REVIEW: Girl on a Motorcycle on DVD

Girl on a Motorcycle - The Girl on a Motorcycle (French: La motocyclette), also known as Naked Under Leather, is a 1968 British-French film starring Alain Delon, Marianne Faithfull, Roger Mutton, Marius Goring, and Catherine Jourdan.

Newly-married Rebecca leaves her husband's Alsatian bed on her prized motorbike—symbol of freedom and escape—to visit her lover in Heidelberg. En route she indulges in psychedelic reveries as she relives her changing relationship with the two men.

Based on the short story "La Motocyclette" by André Pieyre de Mandiargues, or the English title "The Motorcycle".

This movie was recommended to me by a friend who knows I love the movies "The Red Shoes" and "Black Narcissus". All three films have two things in common, director Jack Cardiff and conflicted, obsessed women.

A beautiful, waif-like Marianne Faithful rides her bike across the countryside holding a voice over inner dialog as she fantasizes and remembers meeting her lover, the emotionally cold, yet sexually hot, Alain Delon.

Originally rated X - (breasts popping out at yah) it seems quite tame by today's standard.

The movie opens up with a psychedelic dream of Marianne riding a circus horse in the Big Top as her lover, in the guise of the Ringmaster, whips her, cutting the leather outfit from her body until she is riding naked, weeping and grinning, in front of the crowd. Obviously this chick has bad boy issues.

The characters are two dimensional, with the emphasis of the story placed on Marianne's characters obsession with her motorcycle, lover, and pursuit of "freedom". She seems to have no friends or interaction with anyone but her husband and her lover. She never seems to question her actions, but bases them all on the love and want of "freedom". (IMHO she needs to get a JOB!)

Anyway, the film is pretty interesting, but it is mostly a psychological drama, with a sprinkling of unsafe and crazy motorcycle riding, sixties psychedelic love scenes and an occasional boob. The bike is obviously portrayed as gateway to sexual obsession. The leather suit and her helmet are super mod tho. Those I would love to try, well, maybe when I was 21.