The Girl on a Motorcycle (French: La motocyclette), also known as Naked Under Leather, is a 1968

1968 in film

The year 1968 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* October 30 - The film The Lion in Winter, starring Katharine Hepburn, debuts.* November 1 - The MPAA's film rating system is introduced.-Top grossing films :- Awards :...

 British

Cinema of the United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry...

-French

Cinema of France

The Cinema of France comprises the art of film and creative movies made within the nation of France or by French filmmakers abroad.France is the birthplace of cinema and was responsible for many of its early significant contributions. Several important cinematic movements, including the Nouvelle...

 film starring Alain Delon

Alain Delon

Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon is a French actor. He rose quickly to stardom, and by the age of 23 was already being compared to French actors such as Gérard Philipe and Jean Marais, as well as American actor James Dean. He was even called the male Brigitte Bardot...

, Marianne Faithfull

Marianne Faithfull

Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....

, Roger Mutton, Marius Goring

Marius Goring

Marius Goring CBE was an English stage and cinema actor. He is most often remembered for the four films he did with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in A Matter of Life and Death and as Julian Craster in The Red Shoes...

, and Catherine Jourdan. It was listed to compete at the 1968 Cannes Film Festival

1968 Cannes Film Festival

The 21st Cannes Film Festival was held on May 10 - 24, 1968, before being cancelled due to the turmoil of May 1968 in France.Peter Lennon's documentary Rocky Road To Dublin was to be the final film screened at the festival...

, but the festival was cancelled due to the events of May 1968 in France. The Girl on a Motorcycle redefined the leather jacket for motorcyclists into a full body suit that Marianne Faithfull wore in the film.

Plot

Newly-married Rebecca leaves her husband's Alsatian bed on her prized motorbike—symbol of freedom and escape—to visit her lover in Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

. En route she indulges in psychedelic reveries as she relives her changing relationship with the two men. Before finally crashing into a truck at the film's conclusion.

Based on the short story "La Motocyclette" by André Pieyre de Mandiargues

André Pieyre de Mandiargues

André Pieyre de Mandiargues was a French writer born in Paris. He became an associate of the Surrealists and married the Italian painter Bona Tibertelli de Pisis...

, or the English title "The Motorcycle". In the medium to distant shots, the rider was the British GP champion Bill Ivy

Bill Ivy

William David Ivy was a British Grand Prix motorcycle road racer from Maidstone, Kent.Ivy started racing motorbikes at Brands Hatch in 1959. He raced in the Grand Prix motorcycle racing championship towards the end of 1965, where he finished fourth in two 125 cc races and third in a 250 cc race...

, wearing a blonde wig.

Cast

• Alain Delon
  Alain Delon
  Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon is a French actor. He rose quickly to stardom, and by the age of 23 was already being compared to French actors such as Gérard Philipe and Jean Marais, as well as American actor James Dean. He was even called the male Brigitte Bardot...
  
   - Daniel
• Marianne Faithfull
  Marianne Faithfull
  Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
  
   - Rebecca
• Roger Mutton - Raymond
• Marius Goring
  Marius Goring
  Marius Goring CBE was an English stage and cinema actor. He is most often remembered for the four films he did with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in A Matter of Life and Death and as Julian Craster in The Red Shoes...
  
   - Rebecca's Father
• Catherine Jourdan
  Catherine Jourdan
  Catherine Jourdan was a French actress. She appeared in 22 films and television shows between 1967 and 1989...
  
   - Catherine
• Jean Leduc - Jean
• Jacques Marin
  Jacques Marin
  Jacques Marin was a French actor on film and TV. Marin's good command of the English language and his resemblance to the stereotypical Frenchman looks made him a familiar face in some major American and British productions and Disney movies Jacques Marin (September 9, 1919, Paris – January...
  
   - Pump Attendant
• André Maranne
  André Maranne
  André Maranne is an Anglo-French actor who appeared chiefly in English-language roles from the mid 1950s.-Career:Born in Toulouse, France, Maranne's most prominent recurring role was Sergeant François Chevalier in six of The Pink Panther films, alongside Peter Sellers and Herbert Lom. Before the...
  
   - French Superintendent
• Bari Jonson - First French Customs Officer
• Arnold Diamond - Second French Customs Officer
• John G. Heller - German Customs Officer
• Marika Rivera
  Marika Rivera
  Marika Rivera was a French film actress and dancer.She was born in Paris, the non-marital daughter of the Mexican artist Diego Rivera and his mistress, the Russian-born painter Marie Vorobieff-Stebelska . Rivera, who was married to Angelina Beloff, did not accept his daughter...
  
  - German Waitress
• Richard Blake - 1st Student
• Chris Williams - 2nd Student
• Colin West - 3rd Student

External links