Bond Girls Are Forever (2002)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

IMDb lists the date for this short Bond documentary as 2002, but I must have seen an updated version because QUANTUM OF SOLACE was discussed and Gemma Arterton made an appearance. I'm guessing they reused material from the 2002 version of the documentary and cut out some extraneous material to make way for the new, up to date stuff.In any case, this is a rather dull little effort that offers entirely nothing new other than a few sound bites from various Bond actresses. Judi Dench is the most interesting one, bringing to light some of the gender politics from the series, but others like Halle Berry are very dull to listen to. The clips used are predictable and there's no real meat here to get your teeth into; the other Bond documentary shown alongside this one, EVERYTHING OR NOTHING: THE UNTOLD STORY OF 007, was much more interesting. Plus, I didn't like the way the interview footage was over directed, bizarrely going into split-screen at one point; just let the actresses speak for themselves without these over-the-top theatrics.

. . . is explained near the end of the 13-minutes-long initial part of this documentary shorts trilogy, titled A NEW KIND OF WOMAN. Luciana Paluzzi (who portrayed "Gina Volpe" in THUNDERBALL) laments that her potential shelf full of Italian Oscar awards vaporized quicker than Ms. Volpe's criminal empire did in the movie, as all the leading Italian film directors shunned her "as if I were a comic strip character" forevermore. Or take Halle Berry. MONSTER'S BALL, B.B. (Before Bond). CATWOMAN and MOVIE 43 after. One can go up and down the list of the hundred or so "Bond Girls," and see Ms. Paluzzi's experience repeated again and again. There might be life after Sean Connery for James Bond, but there is little life after Bond for his "girls"--on-screen or off-. After awhile, this caused leading actresses to generally be very wary of Bond in Real Life, which may explain why Bond's Eon Production Company began filling Bond Girl roles with models rather than actresses (even if ALL of their lines needed to be dubbed!).I rated Part 2 of this trilogy, CHILDREN OF OUR GENERATIONS (lasting nearly 18 minutes), slightly higher at "7." Where Part I covers "Bond Girls" of the 1960s, Part 2 focuses on Agent 007's chicks in the 1970s and 1980s. Two things stand out here. Lois Chiles as "Dr. Goodhead" told 007 to "take me around the world one more time" under duress at the climax of MOONRAKER, since she closes the back door in Real Life. Similarly, when Carey Lowell and trilogy host Maryam D'Abo get together to compare notes on James IV (Timothy Dalton), they point out that neither of their characters slept with Bond because of the 1980s AIDS crisis and 007's well-known penchant for unprotected rear entry.Important note, mostly for Halle Berry (and any other aspiring actresses who want to take a shot at "serious" roles in the future) . . .. . . who says during BOND MEETS HIS MATCH (Part III of this trilogy, which also lasts 18 minutes, and also merits a rating of "7") that Bond Girls are "an elite few." Moments later trilogy narrator Maryam D'Abo notes that there were 87 official BeeGees through the first 21 Agent 007 flicks (or 4.1 per picture, which yields a total of 95.2 Bond Girls series-to-date). Guess what, Halle? No matter how hard you scan this roster, it does NOT include the names of Anne Bancroft, Patricia Neal, Julie Andrews, Julie Christie, Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Streisand, Maggie Smith, Glenda Jackson, Jane Fonda, Liza Minnelli, Ellen Burstyn, Louise Fletcher, Faye Dunawy, Diane Keaton, Sally Field, Sissy Spacek, Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine, Geraldine Page, Marlee Matlin, Cher, Jodie Foster, Jessica Tandy, Kathy Bates, Emma Thompson, Holly Hunter, Jessica Lange, Susan Sarandon, Frances McDormand, Helen Hunt, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hilary Swank, Julie Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, Helen Mirren, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Sandra Bullock, Natalie Portman, Jennifer Lawrence, or Cate Blanchett--the OTHER "Best Actress" Oscar winners during Bond's run (1962 till now). YOU were the only one of this "Eliter Few" to fall for bad boy Bond's "charms," and you've been rewarded with roles in flicks such as MOVIE 43 ever since!

This 46-minute look at the history of an essential part of the Bond phenomenon is certainly entertaining and at times even wonderful to watch: along with clips from several Bond movies (accompanied by their own music score), we get interviews from several former Bond girls who are now gracefully aging, intelligent women (Honor Blackman, who was around 75 when this was filmed, looks amazing for her age and still has that characteristic toughness in her voice). Most of them fully embrace their long-standing popularity, but there is one (Maud Adams) who seems to want to cut off most connections to the past. The documentary is also a good reminder of how many strong female characters have been introduced in this series; of course there also have been films like "The Man With The Golden Gun", with one bimbo and one victim, but in total the Bond series is not sexist, even if the Bond character himself is. However, there are too many omissions (among the most important ones: Carole Bouquet is not seen at all, and both "Goldeneye" girls are seen only in clips) for "Bond Girls Are Forever" to qualify as the definitive documentary on the subject. (**1/2)

Miriam D'Abo, Olivia's sister, narrates this documentary as she interviews some of the women who were Bond girls. The girls in the doc all enjoyed being able to show off their femininity, to be beautiful and, in some cases, to show off their strength. It's interesting to see the four main eras of Bond girls, from the relatively placid girls of the Connery age to the forced sex slaves of the Roger Moore era to the de-sexed Dalton girls to the tougher girls of the Brosnan films, from the perspective of the actresses who lived through them. Strangely though, some of the films are ignored, You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only, and From a View To a Kill, and with the exception of Ursalla Andress, Honor Blackman, and Carey Lowell, the interviews are too short. Miriam D'Abo is also not the first Bond girl that you would think of to host a documentary on them and a club that includes some ninety women over twenty some films should probably have more than an hour dedicated to them. Despite all this, it's still a satisfying hour that brings up some interesting points to buffs.