La Vraie Marianne - - Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1959, France, B/W, 111 min) - - 27 March 2021

Recommended. I fell in love with Jeanne Moreau (Elevator To The Gallows) - - like most of us - - in college during a first viewing of Jules Et Jim. It’s clearly the choicest role an actress ever was given and say what you want about Doc Golighty’s wife . . . the most iconic. But unlike a lot of other young men, I never wanted to make Ms. Moreau smile. I just wanted the excuse to look at her, to watch her, to be the object of her passion. I wanted to be a character in a Jeanne Moreau movie. Since I didn’t speak French, that never happened. By the way, Moreau is in Les Liaisons Dangereuses but rather miscast. Way too complex for this lightweight offering of serial husband Roger Vadim (Barbarella). Also appearing are Art Blakey and the Jazz Messangers and a lovely score by Thelonious Monk. Jazz and Moreau . . . that’s all I need.