Review for French Dressing

There are at least five good reasons to get hold of a copy of this very welcome release from Network.

1. ‘French Dressing’, a British film made in 1963 and released in 1964, outrageously sends up French New Wave cinema in some acidic ‘reconstructions’

2. It’s filmed primarily in Herne-Bay which perfectly reflects the British seaside resort of the time. Cue Morrissey’s ‘Every day is Like Sunday’.

3. It is surreal in the way that the Avengers, Monty Python and …well, Ken Russell is surreal with its tongue firmly in its cheek from the outset.

4. The black and white cinematography is frame-perfect throughout and Network’s DVD transfer does it proud (thanks to the fine folk at Studio Canal).

5. It’s 83 minutes of very light and enjoyable entertainment, too short to out-stay its welcome and long enough to play out all its main concerns.

Set in the fictitious Gormleigh-on-Sea, the film kicks off with a superb sequence showing an under-employed deck-chair attendant, Jim, (James Booth filming this just months before his starring role in ‘Zulu’) cycling the length of the promenade to pick up payment from a punter, only to discover it’s a lady in a wheelchair (pure Tati but laugh aloud funny).


Egged on by his bowler-hatted supervisor (Henry played by pre-Willy Wonka star Roy Kinnear) he then cycles the length of the promenade and the pier to pick up another ticket, only to find that this time it’s a season ticket holder so no luck.



So things are desperately quiet in Gormleigh and something has to be done. The fancy-dress roller skating Derby is sparsely attended too and Jim decides it’s time for more desperate and creative measures to bring the punters back. So he has a brain-wave. If Bardot can turn Cannes into the hottest resort in the world, then a poor-man’s Bardot might work very well for Gormleigh. So he sets about turning Gormleigh into a film festival town by ‘importing’ a beautiful French actress to feature in the publicity. (If it sounds a bit like ‘Carry on Girls’, well, it is…).


There is something of Russell’s future ‘madness’ in the direction, which features so many beautifully constructed shots and throwaway moments (like naked bathers dancing into the sea with umbrellas at the film’s close) that, despite this being a bawdy British comedy, it reveals a real master director in the making.


He is constantly puncturing the pomposity of small minded business and council officials who are all grotesque hypocrites and/or perverts and he riotously send up the French New Wave in a series of clips that must have been an absolute blast to make.


There’s even a mock news report featuring a fresh-faced Robert Robinson which soon descends into almost Pythonesque farce.


The cast are generally great too, desperately finding their way through a film which straddles classic British comedy (‘The Punch and Judy Man’) as well as cruel and wicked satire, uneasy bedfellows for sure though it sort of works. Kinnear is on top bungling form and Booth has plenty of spirit.


Marisa Mell (playing French diva Francoise) does a great job too and looks fabulous, as does Alita Naughton (Judy) who plays a cute but smart young American who frequently looks drop-dead gorgeous in Russell’s carefully framed close ups.


By the end of 83 minutes, and not untypically for a Russell film, you really feel like you’ve had enough but you’ll have an enjoyable if slightly weird run for your money till then.


Definitely one to pick up.