Mathilda May nudography

Karima Haïm (her real name – some sources say Karin Haïm) appeared at the tail end of the golden age of French cinema, so she was in demand when some of the great Nouvelle Vague directors were still active. She appeared in the final film from Jacques Demy. She made two films with Claude Chabrol, the last when Chabrol was making his second-last film at 77.

Directors Michel Deville and Georges Lautner weren’t part of the New Wave, but they are from the same era. She did a film with Lautner when he was in his sixties, and one with Deville when he was in his seventies. She also had the privilege of working with some top names outside of France, including Tobe Hooper, Danny Huston, Bigas Luna and Werner Herzog, some of whom were not near death.

Fortunately for us, all but one of those directors got her naked. Claude Chabrol was the only one from that group who did not film her naked, and (coincidentally?) he was also the only one who got her a Cesar.

In the ten years from 1985 to 1994, she did more than one nude scene per year, but that was basically the end of it, although she was still in her twenties. She had a baby in 1994, and another in 1997. She was to do only one more nude scene after her children were born, a brief topless flash in a 2004 made-for-TV film, L’Homme Presse, when she was nearly 40. That was sort of a gimmicky remake of an Alain Delon film, where the role Delon had played was essayed by his own son, Anthony Delon.

Final total: 12 nude scenes, which would stand as substantial output for the actresses of most countries, but is a mediocre total by French standards. Actresses like Huppert, Beart, and Marceau double that!

Just for fun, I included Mathilda’s appearance on a TV show when she was 44, when she looked fantastic. That same year, she posed topless with nine other celebrities in support of breast cancer screening in the October issue of Marie Claire. She obviously still could have been playing romantic leads and nude scenes. She was one of those rare humans in their mid 40s who manage to look just as good as or better than they did at 20 – and she had looked pretty damned good at 20!

1985 – Lifeforce (dir. Tobe Hooper)

1985 – Lifeforce, behind the scenes

1986 – Letters to an Unknown Lover

1987 – The Debauched Life of Gerard Floque (dir. Georges Lautner)

1988 – La Passerelle

1988 – Three Seats for the 26th (dir. Jacques Demy)

1988 – Piazza Navona, s1e6

1990 – Advertisement for Lejaby lingerie.

1990 – Naked Tango

1991 – Becoming Colette (dir. Danny Huston)

1991 – Scream of Stone (dir. Werner Herzog)

1992 – Toutes Peines Confondues (dir. Michel Deville)

1994 – The Tit and the Moon (dir. Bigas Luna)

1996 – second pregnancy

First published: Paris Match no. 2485, 9 January 1997, in the Mathilda May feature “Enceinte et sexy / Jamais je n’ai été aussi fière de mon corps.”

2004 – L’Homme Presse

2009 – some French show.

2009 – October issue of Marie Claire

All the videos are here.

* I have true HD clips for Lifeforce, Floque, Three Tickets, Naked Tango, Toutes Peines Confondues, and The Tit and the Moon.

* I have a video for Piazza Navona that is Blu-Ray size, but obviously not HD. It was taken from an Italian TV broadcast.

* I was shocked to see that so many of these films are not available in HD. I have 1280×720 clips, therefore theoretically nearly HD, from L’Homme Presse and La Passarelle, but they are actually disappointing upscales. I have nothing approaching HD for Unknown Lover, Becoming Colette, and Scream of Stone. In the case of Scream of Stone, a mountaineering film with some spectacular cinematography, I couldn’t even find a good DVD, although it was directed by the estimable Werner Herzog, and is praised by those who have seen it (6.2 at IMDb, 63% Popcorn Meter).