Viva Maria! is a 1965 comedy-adventure film starring Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau as two women both named Marie (they later become referred to as “Maria”) who meet and become revolutionaries in the early twentieth century. The film is mostly in French with some Spanish, a bit of Dutch and very little English (thanks Kuro for not informing me of this :P).
Plot
It’s 1907 in a Central American country. Maria II (Brigitte Bardot), the daughter of an Irish terrorist, meets Maria I (Jeanne Moreau), the singer of a circus. After her father dies, Maria II hides in the circus where she sees Maria I’s partner commit suicide after a failed love affair. Both Marias agree to form a theatrical team.
In her debut as a singer Maria II accidentally invents striptease, an action that lets the circus achieve great fame. Shortly afterwards the Marias meet Florès (George Hamilton), a socialist revolutionary. He invites them to join his cause, a revolution against El Dictador (José Ángel Espinoza). After Florès is shot they swear that they will continue with the revolution.
The rest of the film is exactly that and you’ll have to watch it if you want to know how it goes.
Thoughts
Instead of doing a good/bad part of this, I just want to say that this movie will have you going “what exactly am I watching?” It has a lot of comedy but it also has a lot of things that made me go “wait, what?” Examples? Okay. How about a guy who is riding a horse out of the bathroom (which means he rode it in!)? Or how about a horse skeleton in the desert with a human skeleton still sitting on top of it? Isn’t that really cartoonish!? Speaking of cartoonish, a lot of the bombs Maria II makes/uses look just like the old cartoon bombs (all that’s missing is a skull & crossbones on them). And hey, how about the opening scene where the narrator sings what you’re seeing?
The whole movie is just filled with stuff like that. It’s entertaining to be sure.
Oh and only in this movie can someone board a train, threaten someone with a knife and end up getting a full meal and a JOB out of it. In today’s world/movies someone who tried that would be shot on sight or go to jail for a very long time.
So check it out. You might like it.