The Eyes Have It

by Kimberly Lindbergs | December 10, 2008

Categories | Rants & Raves, Actresses, Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Julie Christie, Carroll Baker, Isabelle Adjani, Delphine Seyrig

My blogging buddy Peter Nellhaus over at Coffee, Coffee and more Coffee has asked me to contribute my own list of “20 Favorite Actresses” to a new film meme making the rounds of the blogosphere. Frankly I was just going to blow him off and ignore his request because these meme things tend to make me nuts, but Peter is too nice a guy to ignore. I tried to throw caution to the wind and just quickly put together a list of 20 of my favorite actresses, but as usual I spent way too much time thinking about this and managed to give myself a headache in the process. This meme madness must end! But at least it gave me an excuse to post a bunch of fabulous photos of some of my favorite actresses.

Naturally I ignored the rules and decided to post a list of 23 favorite actresses instead of limit myself to only 20. My list could have been longer and I’m sure I’ll regret forgetting to include a few more favorites*, but I think the following ladies are magical and they deserve a magick number. Some of these talented and lovely women were never offered the better roles they so richly deserved, while others are acclaimed Academy Award winners and celebrated Hollywood legends. They do have a couple of things in common though; they’ve appeared in a lot of great movies and I never get tired of watching them!

So without further blabbering, here are 20 23 Women I Love Watching . . .

Elizabeth Taylor

Monica Vitti

Sarah Miles

Julie Christie

Barbara Steele

Charlotte Rampling

Kim Novak

Anna Karina

Carroll Baker

Meiko Kaji

Catherine Deneuve

Isabelle Adjani

Brigitte Bardot

Natalie Wood

Deborah Kerr

Sophia Loren

Gene Tierney

Glenda Jackson

Ava Gardner

Ursula Andress

Delphine Seyrig

Ann-Margret

Edwige Fenech

According to Nathan over at Film Experience who started this thing, I’m supposed to ask 5 more bloggers to join in the headache inducing fun, but the last time I did that only one person bothered to take up the challenge so my invite goes out to anyone who feels like participating.

* I just realized I forgot to list Ingrid Pitt, Florinda Bolkan, Jeanne Moreau, Genevieve Bujold, Jane Fonda, Judy Garland, Helen, Soledad Miranda, Claudia Cardinale and Elke Sommers among others. Damnit!

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Divine BB

by Kimberly Lindbergs | October 14, 2008

Categories | Soundtracks, Composers, French Cinema, Actresses, Serge Gainsbourg, Brigitte Bardot, yé-yé

If you’re a Brigitte Bardot fan I highly recommend picking up the latest Cinedelic Book/CD compilation simply called BB Brigitte Bardot. It’s a wonderful collection of beautiful photos of the actress, reproductions of classic movie poster art and music from many of Bardot’s most popular films including En effeuillant la marguerite (aka Plucking the Daisy/Mademoiselle Striptease), Et Dieu… créa la femme (aka …And God Created Woman), Une parisienne (aka La Parisienn), En cas de malheur (aka Love Is My Profession/In Case of Adversity), La Vérité (aka The Truth) and Le Mépris (aka Contempt). The music CD also contains some of the best pop songs that Bardot recorded with French composer Serge Gainsbourg and a complete filmography for the actress who retired in 1973.

“BB is the perfect combination of different notes and chords that all together sound like one perfect melody. Her power of seduction was God’s gift, her posture and famous walk matched her fame, as well as her enigmatic appeal that went far beyond mere beauty: it was more like a sensual instinct able to mesmerize and capture. Brigitte encompassed the meaning of beauty, freedom, transgression and quirkiness, yet the look in her eyes revealed a childlike naiveté of sorts, perfectly embodying the disquieting and mischievous elements of the classic femme fatale. This book is a tribute to Divine BB’s astounding career and includes movie posters, rare on-set pictures, the complete filmography and a CD with original music.” - Cinedelic

Cinedelic has really done a terrific job of gathering together some rare and wonderful material for BB Brigitte Bardot. The 150 page book and accompanying CD is the perfect introduction to the career of this talented actress and songstress, but it will undoubtedly be appreciated by Bardot’s longtime fans too.

Sample images from Cinedelic’s BB Brigitte Bardot Book/CD

I’ve seen numerous track listings for the CD online but none of them appear to be complete. If you’re considering purchasing the set it’s helpful to know exactly what you’re getting so I thought I’d share my own track listing with more detailed information about the composers and film scores featured on Cinedelic’s BB Brigitte Bardot CD. Hopefully others will find it useful.

Track Listing for BB Brigitte Bardot:
1. Poppea - Angelo Francesco Lavagnino from Mio figlio Nerone (Stefano Vanzina; 1956)
2. Strip Tease - Paul Misraki from En effeuillant la marguerite (Marc Allégret; 1956)
3. Scene Sentimentale - Paul Misraki from En effeuillant la marguerite (Marc Allégret; 1956)
4. Et Dieu Crea La Femme - Paul Misraki from Et Dieu… créa la femme (Roger Vadim; 1956)
5. Du Moi Quelques Choses D’Amour - Paul Misraki from Et Dieu… créa la femme (Roger Vadim; 1956)
6. Paris BB - Henri Crolla/André Hodeir/Hubert Rostaing from Une parisienne (Michel Boisrond; 1957)
7. La Parisienne - Henri Crolla/André Hodeir/Hubert Rostaing from Une parisienne (Michel Boisrond; 1957)
8. Theme A - René Cloërec from En cas de malheur (Claude Autant-Lara; 1958)
9. Theme B - René Cloërec from En cas de malheur (Claude Autant-Lara; 1958)
10. Yo Tengo Una Muneca - Xavier-Mitchell Y Su Quinteto from La Vérité (Henri-Georges Clouzot; 1960)
11. Le Mepris/Generique - Georges Delerue from Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard; 1963)
12. Camille - Georges Delerue from Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard; 1963)
13. Contact - Brigitte Bardot (composed by Serge Gainsbourg in 1967/68)
14. Harley Davidson - Brigitte Bardot (composed by Serge Gainsbourg in 1967/68)
15. Bonnie and Clyde - Brigitte Bardot & Serge Gainsbourg (composed by Serge Gainsbourg in 1967/68)
16. Plaisir D’Amour - Brigitte Bardot (composed by Jean-Paul Martini/Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian/Hector Berlioz; 1780)
17. Sur Le Boulevad Du Rhum - Brigitte Bardot (composed by François de Roubaix/Robert Enrico/Pierre Pelegri for the film Boulevard du rhum dir. Robert Enrico; 1971)
18. Je T’Aime BB - Bebo Best & The Super Lounge Orchestra (tribute song w/Brigitte Bardot vocal samples; 2008)

You can currently purchase the BB Brigitte Bardot Book/CD set at Amazon for $29.98 and used copies can be bought there for about $20.

I like a lot of the songs that Serge Gainsbourg composed for Brigitte Bardot and one of my favorites is the psychedelic space-age pop song Contact, which is available on the new Cinedelic CD. Below is a fabulous music video for Contact with the divine BB that I couldn’t resist sharing. It’s taken from her 1968 French television special Spécial Bardot. In the clip Bardot’s wearing a fantastic dress designed by Paco Rabanne and she looks like she just stepped off the set of Barbarella.

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Contempt (1963)

by Kimberly Lindbergs | June 21, 2007

Categories | Soundtracks, Composers, French Cinema, Blogathons, Jean-Luc Godard, Brigitte Bardot

I love soundtracks. I listen to film scores almost daily and as my last.fm charts show, I never get tired of my favorites. My blog’s name “Cinebeats” is directly tied to my love for films and film soundtracks.

When I heard about the Film Music Blog-a-thon I thought long and hard about the composers that I love and the scores that have left a deep impression on me. I couldn’t decide on one composer or soundtrack to write about, but one particular piece of music kept haunting me and reminding me of the incredible power that a great musical score can have over a film and its audience, and that was composer Georges Delerue’s theme music for Jean-Luc Godard’s film Contempt (a.k.a. Le Mépris, 1963).

Contempt is one of my favorite movies and I can’t think of another film that so perfectly captures that painful moment when two people fall out of love. There are countless romantic movies about couples falling in love, but very few films manage to capture the human anguish and profound sorrow of what it’s like to deeply love another human being and to have that love completely destroyed by one stupid gesture or careless action.

Some might say that Godard uses Georges Delerue’s theme for Contempt excessively within the film and he does. Delerue’s theme music is heard again and again throughout Contempt, but instead of becoming irritating or distracting, Delerue’s beautiful score only adds more layers and depth to Godard’s film as it pushes it onward towards its explosive conclusion.

Is there another piece of film music as perfect and as powerful? I’m not sure that there is and that’s why I couldn’t resist writing about it for the Film Music Blog-a-thon. Delerue’s theme for Contempt completely captivates me every time I hear it and I’m instantly brought back to the film’s complex emotional core and carefully constricted themes.

When I first watched Godard’s Contempt the film completely shattered me. I was a wreck for days after I saw it, but the movie’s incredible beauty also managed to take me to new heights that I’ve never really come down from and I truly believe that’s what a good film score is capable of. Great soundtracks can elevate a film as well as the audience to new unimaginable heights and bring meaning to the mundane.

The theme music for Contempt is part of my Radio Playlist and you can listen to it by scrolling down to Cinebeats Radio and clicking on the song Georges Delerue - Le Mépris featured in the right hand column of my blog. You can also hear it in the film’s trailer which I came across on Youtube.

The soundtrack for Contempt seems to have gone out of print, but you can still find used copies selling at Amazon.

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