Girl on a Motorcycle (1968)

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General		Extras
Category	Romance	Audio Commentary-Jack Cardiff (Director) Gallery-Stills Biographies-Cast & Crew Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Roadgames, Marianne Faithfull-Dreaming My Dreams Trailer-Just A Gigolo, The Last Seduction
Rating
Year Of Production	1968
Running Time	87:21 (Case: 91)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Jack Cardiff
Studio Distributor	Mid Atlantic Film Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Alain Delon Marianne Faithfull Roger Mutton Marius Goring Catherine Jourdan Jean Leduc Jacques Marin André Maranne Bari Jonson Arnold Diamond John G. Heller Marika Rivera Richard Blake
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$24.95	Music	Les Reed

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.75:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    A young and gorgeous Marianne Faithfull stars in this 1968 British-French co-production based on the novel La Motocyclette by Andre Pieyre de Mandiargues. Raymond (Roger Mutton) and Rebecca (Marianne Faithfull) are newlyweds who are enjoying the quiet life, but a country house and an easy-going husband are not enough for Rebecca. Only two months into their marriage her thoughts are returning to Daniel (Alain Delon), a lover she has visited regularly without her husband's knowledge. The guilt and conflict within becomes too great and she has trouble sleeping, so she slides into her leather outfit, climbs onto her Harley Davidson motorbike and sets off for Heidelberg and Daniel's waiting arms. You won't be surprised to learn that Daniel's no sweet-talking Romeo and he confesses openly to not wanting anything from her but sex. On top of this he is an arrogant b****** and treats her like crap, but still she seems more content to be slapped about and called an idiot rather than live happily with her schoolteacher husband.

    More than a laborious take on the mysteries of female discontent, this film is also a unique analysis of what the hippie generation called "free love" and more importantly, an exposition of the dangers one can encounter when riding a motorbike through traffic with your eyes shut. Rebecca's story is told in a series of flashbacks and dream sequences, with very few conventional scenes that contain dialogue. The dreamy fantasies do come across a little corny at times, but for its time this would have been very intense and risqué.

    Although there are certainly some very tasty glimpses of Ms. Faithfull to be found, I think that by today's standards the film is very tame and serves more as a psychedelic curio more than any kind of erotic eye-popper. There's some great imagery present in the vein of Russ Meyer, such as slow shots of petrol nozzles entering tanks and Marianne's taut legs straddling the bike seat, but in short, if you watch this film in the hope of finding copious T & A you'll more than likely be left frustrated.

Video

    This video transfer is pretty disappointing.

    The transfer is presented in an aspect of 1.75:1, 16x9 enhanced. The original theatrical aspect ratio of this film is 1.66:1. The frame is noticeably cropped top and bottom and appears rather cramped.

    The resolution of this transfer is poor and has the appearance of an analogue videotape. The level of clarity leaves a lot to be desired, with shots such as the facial close-up at 2:28 exhibiting no fine detail or texture whatsoever. Shadow detail suffers a similar fate, as do the very noisy, pastel-like blacks.

    Most bold colours appear pixelated and grainy. The psychedelic colour sequences suffer the most, with dreadful smearing and bleeding evident. Skin tones look faded and weak.

    I didn't note any MPEG compression issues, and to be honest the amount of damage and filth present on this print is way too distracting to see past. Film artefacts abound constantly, from specks of dirt and dust to some truly ruined frames. Persistent grain is a problem from the outset. At 1:28 during the foggy bird effects composite shot the grain is so terrible you can barely make out the background. There is a lot of damage, watermarks, telecine wobble, reel change markings, even some kind of ink stamp on the print at 54:44. In a couple of scenes I noticed some horizontal flecks in the image, a lot like analogue magnetic tape artefacts, leading me to speculate about the source of this transfer.

    There are no subtitle streams provided.

    This disc is comprised of a single layer (DVD5 formatted).

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two soundtracks accompanying this film on DVD, one of which is a commentary by director Jack Cardiff. The feature soundtrack is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.

    The English dialogue is soft and not at all great. The daydream sequences are very softly spoken and difficult to discern at times. Audio sync is acceptable, but not always perfect.

    There are a few pops and crackles evident, and the pitch seems to wander on a coupe of occasions. Also, the audio cuts prematurely after the closing credits.

    The score is credited to Les Reed and has a distinct Jazz-Rock feel, with some excellent Hammond organ work. The music certainly suits the mode of the film.

    There is obviously no surround or subwoofer activity to be found in this mono soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Commentary - Jack Cardiff (Director)

    Jack is proud of this film and discusses the challenges of bringing the novel to the screen, his colour processing techniques, various censorship issues and the nature in which the film was mutilated for a U.S. release. He relays his experience meeting the author of the book on which this film was based, and the various casting difficulties that were encountered. Interestingly, Faithfull wasn't the first choice for the lead role, a change he is most thankful for. There are some long silences, but this is a generally informative commentary.

Gallery (1:54)

    A series of scrolling stills, covering some promotional material, the production and frames from the film itself that appear to be reversed for some reason. There is no audio accompaniment. This gallery is presented with 16x9 enhancement.

Biographies

    Biographies are included for Alain Delon, Marianne Faithfull and Jack Cardiff.

Theatrical Trailer (0:48)

    With lines like "you too can straddle the potency of a hundred wild horses" it's no wonder this film was the number two box office earner in 1968. This trailer is 16x9 enhanced.

Umbrella Propaganda

    Additional trailers include Road Games, the Marianne Faithfull documentary Dreaming My Dreams, David Bowie's Just A Gigolo and Bill Pulman in The Last Seduction.

    The video transfer is pretty awful and only likely to satisfy die-hard fans.

    The audio transfer is very thin and hard on the viewer.

    The extras are few, but the director's commentary is a worthwhile addition.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall