Forgotten '60s movies: BB's Two weeks in September

Serge Bourguignon was one of those new French directors in the early '60s - we didn't get to see his work though - the award-winning SUNDAYS AND CYBELE never showed during my London years, and his 1965 modern western THE REWARD (with Max Von Sydow) never played here at all - and his 1967 Bardot film TWO WEEKS IN SEPTEMBER also mysteriously sank without trace. Its one I had been meaning to catch up with, particularly as a lot of it is set in London in that mythical Swinging year - when I was 21 and we had BLOW-UP in the cinemas and The Beatles Sgt Pepper on the record player, and The Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset" on the radio ... 

Its marvellous seeing TWO WEEKS IN SEPTEMBER now - its another great London movie, with its model girls, (Mike Sarne is the photographer! giving David Hemmings a run for his money), discoteques, the red mini car lanky Laurent Terzieff drives around in,  and BB looking fabulous. I thought VIVA MARIA in '66 was her last great picture, but she is equally joyful and more mature here.

BB is Cecile, married to the rather dull, older Jean Rochefort - she is too animated and in the moment for him, is she a trophy wife, did she marry for security? - it is not explained. She meets a handsome man Laurent Terzieff (my discovery of last year in 1959's LA NOTTE BRAVA, see label) and his adorable dog. He also turns up in London where she has gone on a model assignment. Cecile tries to resist but soon they are getting serious, and then he drives that red mini off to Scotland, where they meet and stay with eccentric laird James Robertson Justice. 
This is the heart of the film as our runaway lovers have their two weeks in September - cue lots of sea walks, gulls, Scottish countryside, as our lovers realise their idyll cannot last forever, as they grapple with passion and its repercussions. There is an amusing scene too where he reads her feet ... It gets rather like UN HOMME ET UNE FEMME here, with even a lilting chorus. 
Bourguignon creates some great images in scope and colour and frames his couple nicely. Back in London, there is a row - a flight to Hong Kong, a mad dash to the airport, and a bittersweet ending .... 

I rather liked it actually, BB looks marvellous (as does Terzieff) and it fits in with her iconography. They do smoke rather a lot though ... 
More BB soon: UNE PARISIENNE from '57, LOVE IS MY PROFESSION with Gabin in '59, and her minute or two in Fox's DEAR BRIGITTE in '65! Interestingly, BB and Loren were both born the same month: September 1934.