French Dressing

A special title: I had to go across the pond to retrieve it! Because this film has never been released on home video in the US, I bought the film on eBay in the UK and shipped it to my friend Darren in Scotland, who ripped it into a Quicktime file to send to me. I would safely say it is the most difficult film to acquire I have ever tracked down!

First, the negative: this process caused a messy, glitchy version of the film that was admittedly harder to watch. I could handle it, but I wouldn't show this copy to friends unless they were warned. It makes the case for why having restorations and good quality picture matters.

Nonetheless, the feature debut of Ken Russell is truly a delight. It's a short and sweet 80 minutes and impressively has a fair share of humor and stylistic wow moments. He knows how to create beauty and wonder in cinema form like few other filmmakers I've ever seen. Despite its reputation as being Russell's least innovative project (had to start somewhere) it still has a few brilliant set pieces and photography to ogle at (not even just of the bikini-clad movie star). I laughed out loud, I was moved by some of its beauty. There's something to this late-era black and white that's really magnificent. You can see it as a contemporary to "A Hard Days Night," released the same year to much greater success. Some of its humor has aged, some of it remains relevant today toward the objectification of women, especially in regards to how it is shown in film. And it's surprisingly blunt at times, perhaps this is why it's been impossible to find in the US.

I hope to one day see this movie again in a proper restoration, or at least the unpixelated version as described. Yet despite some visual setbacks, I could still relish in 'French Dressing' and can't wait to see the next entry in Russell's filmography.