Viva Maria!

Other than the name recognition, I know little about French actress and all-around beauty Brigitte Bardot.  I've seen her in only one movie -- 1968 Euro-western Shalako -- and nothing else. All I do know about her? Not to sound sexist, but it's her looks.  She wasn't in a ton of movies to begin with before retiring from the movie business in 1973, and more than that, she wasn't in many American-made movies.  Hurting her cause is that Netflix doesn't think I'll enjoy some of her more existential works in French films.  But there's got to be something to her, and I'll take what I can get so that's why I looked into 1965's Viva Maria! 

I went in to this movie with one minor misconception.  Call it miscommunication, or just my head making a transition where there wasn't a transition.  I read that it was a Euro-western with touches of a spaghetti western, but neither really applies.  It is one of the more off-the-wall movies I've watched in recent memory with a surreal edge to the story, and a general feeling of the absurd, the crazy.  Viva Maria is neither good nor bad. It's just weird.  Plus, Bardot and co-star Jeanne Moreau performing a handful of stripteases is never a bad thing.

It's 1908 in the tiny Central American country of San Miguel, and Maria 1 (Bardot) is fending for herself after her father, an Irish revolutionist, is killed trying to sabotage a bridge. On the run, she latches on with a traveling stage show touring the country, joining another Maria 2 (Moreau) in an act that has them singing and dancing for the audience.  The act is a bust until Maria 1's clothes start ripping on-stage, and a hit is born.  Audiences come out to see them in droves.  But on one stop, the Marias and the stage show/circus end up mixed up in a revolution.  Both women end up at the front of the charge, leading the population of San Miguel in a desperate effort to overthrow the dictator and the ruling families.

If you can think of a movie that does a bigger 180 than this one, you're better than me.  Take out the obvious bonus of Bardot and Moreau performing stripteases through the first hour, and we're talking one of the most incredibly dull movies I've ever seen.  Long, uncut shots of the stage show caravan are thankfully interrupted by the duo on-stage.  Then when you think the story is going one way, BAM, they get involved and end up leading a revolution?  Yeah, I can't say I saw that one coming.  In a weird way, it does work just because it is all so bizarre.  At other times, I just shook my head that I was sticking with this movie.

The very beautiful Bardot and Moreau are the main reasons to see this oddity of a flick.  No question about it, Bardot is easy on the eyes, but as an actress (here at least), she's stiff and not always very convincing.  Maybe her character is supposed to be a tad awkward, but it's a little much at times.  Still, no matter what I thought of her acting the image of Bardot with her strawberry blonde hair and gorgeous eyes blasting away at waves of soldiers with a machine gun is worth watching.  It just is. No explanation needed, and I won't be providing one.  Of the few movies I've seen of Moreau, she's always been a sort of plain Jane, her looks dulled down.  Boy, was I wrong.  She's beautiful, and shows off some comedic and her always on-point dramatic ability.  Watch their first striptease HERE if curious.

Throwing so many elements into one movie, Viva Maria certainly has the potential to be good.  Claudio Brook is a scene-stealer as Rodolfo, ringleader of the stage show circus obsessed with building a curved rifle that can fire around corners.  Seeing his circus in a large scale battle is hilarious too with a strongman, acrobats, and a magician all helping the cause. The action scenes in the movie's second half are something else too, highlighted by a running battle with Bardot gunning for a hidden artillery battery and the finale, the attempted overthrow of the dictator in a scene reminiscent of the end of 1954's Vera Cruz.  Composer Georges Delerue's score is a highlight too, memorable without being over-powerful, especially the main theme.

For the positive, there's also the negatives.  I'll start with George Hamilton as Flores, a revolutionary caught up in the fighting who falls for Moreau's Maria.  Did he get blackmailed into this bizarre part? It's the tone of the second half of the movie that feels so odd, like an existential, surreal dream on LSD.  Sight gags galore around every corner, and a sense of humor that falls flat.  A group of monks/priests prepare for torture straight out of the Spanish Inquisition, and I'm wondering again, "What the hell am I watching?!?" I just don't know what to make of this movie. When it's not weird, it's slow and even boring at times. When it's full of action, it's everywhere.  A mess of a movie, one I'll give a slightly positive recommendation.

Viva Maria! <---trailer (1965): ** 1/2 /****