When you are writing a weekly blog like the Marisa Mell Blog you are starting after a certain amount of time to breath and live the blog in your daily life always on the look out for something that you can use as an entry. Your eye and mind is becoming so trained in the end that even watching a movie that totally has nothing to do with the life and work of Marisa Mell in this case the excellent action thriller "The Bourne Identity" with Matt Damon as Jason Bourne and Franka Potente as "Marie Kreuz" gives you an opportunity to connect this movie to Marisa Mell's life and work.
While I was watching this movie a few nights ago I saw Franka Potente wearing a sweater just before a deadly action scene with a title on her chest "Train d'Enfer". In the story she becomes the lover of Matt Damon, a CIA-assassin who has lost his memory and is trying to gain his mental abilities in the course of several hard hitting action scenes. Against her will Franka Potente's life is going down to hell at a breath taking speed with no stopping the chaos around her hence the reference to the French saying "Train d'Enfer". So when reading the title on her sweater my mind automatically made a connection to another movie with the same title in case the 1965 French spy-thriller also called "Train d'Enfer" with Marisa Mell and Jean Marais in the lead roles also having a chain of events taking their lives into a roller coaster ride. 
Maybe I should do something different with my own life? Sigh!
While I was watching this movie a few nights ago I saw Franka Potente wearing a sweater just before a deadly action scene with a title on her chest "Train d'Enfer". In the story she becomes the lover of Matt Damon, a CIA-assassin who has lost his memory and is trying to gain his mental abilities in the course of several hard hitting action scenes. Against her will Franka Potente's life is going down to hell at a breath taking speed with no stopping the chaos around her hence the reference to the French saying "Train d'Enfer". So when reading the title on her sweater my mind automatically made a connection to another movie with the same title in case the 1965 French spy-thriller also called "Train d'Enfer" with Marisa Mell and Jean Marais in the lead roles also having a chain of events taking their lives into a roller coaster ride. 
Maybe I should do something different with my own life? Sigh!
The article starts by giving "Marisa Mell" a new name as "Melissa Mell". Then the writer gives us some revelations by telling us that we have here "...an instance which discounts the cynical view that beauty and brains make strange bedfellow. Melissa is a very successful actress which means that she is highly talented." and "...she is at present in Rome starring in "Luigi Zampa" and "...She is no stranger to British screens". Well, you have to admit that the writer did a hell of a job to write in only 5 sentences such a bullshit. This photo is a publicity still from her French 1966 movie "Objectif 500 millions" which had to have an accompanying publicity text with synopsis of the movie and credits of the people involved in creating this movie. How is it possible to change the name "Marisa Mell" into "Melissa Mell" with the correct information at hand? Maybe the writer was in need of new glasses and wrote the article while waiting before entering the pratice of an optician. Then we get another assumption that defies all logic. So now we know that to become a successfull actress you have to be highly talented. So all succesful actresses are talented? Sigh! Then we come to the next shocker! A new Marisa Mell movie that I have never heard of called "Luigi Zampa"! What??? The movie is actually called "Le Dolci Signore" and was directed by Luigi Zampa! And finally Marisa Mell is no stranger to British screens. That was an enormous exageration. I doubt it very much that the British cinema goer would have known when asked who Marisa Mell was or which movies she had played in. She was not a household name in England like Brigitte Bardot, Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, Elke Sommer... or other famous European actresses.
Both ladies tried to write down their lives as seen through their eyes in a rather "Tell All" story. Again the difference in outcome could not have been greater between to two actresses. Marisa Mell tried to write an autobiography mostly based on her successes in the movies and theater, her past en present lovers by naming all the handsome and (very) rich man popular during her height in the movie business in the 70's and her glamorous life in Italy while Silvia Kristel tried to write a real honest account of her life as a "Memoir". She even did mention, although very brief, being abused as a child by a hotel guest which stayed at the hotel run by her family. The autobiography of Marisa Mell did not do much and disappreared in oblivion, Silvia Kristel's book was quite a success in Europe having translations from French into Dutch, German and English among others and is still in print.
But that was not enough to earn some decent income to keep up a good life. While Marisa Mell did not find true love during the harsh times of her life, Silvia Kristel did meet a nice man that truely loved her for who she was and not the "Emmanuelle" figure that so many men believed that she was. She left Amsterdam together with her lover and lived almost ten years in Brussels (Belgium) a very modest and simple life in a small apartment near the old city center. She went just like everybody else to the backery and grossery store to do her shoppings, standing in line to place an order, as often witnessed. A life so far away from Hollywood where everything is done for you and seeing movie stars only in restaurants like the Ivy or driving by in a limo. But tragic struck twice again for Silvia Kristel when her lover after a longer period of time being ill died from cancer. She was alone again. And then, as if regaining strenght after the death of a beloved one was not enough, just like Marisa Mell in her fifties, Silvia Kristel was diagnosed with throat cancer. Silvia Kristel decided to move back from Brussels to Amsterdam to be close to her family, especially her son Arthur and sister Marianne, while fighting this terrible disease. After her glamorous life in Italy Marisa Mell was not that lucky to have family around her to help her fight the cancer, she could only rely on her friend from theater school Erika Pluhar. In the end, it was not enough to help her and Marisa Mell died after a short but very painfull illness of the throat cancer. Silvia Kristel was luckier that she could beat the cancer. At the moment after 5 long and tension filled years she is cured from this terrible disease and is still living in Amsterdam. Her income is not that high, mostly coming from social wellfare, her art, some projects now and then and some very wealthy friends who support her with an allowance. But she is happy that she survived it all and still is alive to be with her son and her sister's family. 
Blogger Space=Kudo was also fascinated by the content of the Marisa Mell-single. Most fans of Marisa Mell who are familiar with the single know that this production was a very poor attempt to cash in on the once sexy reputation of a star in decline. So Space=Kudo thought this could be done better and made a re-edit mix of this song for his terrific blog "Space=Kudo - Disco 4 ever" where in regular intervals re-edited mixes of known and lesser known music are posted. You can visit his blog: 
The movie is one of the best Marisa Mell-movies in my opinion. It has a terrific cast opposite Marisa Mell with Bruno Cremer as Jean Richau and Jean-Claude Rolland as Pierre, who sadly commited suicide two years later on the eve of the première of his latest movie. All three are able to carry their difficult parts in this movie with not that many other actors which otherwise would very quicky become rather theater like. What is also a real joy to see in this production is the interaction between Bruno Cremer and Marisa Mell in their different scenes together. You feel the attraction between them but also the distance she has to him and her struggle with her loyality to Pierre. Another real bonus is to hear the own husky voice of Marisa Mell talking in French. In most of her films, especially the Italian and Enlgish talking movies, Marisa Mell is dubbed by another voice actress and often the voice color is totally opposite her own timbre mostly ruining the movie! Being a fashion model in this movie, Marisa Mell has the opportunity to wear some really great cloths and outfits giving her character more depths than usually in her movies. The styling of the cloths was done by "Victoire" of Paris, a then rather well known fashion house! They took their inspiration for this movie mostly from the French couturier André Courrèges. Especially the white cat suite is a direct referal to his style around 1965. What is diffecult to grasp in this movie is what kind of women the director had in mind when casting the role of Yo. As you can see from the different picture grabs, Marisa Mell and her different cloths and styles give a rather mixed image of a mature women in the mid sixties ranging from a diva with a fur coat, seductress in her white cate suit, a school girl with her sweater and skirt, a rich women in probably at that time real leopard skin coat and finally an action heroine in her diving suit. When viewing this movie and the role Marisa Mell plays you notice also the reference to two other European actresses very much en vogue at that time: Catherine Deneuve and Romy Schneider. So it could be possible that the role of Yo had also been offered to those leading ladies in Europe. And finally, as extra bonus, you hear the latest single of French singer France Gall with "Dis A Ton Capitaine". In 1965, she won the Eurovision song contest with "Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son" for Luxemburg. The song became a major hit in Europe that summer. The movie got is première on March 25 1966 in France. Since then it is sometimes seen on French television stations but generally speaken it is forgotten by the general audience. 
