Bad Title, Funny Bardot: ‘Please, Not Now!’ Reviewed
by Rachel Bellwoar
Explanation point or no explanation point, Please, Not Now! is a lousy title for what this film actually is: a light confection of a break-up comedy starring French actress, Brigitte Bardot.
When the film begins Sophie (Bardot) is late to a photo shoot with her boyfriend, Philippe (Jacques Riberolles). After some mad driving (over which the song, “La Bamba” plays) Sophie quickly gets dressed. Apparently the shoot is desert/safari themed. A point is made of showing Phillipe ask one of his assistants to grab a rifle to use as a prop in the scene. At the time it doesn’t warrant a second thought. Who knows if the rifle’s even real? Well… turns out Chekov’s rifle is just as potent as Chekov’s gun, and when Phillipe decides it’s time he and Sophie call it quits, she doesn’t take the news well.
Convinced that the only solution is to kill Phillipe’s new beau (Josephine James), Sophie commits herself to the task but will Alain (Michel Subor) – a stranger who witnesses Sophie throw a pie in Alain’s face and then proceeds to try and make her like him – be able to stop her from committing cold-blooded murder?
Directed by Roger Vadim (Bardot and Vadim were divorced at the time of filming but would continue to work together professionally for years), the screenplay is by another one of Vadim’s repeat collaborators, Claude Brulé. As is often the case with romantic comedies, it would’ve been easy for Alain’s pursuit of Sophie to turn ugly fast and Brulé’s screenplay pushes it sometimes, yet Subor’s performance threads the needle well so that Alain shows just enough restraint that he never crosses the line irreparably.
As Sophie’s quest for revenge brings her to the snowy mountains of Villard-de-Lans, what most stands out about the film is it’s sense of whimsy and willingness to go for zany, bawdy jokes. Like maybe Sophie taking part in a go-cart race and not having helmet hair afterwards can be passed off as movie magic, but Sophie being friends with a hypnotist (Serge Marquand) whose powers actually work is completely out of left field, and let’s viewers know this is no highbrow comedy but one where anything’s possible.
In one of the film’s best, unanswered jokes Sophie keeps stopping a guy from entering the restroom because she’s having a fight with Phillipe, or at least that’s what it looks like at first. Turns out that’s it not the restroom door she’s blocking but the door to the bathroom stall, as gets revealed when the guy is shown resigning himself to his fate of being stuck on the toilet forever.
Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray comes with a commentary by film historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, who places the film within the context of both Vadim and Bardot’s careers and considers how Bardot was perceived by her homeland and as a comedian. She also goes over the controversy around Jean Aurel being replaced by Vadim as director and how that would result in Vadim filing a defamation lawsuit against famed French Nouvelle director, François Truffaut.
Please, Not Now! is available on Blu-ray now from Kino Lorber.
