Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Thanks for the memories!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Whilst it's true that inside every fat man is a thin man trying to get out the same thing doesn't apply to every big-budget movie but in this case it does. It seems evident that once Louis Malle had secured the services of Moreau and Bardot they financiers kept throwing money at him and demanding a bigger movie than the traffic would bear. Apparently Malle had seen and admired Vera Cruz and thought it might be fun to substitute two gals for Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster and who knows, he may have been right. As it stands we'll never know and we are left with an uneven film with a fine performance from Paulette Dubost, a non-performance from George Hamilton and not much chemistry between the two leads. I don't know about you but I've had it up to here with 'revolution' movies set in South America so it already had one strike on it before I took my seat. I managed to sit through it and though I admire the Malle of Milou en Mai, Au Revoir, Les enfants, Zazie dans le metro etc I won't be looking for the DVD of this one.

Louis Malle made a total of four films with Jeanne Moreau that couldn't be more different. He established critical acclaim for both of them with Lift to the Scaffold, then a ban for the amorous Les Amants. A dark meditation came five years later with The Fire Within, followed almost immediately by this highly commercial, enjoyable, lightweight romp.Viva Maria! is a joyous celebration of female bonding across early twentieth century Mexico as the two Marias – played by Jeanne Moreau and Bridget Bardot – right wrongs, take their fill of life and love, lead a revolution, blow things up, invent striptease, and help men to shoot round corners.We meet the first Maria while she is still a child. Before the opening credits have finished, she has gaily helped Dad blow up the English many times. Ireland 1891. London 1894. Gibraltar 1901. Finally in Central America she has to blow up Dad while the baddies are still shooting him on the bridge. Undeterred, she continues alone, now a young woman (in the form of tomboy Bridget Bardot), catching a train on the run as we catch the last of the opening titles. It was a hectic race. As she finally sits down on the tail of the train we enjoy her sigh of exertion and relief.Before long, Bardot Maria has teamed up with travelling singer, Moreau Maria – who she holds at knifepoint before becoming bosom buddies. The next visual gasp comes as Bardot takes off her cap – a moment Malle milks for all it is worth. Somehow concealed under the boyish hat, long golden locks fall down. Bardot sheds her androgynous Calamity Jane look for full-on pout and the camera lingers knowingly. This pistol-totin' gal will bed whoever takes her fancy and chalk their names up on the inside wall of the wagon. It is the classic Bardot imagery – that inspired both 'bardolâtrie' and comments of noted feminist Simone de Beauvoir defending her as a manifestation of a new, artifice-free type of femininity, "as much a hunter as she is a prey."During the tours of the musical theatre circus, the pair perform a number where an accidentally ripped dress leads them to accidentally invent striptease. Although they only bare down to their knickerbockers, the show is a smash hit, considerably raising the troupe's profile and income.By this point, silly but hilariously executed gags have become well-entrenched. Men pay to see the show with chickens if they have no money. English colonials speak with frightfully proper accents and discuss tea. The two girls join the revolution after Bardot, who has a common sense objection to injustice, takes a pot shot at a local bad guy chief. (St Miguel is owned by four families – details are hazy – presumably the English stay in the background drinking tea and the Catholic Church stays with whoever's winning.) The Marias are being worshipped by the populace (due to another hilarious accident) and put to the Rack – the Catholic Inquisition having apparently stayed over a few centuries in Mexico rather than returning to Spain. The Mexican Inquisition is linked visually to that other popular pogrom, the Klu Klux Klan.Viva Maria! almost sags in the middle from the weight of non-stop action. It is a great tribute to Malle's skill that everything has gone so perfectly when so much could easily have gone wrong. But just as it starts to get a bit samey, Moreau surprises everyone, audience and other characters alike, by a big soliloquy after the death of her hunky proletariat lover. "It's her big scene," comments one of the locals as Moreau descends the stairs with Shakespearean majesty. Perhaps it was this scene that clinched her Bafta in a close race with Bardot that year.The last half proves a roller coaster of inventive explosions and gags that keep us endlessly on the edge of our seat. Viva Maria! is straight entertainment with no attempt to be deep and meaningful. Yet, unlike many lightweight mainstream films, its dominant ideologies are refreshingly subversive.

This is a nice sexy action comedy with some controversial topics about a french actress and a irish terrorist in LatinAmerica. That is nice because nearly 40 years later, there isn't a better action comedy movie where the lead character were women. That's much better than Charlie Angel and much funny than any comedy these days. Diaz , Barrymore and Liu looks weak innocent and timy with these great french Divas. This are really gorgeous strong women. It's hard to believe that Hollywood now at day bring a more clever, sexy and controversial satire than Viva MAria! It's have some very enjoyable jokes like the skeleton of the man and the horse in the desert or the head of the bishop, and the Inquisition torture. The story is not very credible, too women that made a revolution but t's funny seen the pure semi boy Bardot transform in the ninfomaniac girl we all love. Not only Lois Malle direction is excellent, the song and there two leading ladies are incredible the Gorgeaus (in this movie talent) Bridgtte Bardot and the intense (And also beauty)Jeanne Moreau.A GREAT PICTURE WITH THE BEST (and brave) ACTION HEROINES OF ALL TIME

What was Louis Malle thinking about when he put forth this gem of a movie? It's a tale of comedic revolution in a fictitious country south of the border, and it happens to be led by a couple of gorgeous carnival entertainers, namely Bardot and Moreau. This French/Italian production is certainly off beat when the girls, leading their little band of performers have to finish a revolution begun by George Hamilton (listen to his voice in French!). A little anti-church, anti-establishment, a little strange, this film will delight the curious. And of course, Bardot is as cute as can be. Don't miss this one, for the delight of it all.