The Bear and the Doll

1970 "Did you hear about "The Bear and the Doll?""
6.3| 1h30m| NR| en
Details

Cellist Gaspard is living in a big house in the country with his son and three nieces. He likes being quiet. One day, his modest car bumps into a Rolls-Royce, driven by Felicia, a young, beautiful, wealthy and temperamental woman. And she knows it. She is very angry at him because he seems not to be under her charm. She decides to seduce him, but Gaspard did not feel like letting his life being invaded by such a woman.

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Reviews

Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece
SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped
Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
dbdumonteil At the time,BB's career was on the wane ,and in my country "l'Ours Et La Poupée " was a relative flop ;after "Viva Maria" ,her biggest success in the sixties,most of her movies were critical and commercial failures ,with the exception of "Boulevard Du Rhum" .Michel Deville's career as a director has always been uneven: whereas some of his works have passed the test of time quite well ("Benjamin" " Raphael" and the overlooked " L'Apprenti Salaud" ) some are terribly dated ."L'Ours Et La Poupée " bears all the scars of the time: particularly that drug party scene ,complete with hippies in a very chic place .The part of the "bear" was first offered to Delon and Belmondo ,but both were cross because they thought their rival was contacted first and the part was finally given to Jean -Pierre Cassel ,an excellent actor foreign users may remember in his supporting part of a priest/money changer of the Temple in "Le Scaphandre Et Le Papillon" .The part was tailor made for him and his grumpy looks deserve better than these unfunny lines.Also handicapped by the children 's very bad acting ,particularly the son .The pets you find in every BB movie are present:they are called "Sully" and "Prud'homme" (sic)
durix-muriel I've red previous comments. Well, it seems you haven't be lucky with your copies of the movie. I saw it in Paris, when it came out, and it was a gorgeous coloured movie. I decided to buy the DVD, 4 days ago, and I watched it yesterday. Remastered, it was as fresh as left in my memory. Colours are perfect, voices too. But it's the original french movie. Where does your copies come from???? I can assure you that if you buy the original movie, you'll be seduced by the original tone, directly coming from the beginning of the seventies. The movie came out in 1970, I was anxious to be deceived, as often, because it could have had better days. Not at all, it was really oxygen in my tough life! The duet works very well, based on the antagonism of the characters/actors, Bardot, a"doll", rich and busiless, and Cassel, a weird musician, not poor, not rich. She lives in Paris, an entire rich and modern building, and spend her time by knowing she's a rich beauty, using men as Kleenex, divorcing as you go to the hairdresser. He lives in the country, in Bougival, near Paris, working as a violoncellist in the ORTF orchestra. He's got a son, no more wife, and three nieces he's cocooning with his son, because their parents are traveling all the time. Their family life is wealthy and simple, her life is aseptised and extravagant and, at the beginning of the movie, she is divorcing, giving a party same night, as she always does when she divorces. Always very rich men. Before the party, in the morning, she has to drive back her luxurious car, left in a street near Bougival, because she was too drunk to drive it back home safe. One of her ex-husbands, of course, very rich, lets her drive one of his Rolls- Royces. She accidentally meets Cassel, driving his 2 Chevaux, witch is a little Citroen car, very resistant, as it seems... After that, it's the eternal chassé-croisé between the two members of the couple. When she wants, he doesn't and when he finally comes to her, she doesn't want him anymore. But he does persist, and the doll goes into the bear's arms voluptuously.
opus125-1 Irresistibly tempting the socialite model urban Felicity (Bridget Bardot) duels her seductive charms against the baffling and equally determined country cellist Gaspard (Jean-Pierre Cassel) who refuses to return the compliment. Mostly played out at Gaspards country home over one evening, Nina Companéez and Michel Deville's plot allow both actors to display their versatility. Particularly appealing is one scene when Felicity has Gaspard act as a woman and she takes on the role of a man wanting to get his way with with 'her'. We see Bardot, always flirtatious, but strongly characterised and not just portrayed as a flimsy 'sex kitten' such as in "Les Novices'. When together, Cassal and Bardots performances are so palpably magnetic, that some scenes of them alone seem inferior. Totally absorbing.
Wout Visser (wrvisser-leusden-nl) An unusual BB-movie, because it's centered around a battle for domination between the male and the female. Here we see two different worlds meet: a fast-living Parisian vamp, and a qualified cello-player with a weak spot for the lovely French countryside. She represents everything he detests, and his lifestyle does not appeal to her at all. It's really ingenious to see how Bardot's declining beauty (she was 35 at the time) is exploited for this credible theme. A theme far from Brigitte's usual trademarks love, slight immorality and sex.The opposite attitudes between 'l'Ours' (= the bear) and 'La poupée' (= the doll) are the more accentuated by the tasteful application of this movie's fine music. All in all 'l'Ours et la poupée' is a very stylish, ladylike and tasteful movie. Its ending is unavoidable, however: we see the bear and the doll kiss each other. It surely couldn't have been otherwise in a Brigitte Bardot-movie.