Seen on its own terms more than forty years after the fact, with Faithfull's in-good-faith nudity stripped by familiarity of its initial shock value and her quest for sensual sovereignty taken as-read, Girl on a Motorcycle reveals itself to be an essential Sixties tale of personal rebellion and of the attendant risks of claiming freedom of mind and body. The tale's heroine, Rebecca (the 22 year-old Faithfull had made her feature film debut with a small role in Michael Winner's I'll Never Forget What's'isname [1967] and was best known at this point in her life and career as the girlfriend of Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger) is a questioning, hungering female on par with Marion Crane from Psycho (1960) and Mary Henry from Carnival of Souls (1962), whose inner monologue (written by novelist Gilliam Freeman, and evoking the wall-to-wall narration of the old Inner Sanctum movies) paints her as repressed but possessed of a romantic and seeking nature. That Rebecca is doomed is a fait accompli but Girl on a Motorcycle is less about destination than mileage. Despite a reliance on process shots to put Faithfull at the controls, footage of Rebecca tearing up the road between France and Germany and leaning into the bends on winding mountain roads, retains the power of liberation, however the film's downbeat coda may anticipate the final frames of Easy Rider (1969), Vanishing Point (1970), and Dirty Mary Crazy Larry 1974).
This Region 1 DVD, released in partnership between Kino Lorber and Jezebel Films (one of the three subsidiary labels of The Salvation Group), presents Girl on a Motorcycle uncut, preserving its intended 1.66:1 aspect ratio. Though the film has a somewhat soft, and grainy aspect, picture and sound are appropriate and more than adequate. (One of the great rediscoveries of a new look at Girl on a Motorcycle lies in an appreciation of Les Reed's invigorating score.) Included with the film's original theatrical trailer and a gallery of stills is an archival audio commentary recorded by Jack Cardiff in the final years before his death in 2009. Cardiff discusses the film's production and problematic distribution while revealing tricks of the trade, production secrets, and on-set anecdotes... providing himself in the process as apt and gifted an historian as he was a cinematic storyteller.
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by Richard Harland Smith
