Love on a Pillow (France: Le repos de guerrier), 1962.
Directed by Roger Vadim.
Starring Brigitte Bardot, Robert Hossein, Jean-Marc Bory and Michel Serrault.
SYNOPSIS:
A woman rescues a suicidal man and then develops feelings for him.
Love on a Pillow introduces us to the upper-class Parisian Geneviève Le Theil (Brigitte Bardot), a seemingly feisty independent young woman. She’s in a relationship which could be heading towards marriage, but she’s rather nonchalant about this and appears to be in complete control of her life. Due to receive an inheritance left by her aunt, Geneviève travels to Dijon to finalise the details. Here she accidentally opens a hotel door to discover a suicidal man on his death bed having taken an overdose of sleeping pills.
This is where the supposed plot kicks in. The man, Renaud Sarti (Robert Hossein), catches the attention of Geneviève. She decides to visit him in hospital, and for no real explained reason she begins to fall in love. Unfortunately, Renaud is a thoroughly detestable character. He mistreats Geneviève, manipulating her and pissing away her money on alcohol. Yet she can’t seem to resist his charms, which is where the film asks us to take a great leap of faith and assume he has any charm because it is sorely lacking on screen.
Love on a Pillow is a French language early 1960s film with one appeal – it stars the utterly gorgeous Brigitte Bardot. As far as enjoyment goes, that’s about it, and unfortunately even this attraction eventually wears thin. It’s a real shame, for France has produced some utterly sublime films throughout the history of cinema, but Love on a Pillow is a tedious slog through a badly plotted story with terribly frustrating characters.
The main problem here is that there is no reasoning given for why Geneviève develops feelings for Renaud. This is unexplored and just happens, to the point where she breaks off her engagement – curiously, this scene takes place in a car, filmed from the outside without sound, so we’re not given access to the break-up conversation. I can only assume it’s because even the director and writer Roger Vadim couldn’t even think of a valid reasoning for Geneviève’s decision.
The deeper Geneviève falls in love with Renaud, the more controlling and abusive he becomes. This could have worked if there was some sense established in why Geneviève has such strong feelings for the man, but as far as I could tell it was as though Geneviève’s character was given an entire re-write and her independence and any sense of self-worth were completely stripped after the first act. Love on a Pillow follows their tedious turbulent relationship and provides an interesting glimpse at early-1960s Paris, but despite Brigitte Bardot’s good performance there’s little here to recommend. Love on a Pillow is one film that should be put to bed.
Flickering Myth Rating: Film ** / Movie *
Originally published March 18, 2012. Updated April 10, 2018.
