Customer Reviews

Don Juan (or If Don Juan Were a Woman) [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Brigitte Bardot stars here in her last film along with Jane Birkin, the other singer who recorded the Serge Gainesbourg hit, "Je t'aime". This film is worth seeing, as we see BB's and Vadim's evolution from "And God Created Woman" to this post-sixties over-the-top comedy-drama.

We get some great nude scenes with Brigitte and Jane, and BB's character Jeanne is someone fed up with men, so she resorts to seduce and destroy tactics. As in "And God Created Woman" she's pretty much playing herself, but with an exaggerated storyline of driving men to ruin, murder, and suicide. The campy ironic humor is there in such scenarios as seducing a priest as well as setting up a fake menage-a-trois to madden a bete homme. Also a scene with Robert Walker Jr. (Charlie X in Star Trek TOS) where the price she asks for making love is no less than his life, which he takes seriously. The ending is a multiple meaning one as BB saves a man who makes her "pay for her sins" (though he's unappreciative). I think the end hits home for Brigitte in real life saying in effect, "look you male-dominated world, you've made my life hell". And it's the last scene she ever did on film. Worth seeing for it's erotic quality (but what BB film isn't), the submarine home, the early '70s fashions, and the camp.

This is a bewildering but fascinating film. Bardot plays the part of a wealthy woman who seeks to conquer and destroy men especially weak and despicable ones. Bardot gives a very strong and convincing performance. At age 38, her beauty remains in tact. She looks virtually the same as she did 11 years earlier in the film A Very Private Affair. Her face and figure are fuller than they were in the late 60's when she seemed to have lost too much weight. Gone is Bardot's golden hair. She begins and ends her film career as a brunette. Gone are Bardot's tight sweaters and skirts. She dresses in mostly hippie fashion. Near the end of the movie she Wows you in a steamy love scene when she disrobes and seduces her cousin, a priest. She is more shapely than ever.

For whatever reason Bardot retired not long after this film's release. You'll never see Bardot grow old on the screen. And she didn't have to die young to fix her place in film history. Today she is a living legend and icon.

One final thought. I have never seen a leading actress get slapped around like Bardot. From her first film Crazy For Love to her last film, Don Juan, and countless films in between she gets slapped in her pretty little face. Sure it's all make believe but it sends a terrible message and should be an affront to all women. If you can abuse Bardot, then any woman is fair game and that just isn't right.

I know it's not cool to speak ill of the dead, but Vadim was a terrible director. Of the Vadim movies I've seen, only The Night Heaven Fell was remotely worth watching, and then only as a stock melodrama.

Don Juan, on the other hand, is yet another example of Vadim's prediliction for directing his wife while she wears little or no clothing. With little or no script. What makes Don Juan different from the other Vadim/Bardot "films"? This time, she lives in a submarine. No, really.

Bardot seduces her cousin (a priest) by telling him about her erotic exploits, in which she humiliates men. Not in a kinky, female-empowerment role-reversal kind of way, but in a boring, time-wasting kind of way.

For some reason, HVE has seen fit to restore this film - it looks gorgeous. Unfortunately, a great transfer and a luscious leading lady do not a great film make.

The one thing I will say for this film is that it taught me to be very careful with fire around concrete. That stuff burns like crazy.

If you're looking for a good Bardot film, try Plucking the Daisy.

I can't really figure out what this film was trying to say. Typical of many movies made in the late '60's and early '70's, it now appears incredibly dated. I have to disagree with the other reviewer, however, I think Brigitte Bardot was at the peak of her beauty in this film. If you are a big Bardot fan, you may want to consider this, however, if you are just "Bardot Curious" try something else.

While the story is a bit odd, it is interesting. The film is very stylish and Brigitte looks absolutely fabulous! Besides, it is better than most of what Hollywood dishes out even today. But, I suppose having the gorgeous Brigitte grace our TV screens for a couple hours just isn't enough for some critics. It certainly works for me!

This is the Bardot I love! Captured within Classic early seventie's stylings, But they never Eclipse her great aura. Cool story of sexual domination, and it's inevitable destuction. Directed with a surprisingly steady hand of Roger Vadim. Stylish clothes, sexy french locales, even a prophetic mention of how computers will enhance our lives. Pick it up before it disappears like all great Foreign films/DVDs!

The nude Brigitte Bardot is enough to give this movie five stars. By nude, I mean you can see everything. Then there's the scenes in Sweden where she and her politician lover are on a college campus where lots of lovely Swedish college girls are running around nude. This is the only movie where BB is nude, as far as I know. She almost shows naughty bits in other movies, or shows them only very briefly, but she has some very nice, lengthly scenes in Don Juan.

I bought this DVD from amazon because I'm quite the 'BB' fan, and it's almost impossible to find her films in any stores or rental places. This Roger Vadim directed film, the last he made with his then ex-wife, and one of the last of Bardot's career, was actually more interesting than I thought it would be. It is quite a strange movie, full of early 70's camp and bohemian style. Woven around the premise of a beautiful 'bachelorette' and heiress 'Jeanne', who lives in a sub-marine (It is the 70s) and who's idle lifestyle revolves around mainly seducing and humiliating a series of men. 'Seducing is easy ', Jeanne says ' conquering is the hard part'. An exaggerated reflection and parody, some might say, of Bardot's real life persona at that time.

Vadim's 70s romp and somewhat shallow attempt at allegory, compares Bardot's character to 'Don Juan', and asks the question 'what if Don Juan were a woman?'. How would society view or judge her, and perhaps more importantly how would she judge herself? Unfavourably, not surprisingly, and she ends up paying the ultimate price. Jeanne offers herself one last chance at redemption by confessing her series of conquests and destruction to her young cousin, a Catholic Priest. Then as a result ends up seducing him also. A point, which even by today's standards would be controversial,let alone back then.

Vadim though always aware of the commercial value in using Bardot as vehicle to shock and sell tickets, even resorting to a lesbian love scene with Bardot and British born actress Jane Birkin, (hardly worth getting worked up over, sorry guys), doesn't quite pull it off here. Never really managing to repeat the success of 'And God Created Woman', the film which launched Bardot onto English speaking audiences.

Still this film does manage to capture your attention at times, and I think Bardot is quite good in it. She definitely has presence, and in contrast to one reviewer's remarks I think at nearly 40, still looks amazing. From a woman's point of view, if he judges Ms Bardot as being 'past it', not much hope for the rest of us! And I think he must have a very narrow and 'agest' idea of female beauty. I actually like her more natural earthy look here, and her figure and skin are superb. There isn't really that much nudity to get excited about, so if you're buying it just to see Brigitte in the buff you may be sorely disappointed. However, although dated now, it's a quirky and interesting product of it's time. A piece of 70s and Bardot nostalgia to add to your collection.

Brigette Bardot is the only reason to see this movie. Without her this movie wouldn't be anything at all.

Bardot confesses to her cousin that she has killed, and driven men to destruction - he's a priest. Roger Vadim's best period as a director was clearly the sixties, when his empty pretentiousness was unquestionenly accepted. During the slightly more cynical seventies people saw through him, and as an artist, he floundered. I like his sixties stuff, I find it imensly entertaining - but it is hollow. This film, Don Juan.... is merely embarrasing. You do get a rare glimpse of Bridget in the buff (a rarity in her films), but it not worth, it's not salacious enough. And she looks a tad past it as well. She retired from the screen after this mess.