| A Very Private Affair | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| French | Vie privée |
| Directed by | Louis Malle |
| Written by | Louis Malle Jean Ferry Jean-Paul Rappeneau |
| Produced by | Christine Gouze-Renal |
| Starring | Brigitte Bardot Marcello Mastroianni Nicolas Bataille Eléonore Hirt |
| Cinematography | Henri Dacae |
| Music by | Fiorenzo Carpi |
| Distributed by | Pathe Films Metro Goldwyn Mayer |
| Release dates |
|
| Running time | 103 minutes |
| Country | France |
| Languages | French English |
| Box office | 1,879,668 admissions (France) |
A Very Private Affair (French: Vie privée, lit. 'Private Life') is a 1962 French romantic drama film directed by Louis Malle and starring Brigitte Bardot.
Plot
Eighteen-year-old Jill enjoys a privileged upper-class existence with her widowed mother in a country house outside Geneva and plays at becoming a dancer. Falling secretly in love with her best friend's husband Fabio, a handsome and gifted Italian, she heads off to Paris, becoming a model and then getting into films. After enjoying many disposable lovers and becoming a world-famous star, she has a breakdown and goes back to her mother.
With the house besieged by paparazzi, she is rescued by Fabio, whose wife has left him. Hidden in his apartment she becomes his secret lover, but he has to go to Spoleto where he is mounting an open-air version of Heinrich von Kleist's play Das Käthchen von Heilbronn. Unable to stay alone in hiding, she joins him there but in no time is recognised and pursued by the media. Once again, she has to hide on her own in his apartment while he gets the play ready for performance. On the opening night she creeps out onto the roof to watch but is spotted by a paparazzo and, startled by the flash of his camera, slips off. As she falls to her death, her face achieves a serenity it has never shown before.
Cast
- Brigitte Bardot as Jill
- Marcello Mastroianni as Fabio Rinaldi
- Nicolas Bataille as Edmond
- Jaqueline Doyen as Juliette
- Eléonore Hirt as Cécile
- Ursula Kubler as Carla
- Gregor von Rezzori as Gricha
- Dirk Sanders as Dick
- Paul Sorèze as Maxime
- Gloria France as Anna
- Isarco Ravaioli
- Antoine Roblot as Alain, a photographer
- Simonetta Simeoni
Reception
According to a 1963 report by CNC France, Bardot's two films, The Truth and A Very Private Affair, generated a combined net profit of $640,000 for their distributors in the United States.
References
- Box office information for film at Box Office Story
- "NY Times: A Very Private Affair". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2012. Archived from the original on 2012-10-20. Retrieved 2009-03-22.
- cinématographie (France), Centre national de la (1963). Bulletin d'information (in French). Le Centre.
External links
- A Very Private Affair at IMDb
- A Very Private Affair at Rotten Tomatoes
- A Very Private Affair at AllMovie
| Films directed by Louis Malle | |
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| Feature films |
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- 1962 films
- 1962 romantic drama films
- Films about tabloid journalism
- Films directed by Louis Malle
- Films set in Paris
- Films set in Switzerland
- Films with screenplays by Jean-Paul Rappeneau
- 1960s French-language films
- French romantic drama films
- Films scored by Fiorenzo Carpi
- 1960s French films
- French-language romantic drama films
- Romantic drama film stubs
- 1960s French film stubs