Continental Film Review

Some lovely eurostarlets on the cover of the vintage Continental Film Review, a movie magazine 'for the aware audience.' Continental Film Review was a UK based magazine, with its first issue published in 1952, that started out as a serious film journal devoted to foreign releases, but with the relaxation of censorship during the 1960s and 1970s, it gradually focused more on elements of nudity and eroticism, and on the various nubile starlets, in the films of those eras. They paid considerable attention to European horror, giallo and various other continental subgenres. Featured on the covers here are Edwige Fenech, Nieves Navarro (Susan Scott), Marina Malfatti, (in a scene from La Notte che Evelyn usci dalla Tomba - 1971) Jane Birkin, Marie Liljedahl, Fabienne Dali and the lovely Françoise Pascal, known to fans for her appearances in Pete Walker's School for Sex (1968), Burke and Hare (1972), Jean Rollin's La Rose de Fer (1973) and Les Raisins de la Mort (1978), and as one of the orgy girls (uncredited) in Incense for the Damned (1972).

Je t'aime ... moi non plus

The lovely and somewhat boyish Jane Birkin on the covers of some vintage Ciné-Revue issues: September 1976, June 1972 and October 1969. It was around 1969, on the set of Slogan that she met with the enigmatic Serge Gainsbourg. They began a passionate relationship and eventually married. It was also in 1969 that they released the controversial duet Je t'aime ... moi non plus. Originally written for Brigitte Bardot, it was thus eventually recorded with his new girlfriend, Jane Birkin. Often censored and even outright banned for its sexual explicitness in Italy, Spain and, of course, the UK, because it was considered to be 'too hot' with its salacious lyrics and Birkin's ecstatic female moaning which would eventually culminate in an apparent orgasm - with rumours circulating that this was the result of an actual bout of lovemaking during the recording session. The controversy only heightened its popularity and it reached the top of the charts all over Europe, causing yet another problem in the UK as the program Top of the Pops was not allowed to broadcast the song, even though it was their number one hit.

Amongst Jane Birkin's various movie credits, two are especially interesting for the horror movie fan. In 1972, she appeared as Alma in the flashbacks of Don Sharp's creepy and underrated Dark Places, while in 1973 she was seen as Corringa in Antonio Margheriti's atmospheric La Morte Negli Occhi del Gatto, coincidentally opposite her husband, Serge Gainsbourg, aptly portraying a trenchcoat-wearing, cigaret-smoking police inspector.

Note the text on the the 1972 issue, 'Jane Birkin: plus jamais nue!' (Jane Birkin: never again nude) and the caption on the 1976 cover, 'Jane Birkin se met a nue...' (Jane Birkin naked...). You may also want to check out the Birkin quote at the bottom of this blog...

Giallo à la Française

Some seriously battered original French stills, featuring Alain Delon, the adorable Jane Birkin, Maurice Ronet and Romy Schneider in Jacques Deray's 1969 psychological thriller, La Piscine. Jean-Paul (Delon) and Marianne (Schneider) spend their holidays in a luscious villa near St. Tropez.  When Marianne's former love, Harry (Ronet) turns up with his seductive teenage daughter Penelope (Birkin), tension amongst the old 'friends' mounts with ultimately deadly consequences. 

With its sundrenched St. Tropez locations, stylish villa, predominant poolside setting, characters living the high life, former lovers, seductions, and generally adulterous behaviour, the movie superficially resembles the late 1960s psychosexual gialli, like Umberto Lenzi's Paranoia and Romolo Guerrieri's Il Dolce Corpo di Deborah.