MEMOIRS OF THE DEVIL

by Roger Vadim ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 26, 1977

Perhaps in his native France auteur Vadim has the sort of notoriety (""The Devil of the cinema, this Devil so often mentioned by the journalists"") that this free-form sketchbook of pallid recollections seems to count on. Here we know him for And God Created Woman and Les Liaisons Dangereuses--and lesser subsequents--and for being momentary husband to B. Bardot and J. Fonda. BB (""She saw life with me as a cake called happiness"") he lost to Jean-Louis Trintignant, Fonda (""beautiful and sensitive and vulnerable and divine"" till she caught a case of ""nonidentity"") to the New Left, and the wife in between, actress Annette V., to a pop singer: ""I cannot decide whether it is more distressing to lose one's wife to a guitar player or to a noble idea."" Whether overstating the influence of the Nouvelle Vague on Hollywood, lumping Olivier's Richard III and Gable's Rhett Butler together to prove the importance of star-personality (as opposed to acting), or shuddering at the price of fame ("". . . they think they have bought you. They. "") Vadim always seems a bit out of touch and a bit too eager to philosophize about love, suffering, ESP, and California. Despite those wives--and appearances by Catherine Deneuve (mistress), Ursula Andress (platonic bed-sharer), and Frank Sinatra (""completely merciless""), titillation-seekers will be mightily disappointed. And despite touches of humor, talk of deep feelings, and traces of a (perhaps untranslatable) Russo-Gallic charm, Vadim comes out icy and smug and about as devilish as Eric Sevareid.

Pub Date: July 26, 1977

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1977

Categories: NONFICTION