Lively but stupid French-Italian co-production in French and Spanish has a wealthy gentleman in Spain possibly looking for a mistress after his wife becomes paralyzed, but getting more than he bargained for after falling madly in love with a shapely village girl who treats him indifferently. Story of a woman's power over a smitten man is an unhappy venture from start to finish. Bardot, freed from her marriage to Roger Vadim by this point, seems to be repeating herself (she dances a fiery Flamenco and gets to show off her ample figure, and that's about it). Spotty adaptation of Pierre Louÿs's novel (previously filmed in 1935 with Marlene Dietrich as "The Devil is a Woman" and reworked in 1977 as "That Obscure Object of Desire") has been left stretched and beleaguered by its four screenwriters, including director Julien Duvivier, with whom Bardot had an unhappy working relationship. * from ****

Typical misogyny with a twist, but the same stupid outcome with a young beautiful woman ending up with an over the hill married womanizer. It would have been better had she just kept screwing this clown over and even better had she hooked up with her childhood sweetheart instead of waiting for this POS who beat her down in the club and walking off into the night after he is released from jail.

But the obvious is never looked at when you have old white men in charge of projects like this. Number one issue for Bridget Bardot Character not going with this clown would be that if he cheats on his wife, that means he will cheat on her. But as usual common sense is rare commodity in feature films.

So you can toss this one into the I shouldn't have wasted my time bin.

Morbid curiosity kept me watching this drawn-out soap -- another story about a titan of business laid low by a woman who toys with him.

This one stands out for its star, a beyond-gorgeous, 23-year-old Brigitte Bardot, and its many fandango and flamenco scenes, some of the best of which feature little kids.

B. B. Is stunning as the uber-coquettish Eva, but I tired of her manipulations of supposedly sophisticated Mateo (Antonio Vilar), who is long overdue for a dose of the truth when the dance-troupe boss tells him, "Can't you see she doesn't want you?"

It's very weird that some solemnity is thrown into the mix when we learn that Eva's father collaborated with the Nazis. Yup, the film takes that sober moment and goes right back to being histrionic and tedious.

This movie was part of the Films on the Green series this summer in NYC -- French movies spotlighting dance. Had I gotten to the open-air screening, I might have liked it more. Via video, it's just OK, though I'm glad I saw it through to the end.

There's nothing to celebrate about relationships here -- except maybe that one isn't in one.