R.I.P. Anouk Aimee

She was most famous for her performances in some great European films of the 1960s, like La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2 and A Man and a Woman.

She did two nude scenes, twenty years apart. Unfortunately, there are no HD versions of them, but here’s the best we have:

The first was in The Lovers of Verona (Les amants de Vérone), which I have never seen. This scene was shocking in two ways: (1) it was 1949, when there was virtually no nudity in cinema; (2) she was only 16 when the scenes were filmed.

Angelo, a glass-blower from Murano, and Georgia Maglia, the pretty daughter of a fallen fascist magistrate, are chosen to be the stand-ins for the stars of a film version of “Romeo and Juliet” being shot on location in Venice and Verona. It is not long before they fall in love and their romance parallels that of Shakespeare’s timeless heroes.

Film clip here, images below:

The second was in 1969 when she starred in Justine, an adaptation of Lawrence Durrell’s famous Alexandria Quartet. In a story told from multiple points of view, the jaded Justine is described in the books as “alluring, seductive, mournful, and prone to dark, cryptic pronouncements” and “a tiresome old sexual turnstile through which presumably we must all pass.”

This movie would be a good candidate for the Blu-Ray treatment. Oh, not because it’s a masterpiece. In fact, the film is a confusing disaster. The director was fired or quit (accounts vary) after shooting the exteriors in Algeria, and the cinema legend George Cukor was called in to shoot some interiors in Hollywood, and to assemble the footage into something coherent. He gave it the ol’ college try, but failed. I had no idea what the film was supposed to be about, and I’ve read the books upon which it is allegedly based.

Dean Wormer and Robert Forster appear as some scheming villains. At least I assume they are villains. They are certainly menacing and scowling, apparently up to no good, although it’s not entirely clear what their evildoing consists of. Something about firearms. Forster, who is supposed to be some kind of North African, darkens his skin, wears a gigantic mustache, and uses an accent borrowed from Anthony Quinn’s guide to surly, swarthy characters.

Despite the film’s failings, I would love to see this in HD because the film features major stars and tons of familiar character actors, and because the outdoor cinematography by Leon Shamroy is sweeping (2.35 aspect ratio) and gorgeous. Shamroy was the DP for such films as Planet of the Apes, Cleopatra, Porgy and Bess, The Agony and the Ecstasy, The King and I and South Pacific. He was nominated for 18 Oscars, winning four (no cinematographer has exceeded either of those totals).

And of course, I’d like to see a good version of Anouk Aimee’s nude scene.

Film clip here, images below:

I know the quality is poor, but nothing better is available at the moment.

If you are curious, the entire film is online. Anouk’s nude scene is around the 35-minute mark.