Brigitte Bardot zips Around Paris in Inconsequential Comedy Curio
DIRECTED BY ROGER VADIM/FRENCH/1961
BLU-RAY STREET DATE: JANUARY 2, 2024/KINO CLASSICS
A fair-to-middling light French comedy vehicle for sex kitten Brigitte Bardot in the prime of her popularity, 1961’s Please, Not Now! (La Bride sur le cou) nevertheless seems like the kind of curio of a bygone cultural moment that ought to be better remembered. At least somewhat so. As freewheeling and zippy as it is detached from itself, the movie coasts entirely on Bardot’s effortless feline charms.
Perhaps 1961 was simply too odd of a time in France for this. In terms of Please, Not Now!’s overall sensibilities, it flops around in the shadow of American star Marilyn Monroe but ahead of the similarly narratively loose larks of British director Richard Lester. The plot is a hairbrained device to send the characters to different environs doing different activities: Luge, dance, wild driving, hypnosis, and of course photo shoots- much of which is accompanied by the happenin’ beats of “La Bamba”- are all on the docket. Bardot herself appears elsewhere on the soundtrack performing on the song “Les Amoureux du Havre” by Léo Ferré, indulging her side career as a singer. Because, why not?
Not nearly old enough to fall within the typical crosshairs of the self-serious and newly emergent French New Wavers, hotshot Parisian director Roger Vadim nonetheless became a target in 1961 for François Truffaut and his emboldened new guard. The reason, we’re told by reliable film historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas on her newly recorded audio commentary track, was over Vadim’s assumption of the director’s chair on Please, Not Now! Vadim replaced the film’s original director, Jean Aurel, after the first three weeks of shooting. That kind of disrespect to a director- “changing horses midstream”- was an affront to Truffaut et al’s auteur-centric moral sensibilities.
Never mind that Aurel got along so poorly with Bardot that (so we’re told) she leveled the ultimatum that it’s either him or her- someone’s got to go. And since there’s no replacing “BB” on a “BB” picture… so long, Mr. Aurel. Apparently Aurel was so bad that Bardot would rather work with her recent ex-husband Vadim, which is exactly what she got.
What we got is a movie keener on bits and pieces than coming together as a whole. The plot- wherein Bardot’s character (a model from humble Corsica now eyeballs-deep in her career in Paris) sets out to induce jealousy in her former lover by trouncing around with another guy (or something like that)- is far less interesting than the drama surrounding the shoot itself. (As evidenced by this review and Heller-Nicholas’ terrific [if also gap-filled] audio commentary).
As released to Blu-ray by Kino Classics, Please, Not Now! maintains a healthy and consistent monochromatic image. Vadim’s confident use of the 2.35:1 frame is particularly complimented in terms of the disc’s altogether clarity. That is, except for the film’s moments that are intentionally foggy. Though it could be argued that even Bardot’s infamous “nude dance” sequence is perhaps too clear, as her full-body stocking is completely obvious, though it’s also more transparent here than on the decades-old Anchor Bay DVD. The dance is a thoroughly lusty if also clunkily incongruous interlude replete with prurient straight-faced male leering. (And with this, Please, Not Now! officially earns its tagline: “The most provocative comedy of the year!”) In any case, considering that no mention is made anywhere of restoration to the print, it must be said that this high-definition edition looks and sounds particularly good.
The knowledge that Please, Not Now! was such a troubled production with a litigious afterlife does little to justify its imperfections. Yet, with Vadim at the wheel, the movie volleys along better than it should. The opening titles sequence, wherein a harried and big-haired Bardot zips around Paris in her little car like a wild woman is a keeper; a screwball high of comedy choreography from which the rest of the film can’t live up to. But that’s not for lack of trying. Truffaut and other ardent cinephiles may’ve looked to wave away this one, but as it turns out, it just wasn’t the right time to go chasing Please, Not Now!