The Girl on a Motorcycle

The Girl on a Motorcycle
Directed by	Jack Cardiff
Produced by	William Sassoon
Written by	Ronald Duncan Jack Cardiff Gillian Freeman
Based on	La Motocyclette (novella) by André Pieyre de Mandiargues[1]
Starring	Alain Delon Marianne Faithfull
Music by	Les Reed
Cinematography	Jack Cardiff
Edited by	Peter Musgrave
Distributed by	British Lion Films (UK) Warner Bros. (US)
Release dates	October 1968
Running time	91 minutes
Country	United Kingdom France
Language	English
Box office	626,331 admissions (France)[2]

The Girl on a Motorcycle (French: La motocyclette), also known as Naked Under Leather, is a 1968 British-French film starring Alain Delon and Marianne Faithfull and featuring Roger Mutton, Marius Goring and Catherine Jourdan. It was listed to compete at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival but the festival was cancelled due to the events of May 1968 in France.^[3] The Girl on a Motorcycle redefined the leather jacket for motorcyclists into a full body suit that Marianne Faithfull wore in the film.^[4]

Plot

Newly-married Rebecca leaves her husband's Alsatian bed on her prized motorbike – her symbol of freedom and escape –to visit Daniel, her lover in Heidelberg. En route, she indulges in psychedelic and erotic reveries as she relives her changing relationship with the two men, before crashing into a truck at the end.

Cast

Alain Delon as Daniel Marianne Faithfull as Rebecca Roger Mutton as Raymond Marius Goring as Rebecca's Father Catherine Jourdan as Catherine Jean Leduc as Jean Jacques Marin as Pump Attendant André Maranne as French Superintendent

Bari Jonson as First French Customs Officer Arnold Diamond as Second French Customs Officer John G. Heller as German Customs Officer Marika Rivera as German Waitress Richard Blake as 1st Student Chris Williams as 2nd Student Colin West as 3rd Student

Cast notes

• In the medium to distant shots, the rider was the British GP champion Bill Ivy, wearing a blonde wig.

Reception

The film was the sixth most popular movie in general release in Britain during 1968.^[5]

Home media releases

The Girl on a Motorcycle was released on VHS in 1998 and DVD in 1999 by Starz/Anchor Bay. A remastered edition on DVD and Blu-ray Disc was released in 2012 by Redemption Films.

References

1. Pieyre de Mandiargues, André (1963). La Motocyclette. Paris: Gallimard. OCLC 3565796.
2. Box Office information for film at Box Office Story
3. "Festival de Cannes: The Girl on a Motorcycle". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-04-05.
4. Quilleriet, Anne-Laure. The Leather Book. New York: Assouline, 2004.
5. "John Wayne-money-spinner" The Guardian (31 December 1968)

External links

• The Girl on a Motorcycle at the Internet Movie Database