A couple of weeks ago we wrote about our first encounter with a young lady, S, dressed only in a vest, shortly after seeing the film Betty Blue (1986). At the time we couldn't remember the exact date of this enjoyable experience but since then we have discovered a little window back to the eighties that has enabled us to date it exactly.
Some of the booklets from Triple P's Filofax from the late eighties
Before the days of iPads, iPhones and what have you, the information organisation system for most people (particularly in the City where Triple P worked) was the Filofax: A small, ring-bound binder originally created by the Lefax company of Philadelphia and first imported into Britain in 1921. For many years the only people who used them in the UK were vicars and army officers but in the early eighties they became de rigeur in the Square Mile and amongst creative types. All sorts of accessories and booklets appeared for them. Agent Triple P found his old Filiofax over the weekend and his contained such items as restaurant, sports and shopping guides to London; maps of London, Vancouver, Berlin, Rome, Paris and Milan; an Italian dictionary (we were spending a lot of time in Rome and Milan) addresses and diaries and other sections we had created ourselves. There was even a supplement covering Wimbledon, where Triple P was living at the time. Today you can get basic sheets for Filofax but nothing like the depth of content from the eighties.
The National Film Theatre tucked under Waterloo Bridge on the South Bank of the Thames
Anyway, one of the sections we had created was a list of films we had seen, covering the period 1986-1989. It was interesting to see just how many times we went to the cinema in the late eighties compared with now. These days we tend to wait until a film comes out on DVD and don't bother with putting up with all the other noisy, food munching people in a cinema. Food really should be banned in cinemas and that is one of the reasons that we liked the National Film Theatre, which we were a member of at this time, as food was absolutely banned from their theatres. The NFT was conveniently located close to Waterloo station from which it was easy to get back home.
Looking at the list of films today it is amazing how many we don't remember ever seeing and, indeed, their titles spark no recollection whatsoever: Tenue de soirée, The Morning After, Broadcast News... Some of the others we had completely forgotten about: La Letrice, No Way Out, Something Wild... The fact that there are a number of French titles is not a surprise as the NFT specialised in obscure foreign films. These were particularly popular with our then girlfriend, S, because, as we mentioned in our piece about her, she liked films with lots of sex in. We had a girlfriend at University, C, who only liked books if they had sex in them. She made Triple P read out the more purple passages to her and used to get herself into a fine old self-caressing froth over them; always an enjoyable way to spend a rainy afternoon at college. S, of course, couldn't diddle herself in the cinema (although she did have the habit of fondling Triple P's trousers to see if he was enjoying the sex scenes as much as her) but this had the extra benefit of her getting worked up into a nicely simmering level which could only be released later in the evening.
Anyway, we can now look at the "racy" (as S used to call them) films we went to see in this period as an excuse to show some pictures of actresses from the eighties.
Isabelle Adjani in Subway
Oddly, the first film we went to with S was Fantasia in July 1986. The following month we saw Luc Besson's incredibly hip Subway (1985) at the NFT which did not have any sex scenes in it but did feature an impossibly beautiful Isabelle Adjani.
Valentina Vargas
Christian Slater licks his lips in anticipation. As well he might
Vargas and Slater in The Name of the Rose
At this stage Triple P's relationship with S was as a friend rather than anything physical. Nonetheless S, who always chose the films we attended, started to select some increasingly racy ones. Not really racy but containing one very good sex scene was The Name of the Rose (1986) which we saw in February 1987 with S, HMS and Agent DVD. The girl getting it on with a very young Christain Slater was Chilean born but French-based actress Valentina Vargas. Valentina happily disrobed in many of her films but nothing, perhaps, matched the passion she infused into her scene with Slater in The Name of the Rose. Apparently director Jean-Jaques Annaud had briefed Vargas but didn't tell Slater what was going to happen resulting in a scene that genuinely conveyed sexual excitement; a rare thing in mainstream cinema. S liked the fact that it was the girl initiating the encounter and the fact that, at least initially, she was on top.
The next film we went to with S which had a sex scene in it was Jonathan Demme's rather odd Something Wild (1986) featuring Melanie Griffith before she really hit it big in Working Girl (1988). A be-stockinged Griffith, in a black wig, ties Jeff Daniels to the bed and does distracting things to him whilst he tries to make a phone call. This was ten years after a teenage Griffith had appeared in Playboy with boyfriend Don Johnson.
Again, S liked the fact that Griffith was the initiator and was on top. This, we later found out, turned out to be by far her favourite position. She also liked Griffith's hold-up stockings in this scene as black hold-ups were her hosiery of choice.
Melanie in Playboy, October 1976
Again, S liked the fact that Griffith was the initiator and was on top. This, we later found out, turned out to be by far her favourite position. She also liked Griffith's hold-up stockings in this scene as black hold-ups were her hosiery of choice.
Sigourney Weaver flashes in Half Moon Street
More stockings on view in our next cinematic outing with S which featured Sigourney Weaver as an unlikely prostitute in Half Moon Street (1986). Weaver took her clothes of several times in this one but we both decided that, in fact, it would have been better if she hadn't. A scene of a topless Weaver on an exercise bike just gave us the giggles. Most unfortunate, as HMS would have said.
Emmanuelle appears to be playing that really annoying tune by Verdi which became even more annoying when inserted into French beer commercials
No sex in the double bill of Jean de Florette (1986) and Manon Des Sources (1986) but a brief scene of a naked 20 year old Emmanuelle Béart which set S to musing on the desirabilty of renting a villa in Provence so that she could wander around naked, drinking pink wine (her favourite) and eating Salad Niçoise. Sadly, despite several attempts we never managed to organise this holiday.
Our final film of 1987 was the aformentioned Betty Blue (1986) whose sex scenes had a significant effect on pitching S and Triple P into a full blown relationship. S was a very oral sort of girl and found these particular scenes between Béatrice Dalle and Jean-Hugues Anglade especially exciting as she hadn't seen anything like them in any other film.
Next time we'll look at the racy films we saw with S in 1988.
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