even 16mm print. If anyone has any info on it's availability I would greatly appreciate hearing of it. thank you