GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE (1968)
Directed by Jack Cardiff
Review by Jason Tosta


Released by: Salvation Films/Redemption
Running Time: 91 Minutes
Rating: NR
Color format: Color
Audio/Subtitles: English Audio/No Subtitles
Region Code: 1, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: Widescreen 1.66:1
16:9 Enhanced: Yes
Special Features: Stills Gallery, Trailer, and Redemption Trailers (Satanic Sluts, Sacred Flesh, Cold Eyes of Fear)
Trailer Online: Yes

Vroom, Vroom! Time for a little sixties psychedelic erotica! It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Jack Cardiff’s 1968 film GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE aka: NAKED UNDER LEATHER. This film is very much a female version of EASY RIDER, if you were to replace all of the drugs with heavy heaps of relationship drama. Does this motorcycle fly, or does its engine die at the starting line?

Rebecca (Marianne Faithful) is a new bride stuck in a stifling marriage. One morning, after awakening from a psychedelic fever dream, she decides to leave her husband Raymond (Roger Mutton). She gets into her riding leathers, jumps on her motorcycle and speeds off out of Switzerland. Her destination is a rendezvous with her lover, Daniel (Alain Delon), in Germany.


Through various flashback sequences, we learn that her husband Raymond is an agreeable, spineless, boring school teacher who is virtually screaming to be left. We also learn that her first sexual experience with her lover Daniel, involved him borderline raping her in the dark one night, and she loved it. He’s a bad boy that treats her like crap. Chics loved that kind of guy even back then. Man, some things never change. The two have lots of sex and he teaches her how to ride a motorcycle. This experience gives her feelings of “freedom” and “liberation.” I must say that I like Daniel’s style. Here’s a guy that gives his newly married lover a motorcycle as a wedding present, so she can continue to motor over to his place for some good ole’ fashioned adultery. Now, that’s a man with a plan.

That’s pretty much it. The film basically consists of shots of Rebecca riding her motorcycle followed by a flashback or two; then more of Rebecca riding her motorcycle and some more flashbacks. Rinse and repeat. The proceedings get a little old after a about the hour mark. The story here is skimpy and there’s just too much time spent watching Rebecca ride her motorcycle. There are also more flashbacks in this film than at a hippie commune. All these flashbacks make the film feel choppy and uneven.

Directed by legendary cinematographer, Jack Cardiff, GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE does show glimmers of great filmmaking. The best scenes in the film are when Rebecca stops and gets off her motorcycle. One example finds Rebecca in a random bar with a bunch of old men staring at her; undressing her with their eyes. The climax of the scene is very funny and is a great change of pace. These scenes show Rebecca projecting her internal insecurities onto the strangers around her. Moments like these do not occur often enough in the film.

GIRL bangs you over the head with its symbolism. Rebecca is a liberated woman on her motorcycle. I got that after the first two shots of her on it. We don’t need to see a million shots of her humping the bike as she rides. We get it. The bike is like another lover for her. Move on.

In terms of being psychedelic, GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE doesn’t quite make the grade. The opening “fever dream” sequence shows excellent moments of psychedelia, but it is never followed up on and seems out of place with regard to the rest of the film. Some polarized, over saturated shots are about all we get for the remainder. GIRL fares a little better as an erotic film with some brief nudity, but nothing exploitive or excessive. It’s actually a rather tame experience.

In the end, I feel as if I might have come down a little too hard on GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE. It’s not a terrible film by any stretch. Fans of 60’s soft-core erotica and/or 60’s Euro cinema in general might want to give it a shot. Marianne Faithfull is not a great actress, but she is pretty. She carries large parts of the film with a certain style and actually does rather well with the material. GIRL ON A MOTOTRCYCLE is just a mixed bag overall.