The Man Who Loved Sirens!

During the course of the past two years this blog has highlighted several times the career of one of Italy's and probably the world's best movie star and fashion photographer: Angelo Frontoni. During almost 50 years, from the 1950's untill his untimely death in 2002, Angelo Frontoni was "the glamour photographer" for magazine's like Vogue, Harper's Bazar, Photo, Paris Match, Stern, Playboy... and many, many more. Angelo Frontoni with Sophia Loren

This amazing photographer with an unsurpassed eye for the use of light, color and composition entered the professional field around 1957 when one of his best friends starlet Gina Lollobrigida asked him to photograph her on and off set during the filming of her latest movie "La donna più bella del mondo". That was all the start of his career needed. He never looked back. In the course of several years his stardom rose never to be faded. After his death in 2002 Angelo Frontoni left an archive of more than 500.000 photo's being one of the most important historic archives in the world of movie and fashion history. Because of the importance of this archive, it's curatorship was devided between two important Italian movie organisations: "Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia" and "Museo Nationale del Cinema". This guaranteed that his legacy would never get lost, was archived in the most professional way and would become object of study for many future generations of movie students, photographers, fashion addicts...

To honor this great photographer, both organisations created in 2007 a traveling exhibition called "Angelo Frontoni: Mediterraneo - Bellezze Al Bagno" under the curatorship of Sergio Toffetti. During this exhibition, 30 photo's were shown taken by Frontoni between 1960-1970 of the then most famous female stars and starlets in Italian cinema while they were relaxing during the hot summer months on one of Italy's many beaches like Fregene, Ostia, Fiumicino, Sabaudia or Sperlonga. They show the actresses in completely different settings than the classic movie sets or photo studios, not staged or arranged by public relation agencies during a time when beauty was still natural without plastic surgery or any other gimmick. (Virna Lisi, co-star with Marisa Mell in two movies: "Casanova '70" in 1965 and "Le Dolci Signore" in 1968) (Elsa Martinelli, co-star with Marisa Mell in "Una Sull'Altra" in 1969.)
(Edwige Fenech, giallo and Italian sexy comedy still reigning Eurocult-queen. Strangely Marisa Mell never made a movie with her!)
(Anna Maria Ferrero, forgotten Italian cult actress with more than 50 movies to her credit from 1950 untill 1964. She left the movie business after marrying another Eurocult star Jean Sorel, co-star with Marisa Mell in "Una Sull'Altra" in 1969. They are still married!)(German star Elke Sommer, during the filming of one of her most sexy movies "Deadlier Than Male" in 1968. She will turn 70 this year on November 5th.)(Annette Froyberg, later Annette Vadim, after marrying French director Roger Vadim. Annette Vadim was Ken Russell's first choice for the role of Françoise Fayol in his 1964 movie "French Dressing". She fell ill during pre-production and was replaced by Marisa Mell.)(Anna Maria Pierangeli, better known as "Pier Angeli", was one of the 50's and 60's cult actresses in Europa and America. She was once engaged to James Dean, Kirk Douglas but ultimately married superstar singer Vic Damone. Unfortenately, their married life ended in a War of the Roses-type of divorce leaving her devastated. Once in Europe, she tried to revive her career but it was not to be so she killed herself at the age of 37 in her home in Beverly Hills, Hollywood on September 10th 1971.) (Alessandra Panaro played during the 50's and 60's mostly in peplum and western movies. She left the business around 1965, although appeared again last year to do an episode on a long running Brazilian sitcom at the age of 70.)

Annette Who???

After having filmed several movies in German speaking countries of Europe like Germany and Austria, Marisa Mell was ready to spread her wings in the movie business. She longed to film abroad. In 1964 her wish was granted when she got a phone call from England with the request to appear in the first feature film of then TV-director Ken Russell called "French Dressing". Marisa Mell got the leading female part of Françoise Fayol. The movie is a slight comedy about a stodgy British resort. Gormleigh-by-the-Sea is a holiday community besotted with dullness. To liven up, Jim, a young deck-chair attendant, convinces the local entertainment director and mayor into starting a film festival. The town convinces an ambitious French actress Françoise Fayol to be the star of the festival. What happens after that is a series of near disasters, including the failure of a Nudist Beach and a riot at a film premiere. It is left to Jim's American journalist girlfriend to save the situation and the reputation of the town.

It is not known if Marisa Mell was aware of the fact that, unfortunately, she was not the first choice by director Ken Russell to cast her as the French actress visiting the sea side resort. Nope, his first choice was actress Annette Vadim, ex-wife of French director Roger Vadim. Roger Vadim was known during the 60's as the man who made French actress and then wife Brigitte Bardot, a mega-star in Europe, when he filmed her in his cult movie "Et Dieu...créa la femme" (1956). After his relationship with Brigitte Bardot, Roger Vadim hoped to strike gold again by starting a relationship with a little known actress called "Annette Susanne Strøyberg" from Denmark.

The beautiful Strøyberg was born on the island of Fyn, in Denmark, on December 12th, 1934. Her father was a physician who died when she was quite young. She and her sister then moved to Copenhagen where she was raised. She found her way to Paris (France) in her late teens where she worked at couture houses as a model, later finding employment with such fashion notables as Chanel.Annette hooked up with Vadim during the filming of his legendary first feature "Et Dieu...créa la femme". Possessing Bardot's similar erotic balance of melancholy and fragility within her Lolita-like stunning looks, Vadim was immediately attracted to her, when Brigitte Bardot started up a heated affair with young co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant. Vadim moved in with Annette, who subsequently gave birth to their daughter Nadine in 1957. The couple married in June '58. Vadim then proceeded to build and groom a replica of Brigitte Bardot with Stroyberg. Her biggest chance for fame was when he put her on display in the film of the classic novel "Les liaisons dangereuses" (1959) as Marianne de Tourvel, the virtuous victim of the evil Jeanne Moreau and Gérard Philipe. Making her debut, Annette was stunning, of course but found herself quite outclassed by her cast, hardly ready for such a demanding role. And then came the role which gave her a cult status among Eurocult fans and vampire movie lovers.

She earned far more recognition when Roger Vadim cast her in his next movie as a society girl-cum-lesbian vampire Carmilla von Karnstein, falling in love with Elsa Martinelli, in "Et mourir de plaisir" (1960). The same Elsa Martinelli who seduces Marisa Mell in the Lucio Fulci movie "Una Sull'Altra".

By the time of the film's release, however, her marriage to Vadim was history. He had moved on to try and conquer up-and-coming actress Catherine Deneuve. Annette subsequently packed her bags for Italy where she made a few unmemorable pictures, reverting to her maiden name of Strøyberg on marquee boards. In between she managed to amass a number of love affairs with such available playboy actors like Vittorio Grassman, Roberto Rossellini, Alain Delon, Omar Sharif and Warren Beatty. Her last film was "Lo scippo" (1965). Giving up on her career, she turned socialite and married a French Moroccan, dividing her time between Paris (France) and Africa. When that marriage failed, she married a Greek shipping magnate, Gregory Callimanopulos, and settled for a time in America. She returned to Europe after their divorce. Strøyberg died at age 71 of cancer in 2005, and was survived by her three children, one from each of her marriages.

As often written on this blog, Marisa Mell refused to color her dark brown hair into another color so the only solution was to wear a wig like she did in this movie "French Dressing". When you compare the style of the hair of both women you can clearly see that Marisa Mell's wig is copying the hair style of Annette Vadim for her role as Carmilla von Karnstein. So one can assume that Ken Russell was a huge fan of the actress Annette Vadim and her role in that movie from 1960 and had her in mind to play the part in his first movie for the French actress Françoise Fayol. When Annette Vadim fell ill during the pre-production of this movie, he must have been very disappointed and started to look for another European actress to play the role! So it is quite remarkable that he asked Marisa Mell to accept the part because she had only played in a few German speaking movies.

It is not known how Ken Russell got to know the work of Marisa Mell and I wonder if Marisa Mell was aware that she was a copy (and I must say a very bad one with the horrible blond wig) in this movie of another actress. And being a copy of Annette Vadim could explain why she had to wear that wig instead of her beautiful thick brown hair for the role. French Dressing was a big box office disaster and gave the director for several years a trauma. It also ended the British career of Marisa Mell. The next year she relocated to Italy and starred in the cult movie "Casanova 70".