1964 +
Jane Fonda +
Alain Delon +
costumes by Balmain +
jazz score by Lalo Schifrin=
genius/authentic/must-see

René Clément’s Les Félins (after Joy House by American writer Day Keene) came to mind after I watched Tom Ford’s A Single Man.

Of course Ford’s movie looks great; he knows about taste (ads notwithstanding), and one wouldn’t expect anything less. Interiors straight out of Slim Aarons and Horst photos; I can just picture the mood boards. Set Decorator Amy Wells, of Mad Men, did a beautiful job: droolworthy studio pottery, decorative art and furniture just so. And of course nice costumes by Arianne Philips. But besides the visuals, and a great performance by, and character for Julianne Moore, A Single Man, alas, is not the cat’s meow.

Les Félins, however, is. If you want to see rich, editorial-worthy interiors, draped with Giacomettis and floor-to-ceiling Picassos, in a secluded Riviera mansion, inhabited by the most beautiful girl on Earth, scheming dark plots wearing nothing but Balmain, then do yourself a favor and get it.

As if just watching the chemistry between a young Jane Fonda and Alain Delon isn’t enough to make any movie from the 60’s work, all the elements of the Les Félins creative team add up to more than just a sum of the parts.
The score by Lalo Schifrin (Mission Impossible, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Bullit, etc) is jazzy, cocktaily and sounds like pure sixties.
Production Designer Jean Andre also did Et Dieu Creé La Femme, but more importantly, he designed Roger Vadim’s surreal 1968 “Metzengerstein” segment in Histoires Extraordinaires (see the Jane Fonda connection?), a movie so great and weird it’s worth its own post some day.
Balmain did tons of movie costumes throughout the 50’s and 60’s, but seeing Fonda all dressed up with nowhere to go in his pleated chiffon cocktail dress, is something else.

The story by Keene is a sexy thriller with twists and turns, in which every character has ulterior motives and feigns trust to everyone else in their claustrophobic, gorgeous little world. So why am I comparing A Single Man with Les Félins?
Because while Ford tries to recreate the glamour of the early 60’s, I couldn’t help feeling like I was looking at an expensive editorial set for W. Despite gathering the best talent around him, it’s not…I don’t know…real. Maybe also because the editing is pretentious. . Les Félins can’t help being anything but authentic. You can’t beat the real thing.