Stars: Alain Delon, Marianne Faithfull, Marius Goring, Roger Mutton

Director: Jack Cardiff

Summary: Rebecca, a bored housewife, is looking for kicks. Dressing in leather, she takes to her Harley Davidson, with her cruel lover Daniel. A classic adult movie from the 1960s.

In GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE, a beautiful young woman leaves her husband, and, wearing only a fur-lined leather jumpsuit, hops on a motorcycle to go in search of a former lover. This erotic film stars Marianne Faithfull in the title role.

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Caught midway between 1970s soft-porn clunker The Story of Oand Bunuel's sado-masochistic fantasy Belle de Jour, the 1968 erotic curio Girl on a Motorcycleis one of Marianne Faithfull's chief claims to notoriety. She stars as Rebecca, a leather-clad, former bookstore clerk in search of sexual fulfilment who flees her dependable schoolteacher husband for a dangerous liaison with Daniel (Alain Delon), a dashing Professor addicted to speed. The story is told entirely in flashbacks as Rebecca rockets along the road, having donned her leathers and walked out on her sleeping husband at the crack of dawn. It all must have seemed fairly daring and provocative in 1968, providing viewers with ample opportunities to view a naked Faithfull at the height of her allure. But today the existential musings of the lead character seem achingly pretentious, the erotic symbolism merely gawky and unintentionally amusing: the sight of Alain Delon with a phallic pipe dangling from his mouth is like something out of a Rene Magritte painting. The sex scenes between Delon and Faithfull are all swamped in a polarised visual effect that, while garish and psychedelic, is dated and distinctly unerotic. Director Jack Cardiff is better known as a cinematographer on classics such as The African Queenand Black Narcissus. Among Cardiff's other directorial credits is a worthy adaptation of DH Lawrence's Sons &Lovers, but Girl on a Motorcycleis a saucy road movie with no final destination.

On the DVD: This DVD version is misleadingly presented as being the fully restored and uncut version of the film. Yet it was the US version not the European one that was heavily cut (and titillatingly re-titled "Naked Under Leather"). The restoration certainly does not refer to the print quality: although the colours are vivid and bright, the print used to master the DVD (in 16:9 anamorphic format) is extremely grainy and, at times, speckled with dirt and scratches. Included as one of the special features, a theatrical trailer loaded with innuendo shows just how much the film was marketed to a prurient audience. Director Jack Cardiff provides an audio commentary but has few revelatory things to say about his film beyond technical considerations, and even makes several clunking errors (recalling his casting decisions concerning a scene that takes place in a provincial German café, he raves about how he strove to find authentic French locals!). He does reveal that the film's use of a voice-over was inspired by the internal monologue that forms the basis of James Joyce's Ulysses. Given Cardiff's age and experience one feels that he must have more interesting anecdotes and insights, making this commentary feel like a wasted opportunity. --Chris Campion

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Feature Length Director Audio Commentary, Original Trailer, Filmographies, Animated And Scored Graphics
Year:	1968
Release Date:	September 1, 2003
Runtime:	86 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	P P A 1463
Label:	Metrodome
Keywords:	Under, Girl, Motorcycle, Leather, General, Naked, Wide, Screen, Drama
Genre:	Drama