The Girl on a Motorcycle *** (1968, Marianne Faithfull, Alain Delon, Roger Mutton) – Classic Movie Review 9,594

The 1968 erotic romantic drama The Girl on a Motorcycle is a wonderfully schlocky Swinging Sixties piece. Marianne Faithfull stars as the married English woman who roars off on her bike to visit her French old flame (Alain Delon) in Heidelberg.

Director Jack Cardiff’s 1968 erotic romantic drama The Girl on a Motorcycle [Naked Under Leather] [La Motocyclette] is a wonderfully schlocky Swinging Sixties piece with special appeal for bikers and leather fetishists.

Sixties pop star Marianne Faithfull stars in the title ‘girl on a motorcycle’ role as the married English woman Rebecca, ‘naked under leather’, who roars off on her bike to visit her French old flame Daniel (Alain Delon) in Heidelberg.

Did the beautiful people think they were getting into something classy? Certainly The Girl on a Motorcycle is pretentious enough with its pseudo-poetic camerawork and its artily soft-core gropings.

There is not much of a story but, yes, there are great Swinging Sixties visuals, and Cardiff’s and Réne Guissart Jr’s photography is as eye-catchingly pretty as the stars. The Girl on a Motorcycle is perhaps secretly entertaining, as long as you never admit to seeing it, but it is all vacuously pointless and absolutely shameless.

Trash with flash, it has ‘guilty pleasure’ written over every frame.

Ronald Duncan’s screenplay is based on the novel La Motocyclette by André Pieyre de Mandiargues.

Also in the cast are Roger Mutton, Marius Goring, Catherine Jourdan, Jean Leduc, Jacques Marin and André Maranne.

It is co-produced by Alain Delon’s company Adel Productions.

In the UK, the BBFC heavily cut the film, with edits to all of the sex scenes and the shots of Faithfull caressing the saddle of her motorbike. The cuts were restored in 2001 for DVD releases.

The Girl on a Motorcycle [Naked Under Leather] [La Motocyclette] is directed by Jack Cardiff, runs 91 minutes, is made by Adel Productions, Mid-Atlantic Film (Holdings), Ares Production and Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie (SNC), is released by British Lion Film Corporation (1968) (UK), Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie (SNC) (1968) (France) and Warner Bros/ Seven Arts (1968) (US), is written by Ronald Duncan, based on the novel La Motocyclette by André Pieyre de Mandiargues, is shot by Jack Cardiff and Réne Guissart Jr (lighting cameraman), is produced by William Sassoon and Alain Delon, is scored by Les Reed, and is designed by Jean d’Eaubonne and Russell Hagg.

Marianne Faithfull was born on 29 December 1946, to Eva, the Baroness Erisso, and Major Glynn Faithfull, a World War Two British spy.

Alain Delon was born on 8 November 1935 in Sceaux, Seine, France.

Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon died peacefully at his home in Douchy, France, on 18 August 2024, surrounded by family members, aged 88.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9,594

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