La jeune fille assassinée (1974)

User Rating:

5.0/10   

Director:

Roger Vadim

Writers:

Roger Vadim (writer) and
Stash De Rola (dialogue collaborator)

Release Date:

22 June 1975 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Every act of love can be repeated... except one.

Plot Keywords:

Dying During Sex | Female Nudity | Author | Male Full Frontal Nudity | Necklace

Cast

Sirpa Lane	...	Charlotte
Michel Duchaussoy	...	Serge
Mathieu Carrière	...	Eric von Schellenberg
Roger Vadim	...	Georges Viguier
Alexandre Astruc	...	L'éditeur Guy
Anne-Marie Deschott	...	Eliane (as Anne-Marie Deschodt)
Elisabeth Wiener	...	Elisabeth
Thérèse Liotard	...	Louise
Sabine Glaser	...	Agnès
Anthony Steffen	...	Le Prince Sforza
Annie Noël	...	La caissière
Louis Arbessier	...	Le père du Charlotte
Josette Harmina	...	La mère du Charlotte
Igor Lafaurie	...	Le frère
Lilian Grumbach	...	La femme de l'éditeur Guy

Also Known As:

Charlotte
Ein wildes Leben (West Germany)
The Assassinated Young Girl (International: English title) (informal literal title)
Una vita bruciata (Italy)

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

France | Italy | West Germany

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 | USA:X | West Germany:18

Company:

Claude Capra Paradox-Sedimo

Soundtrack:

Ich bin die fesche Lola

Not THAT bad, but not very good either

Roger Vadim is responsible for classic sexy films like "And God Created Women" (which introduced the world to Bridget Bardot) and "Barbarella" (in which Jane Fonda did probably the only worthwhile thing she's ever done, on screen or off). Even better he directed the should-be cult film "Pretty Maids All in a Row", one of my personal faves of the early 70's. This is his most controversial and disturbing film, however. Through much of its running length, it was so disturbing and controversial I could barely stay awake. The ending though, which somewhat resembles Nicholas Roeg's "Bad Timing-A Sensual Obsession", does pack a bit of wallop.

A writer is approached at a fashion show by a wealthy, jaded young man to write a book on a woman, "Charlotte" (played by Sirpa Lane), who he claims he himself actually murdered! After this interesting opening, the movie turns into a kind of low-rent "Citizen Kane" as the writer interviews various people who knew the woman--her first lover, her sister, her homosexual husband, her drug-addled best friend, and the confessed killer himself. The problem referencing "Citizen Kane" as much as this movie does, however, is that it really suffers by the comparison. It's also unfortunately not all that more sexy than "Kane". The girl certainly is not all that fascinating (beyond her inability to keep her knickers on for five minutes). She's supposed to be very intelligent, for instance, but this is severely undermined by all the stupid things she does. (I did appreciate the part where, out of jealousy, she ties her would-be lover's other girlfriend to a bed and proceeds to shave off her pubes).

There are a couple good points to this movie. Mike Oldfield who composed "Tubular Bells", the theme to "The Exorcist", provides an interesting score, which the movie unfortunately milks nearly to death. (At one point the killer even plays a LP of it while he's telling his story!). Sirpa Lane is also surprisingly good, but perhaps that's only because she's been so incredibly bad in stuff like "The Beast" and "Papaya of the Caribbean". In any case, she's definitely a nice piece of Finnish a--cting talent. This isn't THAT bad, but it's not very good either.