Gary
Both domi and durix are correct. The American DVD release is a washed-out black & white, dubbed version. My wife and I still enjoyed it though. The plot, music, and the presence of BB made it possible to overlook the American-released DVD production problems. The French DVD release is the one you must get. The French DVD provides the original rich colors and a crystal clear soundtrack. BB looks beautiful in hot pants, an evening dress, and not once but twice in a tub. No English subtitles though--which is a frustration I have with many French DVD releases. The attempt at creating a "mod" Paris not unlike mod London of the 60s is a hoot, and the contrast made between it and the French countryside is obvious but never forced. Bardot's flirtations toward the cellist Gaspard will charm you.
durix-muriel
I've red previous comments. Well, it seems you haven't be lucky with your copies of the movie. I saw it in Paris, when it came out, and it was a gorgeous coloured movie. I decided to buy the DVD, 4 days ago, and I watched it yesterday. Remastered, it was as fresh as left in my memory. Colours are perfect, voices too. But it's the original french movie. Where does your copies come from???? I can assure you that if you buy the original movie, you'll be seduced by the original tone, directly coming from the beginning of the seventies. The movie came out in 1970, I was anxious to be deceived, as often, because it could have had better days. Not at all, it was really oxygen in my tough life! The duet works very well, based on the antagonism of the characters/actors, Bardot, a"doll", rich and busiless, and Cassel, a weird musician, not poor, not rich. She lives in Paris, an entire rich and modern building, and spend her time by knowing she's a rich beauty, using men as Kleenex, divorcing as you go to the hairdresser. He lives in the country, in Bougival, near Paris, working as a violoncellist in the ORTF orchestra. He's got a son, no more wife, and three nieces he's cocooning with his son, because their parents are traveling all the time. Their family life is wealthy and simple, her life is aseptised and extravagant and, at the beginning of the movie, she is divorcing, giving a party same night, as she always does when she divorces. Always very rich men. Before the party, in the morning, she has to drive back her luxurious car, left in a street near Bougival, because she was too drunk to drive it back home safe. One of her ex-husbands, of course, very rich, lets her drive one of his Rolls- Royces. She accidentally meets Cassel, driving his 2 Chevaux, witch is a little Citroen car, very resistant, as it seems... After that, it's the eternal chassé-croisé between the two members of the couple. When she wants, he doesn't and when he finally comes to her, she doesn't want him anymore. But he does persist, and the doll goes into the bear's arms voluptuously.
Wout Visser (wrvisser-leusden-nl)
An unusual BB-movie, because it's centered around a battle for domination between the male and the female. Here we see two different worlds meet: a fast-living Parisian vamp, and a qualified cello-player with a weak spot for the lovely French countryside. She represents everything he detests, and his lifestyle does not appeal to her at all. It's really ingenious to see how Bardot's declining beauty (she was 35 at the time) is exploited for this credible theme. A theme far from Brigitte's usual trademarks love, slight immorality and sex.The opposite attitudes between 'l'Ours' (= the bear) and 'La poupée' (= the doll) are the more accentuated by the tasteful application of this movie's fine music. All in all 'l'Ours et la poupée' is a very stylish, ladylike and tasteful movie. Its ending is unavoidable, however: we see the bear and the doll kiss each other. It surely couldn't have been otherwise in a Brigitte Bardot-movie.
