Objectif 500 Millions - Behind the scene!

Diary of a Shopaholic!

During the production of her French movie "Objectif: 500 Millions" during the winter of 1965-1966, Marisa Mell stayed in Paris (France), the fashion capital of the world. So it is no wonder that one afternoon she hit the town to do nothing else than shop...shop...shop... untill she dropped accompanied by film stills photographer Emilio Lari! As you can see by these pictures Marisa Mell is clearly in her element, happy, radiant and absolutely beautiful enjoying every bit of the day! So to start off the shopping day we hit the hairdresser's for a new hair style!

Equitazione di Marisa Mell

During the production of "Objectif 500 millions" in France Marisa Mell had some sparetime that she loved to use to  go horseriding! There are not many photos of Marisa Mell on a horse most of them are from the movie "Der Letzte Ritt nach Santa Cruz" so I am glad that this picture has surfaced in recent days. Here is a previous entry about Marisa Mell and her horseriding skills: Equus

"Objectif 500 millions" sur "JT" d' Antenne 2

On February 9th 1966 the second French television channel "Antenne 2" had an item in its main evening news called "JT" about a new action movie/thriller being filmed on the beaches of the coastal village "Lacanau-Océan", not far from the well known town of Bordeaux, famous for its wine and vineyards. The film being shot in a very cold winter wind was "Object 500 million", directed by Pierre Schoendorfer and starring Bruno Cremer and Marisa Mell in the main cast. The director is interviewed by journalist Marie-Claire Gautier. Pierre Schoendorfer tells his motives for filming a heist story about a French army captain aiming to steel 500 million French Francs from the French Postal Office plane with the help of his accomplice played by Marisa Mell. Asked why he choose Marisa Mell the director answered that Marisa Mell is a modern strong women perfect for this role which he likes very much. That Marisa Mell is almost unknown in France at that time is no problem for the director. You can see the entire clip at the end of this item after the screen shots of this news item.

You can see the complete item here

Hommage à Pablo Picasso!

On october 25th 1966, Spain's and the world's greatest living modern artist, Pablo Piccaso became 85 years old. This was a historic event that needed to be celebrated by the arts community and the international jet set. Pablo Picasso was regarded in 1966 as a living legend. The "legend" status was confirmed after his death several years later in 1973 when he left a legacy of estimated 50,000 pieces, comprising 1,885 paintings, 1,228 sculptures, 2,880 ceramics, roughly 12,000 drawings, many thousands of prints, and numerous tapestries and rugs. So the French government found it her duty to honor this man by giving him an international exhibition compromising of more than 100 pieces of his best work gathered all over the world from private collectors, musea and even from Picasso's own private collections. Mounting this exhibition was logistically as an enormous task a nightmare, not to mention the security risks and the steep insurance fee to be payed to cover all these art works against theft, agression and arson. But finally on October 25th 1966 the exhibition "Hommage à Pablo Picasso" held in the Grand Palais and Petit Palais in Paris not far from the Champs Elysée as a retrospective of his artistic career could open its doors and welcome the man in who's honor all this was done. The complete beau monde of the 60's was invited on opening night starting with the French president and his kabinet members over other famous creative artists down to actors and actresses on the A-list, including Marisa Mell.
Although located in Rome, Italy and mostly working for the Italian movie industry, Marisa Mell had in the spring of 1966 a French movie "Objectif: 500 millions" premièred on the Champs Elysée. Although not a financial success it still had drawn attention in the public eye to the fate of the French soldiers and mercenaries who had fought in the Algerian war and the way the French state had treated them once back from Algeria often with no means to survive than starting a criminal career. The part of Marisa Mell was not overlooked by the yellow press who always could use a new fresh beautiful face to write stories about. So she was invited to attend this exhibition. What not many people know is that Marisa Mell had always been interested in painting and paintings since early childhood and meeting Pablo Picasso must have been a joy for her.

The exhibition was a huge success during several months until February of 1967 when it closed its doors in Paris to be moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands to have a second life during several months in the Dutch capital.

Equus

On March 28 1964, the "Strudel"-western "Der Letzte Ritt nach Santa Cruz" had it's German premiere. The movie was a German take on making an "American" western in Europe. The outside scenes were shot on Gran Canaria, one of the Canary Islands in Spain, substituting for Mexico. The movie, directed by actor-writer-director Rolf Olsen, had as main cast Edmund Purdom, Klaus Kinski, Mario Adorf, Marianne Koch (who would become in the same year world famous alongside Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone's opus "A Fistful of Dollars"), and Marisa Mell as Juanita. The story is a standard revenge story, so nothing special, but what makes this movie remarkable in her career is the fact that Marisa Mell rides a horse in several scenes, what she has never done again in any of her future movies.Not many people know that Marisa Mell was, not only classical theatre trained in Vienna's prestitious Max Reinhardt Seminar, but was also a quite good horse rider. So privately she often went horse riding whenever she got the opportunity, especially in the 60's.This is a rare picture of Marisa Mell horse riding during the production of the French movie "Objectif 500 millions" published in a Spanish newspaper on March 23rd 1966, a few days before the French premiere of the movie.

As told the movie was shot on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria. So whenever Marisa Mell had some free time during the production of the movie, she went horse riding alongside the shores of the island. During one of those rides she encountered a car driving along the sea road. The horse startled by the roar of the engine. Marisa Mell was not able to keep the horse under control and she was thrown to the ground. A young man left the car and hurried to help her get up again when he noticed that she was bleeding out of her nose very badly. So the best thing he could do was take her to the nearby hospital on the island to check on her situation. Thankfully nothing was broken so Marisa Mell could leave the hospital the same day. After the ordeal Marisa Mell and the young man kept in touch and became even friends. One year later, Marisa Mell had the now famous auto accident and was hospitalised for several months. The young man heard of this ordeal and went to visit her with a large bouquet of flowers telling her that he would take care of her whatever the cost. According to the information at hand during her recovery they became lovers for a short while.

La Chute d'un Géant!

On August 7th 2010, France lost one of its biggest and most loved stars from film, television and theatre in the form of Bruno Cremer. Bruno Cremer, best known for playing Georges Simenon‘s Inspector Jules Maigret in the long-running French television series Maigret from 1991 untill 2005, died in a Paris hospital. Cremer, a heavy chain smoker during his life, had been fighting cancer of the tongue for a number of years. He was 80. Cremer’s acting career spanned half a century. He began appearing in bit parts in films in the ’50s; following a slow ascent, he landed several major roles in French productions of the ’70s. Most notable among those was Claude Sautet‘s Academy Award-nominated drama "A Simple Story" from 1979, co-starring Romy Schneider. Cremer kept himself busy in the ’80s, but from the early ’90s on his film/tv work was almost exclusively restricted to playing the pipe-smoking Maigret. To fans of Marisa Mell, Bruno Cremer will always be fondly remembered as the strong headed military officer Jean Reichau, who tried to steel 500 millions French Francs with the help of a model Yo, played by Marisa Mell in the movie "Objectif: 500.000 millions" from 1966 directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer. After hearing the news of the death of his friend Pierre Schoendoerffer told the press that "Les grands comédians ne meurent jamais".

Objectif: 500 Millions!

In autumn and early winter of 1965, Marisa Mell was filming in Paris (France). She was playing the part of fashion model Yo in the black and white French film noir "Objectif: 500 Millions" directed by Pierre Schoendoerffer with Bruno Cremer as her counterpart. The film tells the story of French army Captain Jean Reichau (Bruno Cremer) just released from prison, when he meets fashion model Yo. She proposes him to steal 500 millions old French franks from a postal plane as she is the only one to know the exacte date of the departure of the plane every month from Paris-Orly to Bordeaux. Being an ex-army soldier makes this sting easy for Reichau, knowing how to dive, parachute, handle guns, shoot and kill people if necessairy but the trouble starts when he learns that the man behind Yo is nobody other than the police officer who arrested him a few years earlier and put him behind bars for refusal of a military order in the French Indochine wars! Will he go ahead with the heist and work together with the man who is his sworn enemy or is he going to kill him in revenge for in his eyes unjust arrest in the past? 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.

France Gall-Dis A Ton Capitaine...