Maria Schneider and Sydne Rome in Rene Clement's La Baby Sitter (1975)

La Baby Sitter, the final feature film from legendary French director Rene Clement, is a somewhat sluggish and occasionally compelling film from 1975 featuring two of the most memorable screen beauties of the seventies, Maria Schneider and Sydne Rome. Clement was way past his prime when he directed his clunky final feature at the age of 62 and it had been nearly ten years since his last truly successful feature, Paris is Burning, and fifteen years since his last bona-fide masterpiece, the startling Purple Noon. While La Baby Sitter is a marked improvement over the works leading up to it like Death Scream (1971) and Hope to Die (1972), it is indeed a far cry from the works that made Clement one of the most popular post-war French directors. Working from a convoluted script from the pen of prolific Italian screenwriter Nicola Badalucco, Clement fails to ever find a consistent tone with La Baby Sitter, a work that never really comes together despite the splendid turns given by both Schneider and Rome.

Iconic Maria Schneider was just a few years past her jaw-dropping turn opposite Marlon Brando in Bertolucci's astonishing Last Tango in Paris when she shot La Baby Sitter. She had just finished up her fascinating performance for Antonioni in The Passenger when Clement cast her as the lead in his film and she turns in a really solid performance for the aging director. Had personal problems not derailed her for a time in the late seventies and early eighties, the career of Maria Schneider might have really took off, as she remains one of the most distinctive, if often undervalued, talents of her time.

American born Sydne Rome is just as good as the disfigured actress who becomes embroiled in a strange kidnapping and ransom scheme. A prolific if often overlooked actress, the charming Rome was especially good in Polanski's comedic What (1971), and she delivers a surprisingly resonate dramatic turn for Clement in La Baby Sitter, although it is a shame that one of her best dramatic performance wasn't in a better film.

Despite the very solid work from his two leads, not to mention able support from everyone from Vic Morrow to Robert Vaughn to Renato Pozzetto, La Baby Sitter is ultimately a disappointing work that is only sporadically interesting. Whereas Clement's early triumpths were studied and deliberately paced, La Baby Sitter is draggy and downright boring at times. Clement's direction is frustratingly detached and La baby Sitter is lethargic when it should be suspenseful. At times Clement's final feature feels like it would fall completely apart if it weren't for his memorable cast and the lovely and disquieting score composed for him by the tremendous Francis Lai.




Clement's flawed and flat direction of La Baby Sitter is helped immeasurably by the talents of Italian cinematography Alberto Spagnoli, whose work photography the film makes it feel much more distinguished than it actually is. The Italian born cinematographer, who began his career as Antonioni's assistant director on Red Desert, is probably best remembered for his work on such memorable Italian thrillers such as The Lady in Red Kills Seven Times and Mario Bava's Shock. The talented globetrotting Spagnoli wasn't limited to just thrillers though as his lovely work on Peter Bogdanovich's Daisy Miller in 1974 shows so clearly.

La Baby Sitter is one of those distinctly European co-productions that only the seventies produced. Despite the partial American cast, French star and director, it finally feels more Italian than anything else, although it can't hold a candle to the many Giallo and Poliziotteschi films that were coming out of Italy at the time. Rene Clement's final film is ultimately just an obscure curiosity, more than anything else, worthy of a look if mostly to serve a reminder to how undervalued Maria Schneider was in the seventies.

Clement's final little flawed thriller has been available all over the world in numerous versions including a VHS version in the eighties under the title Raw Edge. Currently out in numerous grey market and public domain sets, I am not aware of a decent and official remastered DVD but if anyone knows of one I would be curious to hear about it.

Film Music Blog-a-Thon (Francis Lai, Emmanuelle 2)

Damian over at the Windmills Of My Mind blog is hosting a Film Music Blog-A-Thon and I thought it would be fun to join in. Many of my all time favorite albums are soundtracks so the idea of selecting just one to write about was extremely difficult. My mind immediately started to flip through my internal database of favorite albums and lp's ranging from Colin Town's FULL CIRCLE to Air's THE VIRGIN SUICIDES. Then I started thinking about individual moments in films that use certain pieces of music to remarkable effect like Bobby Womack's ACROSS 110th STREET in JACKIE BROWN or Moby's GOD MOVING OVER THE FACE OF THE WATER in HEAT. I decided finally though that I wanted to post on an album and film that typically induce disdain and snickers rather than respect. So the following is my tribute to one of my favorite lps, composers, actresses and yes, films.

Francis Lai will forever be linked to two particular themes that he wrote; The first for Claude Lelouch's masterful A MAN AND A WOMAN and the second for the piano based piece for Arthur Hiller's LOVE STORY. While those two themes are incredibly powerful they have often overshadowed just how prolific and consistently brilliant Lai has been. Scoring well over 100 films since the mid sixties, Lai has contributed solid work to pretty much every imaginable genre for directors ranging from Michael Winner to Rene Clement. Excelling in everything from violent crime films to romantic comedies, Lai is most masterful at composing themes representing desire, seduction and erotic love. He was never more successful at this than he was in in 1975 when he was asked to deliver the score for the follow up to the most financially successful French film of the seventies.

It is hard to overestimate just how popular and important Just Jaeckin's EMMANUELLE was in 1974 and how big of a star it made Sylvia Kristel. With the flood of hardcore films films filling French and American theaters by the mid seventies, Jaeckin's film played as a barnstorming reminder of the power of suggestion and true eroticism in film, with Sylvia Kristel becoming the face and body of a movement that seemed steeped in tradition as well as being totally progressive.
First time director and famed photographer Francis Giacobetti had his work cut out for him when he got the assignment to direct the sequel to Jaeckin's film. With the obvious thought that the follow up and had to top the first film in nearly every respect, Giacobetti began shooting what would turn out to be one of the most audaciously erotic films ever lensed, as well as a film that would push the limits to what was acceptable in a mainstream release.
Along with the jaw dropping images and incredibly lush photography that Giacobetti delivered for EMMANUELLE 2, a film which Alex Cox called one of the greatest ever made, there are two things that make the film not only better than the first but also one of the best films of the mid seventies.
Sylvia Kristel and Francis Lai were both in their absolute primes in 1975. Kristel was getting a landslide of offers from directors all over the world and would soon be appearing in films helmed by everyone from Claude Chabrol to Alain Robbe-Grillet. Francis Lai was just a couple of years past winning the Oscar for LOVE STORY and was one of the most in demand film composers in the world. Lai's soundtrack for EMMANUELLE 2 would be the perfect compliment to Giacobett's erotic imagry as well as a tribute to the beautiful and talented Kristel, an actress of considerable skill and a culturaly important figure that history typically tries to look over.

Lai's music for EMMANUELLE 2 is an intriguing and always beguiling mix of classical orchestration and surprising electronic textures. Paired up with the talented Christian Gaubert (with reported help from Catherine Desage) as arranger and working with some of France's top session musicians, Francis Lai's EMMANUELLE 2 has the clear distinction of sounding very much of its time but it still progressive sounding. The album is filled with Lai's typically spare piano pieces mixed in with Gaubert's innovative arrangements, but it becomes among Lai's finest works in the moments where he matches the eastern locations of Giacobetti's film with a series of still astonishing synthesizer pieces.
One of the highlights to the film and album is the acupuncture sequence. Here Lai's music seems to become a character in the film and the track is nearly overwhelmingly hypnotice with it's cross cutting of LOVE STORY like piano parts, sweeping orchestrations and irresistible drugged-out electronic sections. Listening to this track, with or without the film's striking imagery, has an incredibly strong dreamlike pull that few pieces of music in my collection can match.
Along with the above section, the key track to the album and film itself is the unbelievably cool and seductive title track sung by Sylvia Kristel. L'AMOUR D'AIMER is one of my all time favorite songs and every time I hear Sylvia Kristel's breathy and inspired rendition of it I am transported back in time to some hot and exotic locale with her. I posted previously on this track and how wonderful I think it is and the shots I have of Kristel in the studio with Lai are among my favorite photographs. The two clearly appear to be having fun in creating one of the greatest and most undervalued movie theme songs of the seventies.

The title track is available in two versions, both sung by Kristel, with one being in French and the other in English. While it is hard to match the original French version, Kristel's more hesitant English vocal is a real favorite and it is unfortunate that it isn't available on the soundtrack lp or cd.
The single was a minor hit in France and Japan and the great 45 of it often pops up on ebay and is highly recommended. The soundtrack lp is one of the great near lost treasures of the seventies. It was released to coincide with the film but quickly slipped out of print. It briefly resurfaced in Japan on a highly collectible cd in the 90s but that too is currently out of print. It occasionally pops up used on ebay or amazon but expect to pay a high price. A google blog search for it might provide a pleasant surprise if you choose to look though.
My favorite shot from EMMANUELLE 2, and one of my favorite closing shots in screen history, is the final freeze frame. After the final love scene Giacobetti pans away from the explicit action and cuts to a triumphantly powerful looking Kristel, and as Lai's remarkable title theme begins Giacobetti freezes the frame on one of France's great faces and then the credits role. It remains for me a chilling, exhirlirating moment and a bold reminder that the human face can be among the most erotic things in the world.

Obviously Francis Lai, Sylvia Kristel and Francis Giacobetti didn't win awards or much respect for EMMANUELLE 2. The film opened, got savaged by most critics and didn't do as well as the first one financially. I suspect too that the above rhapsodizing post on it will no doubt draw a few snickers also but that's okay, I am unapologetic about my love for this film, actress and music. It remains one of the great marriages between image and music in screen history. As the film's slightly notorious ad campaign stated back in 1975, "Nothing is wrong if it feels good" and all of these years later Francis Lai's music in this film still makes me feel very, very good.

Francis Lai has been interviewed for my upcoming book on Sylvia Kristel!

When I first started work on my book about Sylvia Kristel last year one of my main dreams was to interview the legendary Oscar winning composer Francis Lai about his memories of working with Sylvia on his mind-blowing EMMANUELLE 2 soundtrack, so I am bubbling over with euphoria because this dream has become a reality. My extremely valued ART DECADES contributor Marcelline Block has conducted a lengthy phone interview with Francis about his memories of recording that landmark soundtrack, his time with Sylvia in the studio and at Cannes. To my knowledge this is the first time Francis has discussed in detail his memories of working with Sylvia on one of the most mesmerizing theme songs of the seventies. This interview would not have been possible without the incredibly gracious Mr. Lai and his unbelievably kind wife Dagmar and, of course, Marcelline.