I
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1959,
Roderick
Mann
SHOW BUSINESS
Paris.
CAME out of the cinema 'into the icy Champs-Elysees and looked at the long queue stretching into the distance. "On a clear night," the com missionaire assured me, "one can almost see the end of it. Formidable."
Formidable, indeed.
What was this film which had drawn such huge crowds out into the cold night air?
It is called
Les Ltalaons Dangereuser, It is a film that You will never see unless you Journey to France. And it is the product of a tall, gangling young director with the free of a rock- ing-horse left too long in the attle: Roger Vadim,
Perhaps you supposed
all 32-year-old Vadim ever di was marry beautiful womer? (Find: Brigitte Bardot. Second: Or make Annette Stroyber).
al re- Alms almed primarily farded adolescents and lasch
God
Vion: Intran (And
Crrated Woman,)
You supposed incorrectly,
$1
these'
2
Teats, Kerioux, cified man. And in Les Liai-
he
Astle from Roger
Vadim
ACUS Dangerouxer made a serious fim,
has
..It is not a salacious Abn. True, when the novel by de Laclos was
Arst published in 1782 IL wns considered pornography--because the theme involved two people who deliberately nel themselven to debauch an innocent girl. But I has long been considered classic.
--
by
Now, brought up to date Vadim, there are indeed one or two aude scenes, but they we essentially part of the story and are not introduced to shock.
But Alms featuring nudes ure nothing new in France. Why the should Frenchmen be fall- ing over themselves to plank down their francs for this one?
I will tell you. It is because this Alm was almost banned in France and has definitely been banned for export abroad. With the inevitable roult that it has of natoriety achieved the sort
one might expect from a com- bination of Lolita, Lady Chas- and What the rley's Lover, Butler Saw.
1
After let the cinema I call- ed Roger Vadim. And he came round to fetch me in his sporla Ferrari. (it was inevitable, suppose, that his taste in enrs should be just as exotic at his Laste in women).
གས་
We drove to a cafe together, and over Comparis he talked about the film, himsell, and The Censor,
Vadim tells: Why my
Marti
was
new film
censored
He ordered make a film like I'm All Right, Jack. We cannot laugh at the and continued:
another
"The
drink, Is the fuss in France about redily Vadim jus.ifed? In my opinion: