One of Louis Malle’s most eccentric films, “Viva Maria!” is a visually intriguing satirical comedy-adventure, co-written by him and Jean-Claude Carriere (who wrote many screenplays for Luis Bunuel).
Grade: B-
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Theatrical Poster
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“Viva Maria!” is mostly noted for pairing French cinema’s most famous women at the time: Sex icon Brigitte Bardot (“And God Created Woman,” “Contempt”) and acclaimed actress Jeanne Moreau, best known for Truffaut’s 1961 “Jules and Jim,” but who had appeared successfully in Malle’s early features (see below).
The on-screen rivalry between the two stars, which the narrative explores explicitly as one of its themes, also extended to off-screen with reportedly tempestuous bursts of temper on the set.
The international cast of the film, which was largely shot in Mexico, also includes American George Hamilton as Florès, a revolutionary leader.
The narrative is based on two gimmicks: The two women are both named Marie, though later on they are referred to as “Maria,” and they both are performers who get involved in chaotic political revolutions.
Set circa 1907, the story takes place in a fictitious Central American country called San Miguel. The tale begins through an accidental meeting between two sexy women. Maria II (Brigitte Bardot), the daughter of an Irish terrorist, meets Maria I (Jeanne Moreau), the singer of a circus. After her father dies, Maria II hides in the circus where she sees Maria I’s partner commit suicide, caused by a failed love affair.
Joining forces, the two Marias form a theatrical team. In her debut as a singer Maria II “accidentally” invents striptease, an action that immediately makes the circus extremely popular.
Preparing to take the capital city, the Marias are captured by Catholics, who fear the consequences of a revolution, and wish to stop the masses from turning the women into idols and saints. After a bungled attempt to torture them (the equipment is too old to function properly) the Marias are rescued by their victorious army.
In the last scene, informed by a title cared, “And then they went back to Europe,” we see the two femmes, now wearing dark hair to look more “authentic,” in a Parisian club. There. they recreate their adventures as a successful musical version of the real revolutions in which they had participated.
Malle struggles with giving the movie the right tempo for a farce with an anti-state, anti-church message, turning the movie into a spectacle of two seductive women, vividly captured by master cinematographer, Henri Decaë (a key figure of the French New Wave) in a series of lavish tableaux. which later on seem to be inspired by Lautrec and Degas.
Was the whole thing a fevered reverie, a staged spectacle? It’s up to the viewers to decide.
Too bad that the film overextends its welcome by at least 20 minutes, with the last two reels being particularly repetitive.
The dialogue is in English, French, Spanish, and Dutch, depending on the nationality of the actor. The film, which was released in both French and an English-dubbed version, was popular in Europe. However, dismissed by most American critics as visually spectacular but nonsensical, “Viva Maria! was a commercial flop in the U.S.
In Dalla, Texas, the film was banned for its sexual and anti-Catholic content; the ban was lifted by default in 1968, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the ban and limited the ability of municipalities to ban films for adults in Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. City of Dallas.
| Cast |
Maria I (Brigitte Bardot)
Maria II (Jeanne Moreau)
Mme Diogène (Paulette Dubost)
Great Rodolfo (Claudio Brook)
Flores (George Hamilton)
Credits
Directed by Louis Malle
Screenplay by Malle, Jean-Claude Carrière
Produced by Óscar Dancigers
Cinematography Henri Decaë
Edited by Suzanne Baron
Kenout Peltier
Music by Georges Delerue
Production companies
Les Productions Artistes Associés
Nouvelles Éditions de Films
Vides Cinematografica
Distributed by United Artists
Release date: Dec 18, 1965
Running time: 119 minutes
Budget $2,200,000
Box office $1,150,000 (est. US Rentals) $4 million (Foreign Rentals)
About Louis Malle (1932-1994)
Born in 1932, Louis Malle began his career with Jacques‑Yves Cousteau, working on the celebrated underwater documentary Le Monde de Silence/The Silent World (1956). Malle also directed two shorts and served as Robert Bresson’s assistant on Un Condamne a Mort s’est echappe/A Man Escaped (1956) before making his first solo feature as a director, Ascenseur pour l’Echafaud/ Elevator to the Gallows (1957) a stylish psychological thriller noted for Henri Dacae’s darkly atmospheric photography of Paris. The film, which showcased the talent of Jeanne Moreau, enjoyed considerable success and earned for Malle the coveted Prix Delluc.
Malle’s next film, Les Amants/The Lovers (1958), caused much controversy because of its overly explicit sexuality. It became a big commercial hit, internationally establishing the reputations of both its director and star, again Jeanne Moreau. The lyrical love scenes and fluid tracking shots that distinguished this film at the time of its first showing remain more memorable than its intended comment on the vacuity of the French bourgeoisie. The film won the Special Jury Prize at Venice.
Following a change‑of‑pace production, the frivolous and baffling Zazie dans le Metro/Zazie (1960), Malle turned out Vie privee/A Very Private Affair (1962), a study of the rise of a film star, starring Brigitte Bardot in a fictionalized biography.
Demonstrating his versatility and broad range of concerns and styles, Malle next made Le Feu Follet/The Fire Within (1963), a somber, keenly observed story about the last days in the life of a suicidal alcoholic.
