MANINA (The Girl in the Bikini)
directed by Willy Rozier
Brigitte Bardot's first starring role.
Gerard, a young student, discovers a fragment from a Phoenician amphora in Corsica. A few years later, he embarks on a smuggler's boat in order to find the treasure. When he returns to the island in Corsica, he falls in love with the young Manina...
ADVENTURE HD Remastered - B&W - 1952/2015 - FRANCE - 86min
ORIGINAL TITLE MANINA, LA FILLE SANS VOILES
CAST Brigitte Bardot,Jean-François Calvé, Howard Vernon
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE French
PRODUCED BY Sport-Films
DIRECTOR
Willy Rozier was born in 1901 in Talence, France. Athletic competition, swimming in particular, lead him to work in film as an actor between 1931 and 1933. He then went on to direct, starting with “300 per hour” in 1933, and to produce “Champions of France” in 1938, a film on rowing without any stars. His passion for sports made him an innovator in cinema ; thus with Michel Rocca, his director of photography, he invented the Aquaflex, an under - water camera for the film “The Shipwreck” in 1929 during which he directed his actors under water.
Although his career as an actor made him appear in seven films, some of which were directed by great filmmakers such as Siodmak and Litvak, he has left his most personal mark as a producer, as an author of screenplays and dialogues of his films (under the name of Xavier Vallier) and as a director.In 1946, he directed Paul Meurisse in “Mister Chasse”, a comedy written by George Feydeau. He was also an innovator in the use of natural sets and choice of little known actors : for instance, he gave Brigitte Bardot her first role in “Manina, the Girl Without Sails”, and introduced Françoise Arnoult in “The Shipwreck”. In 1954, he launched the first James Bond movie “It is Your Turn to Play, Callaghan”, the first in his series of Callaghan films, adapted from Peter Cheney’s thrillers. Like his production company Sport Films, his films reflect an original life, rich in adventure, far from the glamour of film.