Vadim Mister Cool

Here's a French TV documentary -- I saw it with an English narrator -- about Roger Vadim. The title pretty much sums up the attitude of the movie: a young, hip film maker, a string of beautiful wives, all of whom he makes stars, and who leave him for their own stardom. the narration takes a distinctly feminist slant, with Vadim empowering his women and and their going on, leaving him to rear the children.

Yet while it's clear that his film-making tapped into the zeitgeist of the era and what the audiences wanted and were not getting from more established director, there's little sense that he was a serious film maker. It's all about showing naked women, about traveling with his entourage to his favorite vacation spots and shooting movies there. The many clips from his movies make it clear he had a great eye for beauty; not just naked women, but the dressed sets and real-world scenery. Although he began purely as a screenwriter, there's little discussion of story, just of success and failure, on-screen and off.

I suppose depth is something you can't expect of a TV movie. There's the survey of his early life, a list of movies, lots of movie luminaries, and Mitterand -- then a youngish lawyer defending him in court. Good enough for its length and venue.