Come Dance with Me! (1959)

best movie i've ever seen.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

"Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" (= French for 'do you want to dance with me?'), shows competent acting in a well-built crime plot.Set in color in the late 1950-s, this film openly deals with the Paris homo & travesty scene. Which was pretty groundbreaking for the staunch Roman Catholic France of those days.Brigitte Bardot's appearance in "Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" shines all the way down. Showing off her dancing talents (you may know Brigitte qualified at the Paris conservatory as a classical ballet dancer). While shooting this film, Brigitte was pregnant with her only child -- according to some this shows off in her advantage as well. The third show-off is made by Brigitte's dress in a cross-striped pattern - known to this day in fashion as the 'Brigitte Bardot - design'.In spite of her dazzling appearance, one cannot escape the conclusion that Bardot plays the wrong part here. Apart from being beautiful, Brigitte has a definite talent for light comedy. Acting crime & mystery just isn't her trade.My last words should be for male lead Henri Vidal. In December 1959, aged 40, he died from a heart attack. This happened shortly after the completion of "Voulez-vous danser avec moi?".

This well-made movie just has one flaw: Brigitte Bardot is not suited for playing a crime plot. As her talents are with light comedy, she is not able to carry out the necessary mystery, horror and suspense here.For this reason I think 'Voulez-vous danser avec moi?' not entirely convincing. But apart from that, it's quite entertaining. It is shot well, its acting is good, and its story catches the viewer's interest from beginning to end. Of course your special attention for the scenes in the dance-school, fully displaying Brigitte's excellent dancing skills.This movie also seriously deals with homosexuality, back in 1959 a groundbreaking issue. For this reason I guess Paris must have been the only location possible.

"Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" intends to be a light-minded humoristic thriller. As a matter of fact, it is very easy to realize "who done it", and the humor of the script is rather poor. Moreover in the plot one finds several flaws, too evident even for a movie with no pretension of likelihood.Well, the preceding remarks have no relevance at all. Indeed, here we have a twenty-five-years-old Brigitte Bardot, folks! In Italy "Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" was entitled "Sexy Girl", a coarse and totally unsuited choice, we all agree about it... but... but in the movie Brigitte IS a sexy girl, you can bet your head on it. The film is just a long (and very welcome) promotion of her earthquake-like sex-appeal: among uncountable instances, look at her dancing...After all, it is interesting to see a movie like "Voulez-vous danser avec moi?" to realize why, despite the low quality of many films featuring BB at the beginning of her career, people fought to get tickets to see Brigitte on the screen. And when she showed herself in flesh... according to BB's auto-biography, there was an explosion of riots, in France and in Italy and in Spain. See this movie and you will easily trust this statement of the French screen-legend.A due final remark: also Dawn Addams gives a relevant contribution of beauty and charm to the bliss of the audience. All this considered, 90 minutes to view this movie are not wasted at all.

The murder mystery plot is pretty limp, but Bardot is at her ripest and performs a joyous mambo. The gay subplot would have been unthinkable in a Hollywood film of the time; here the treatment is relatively casual and benign. The title song is a finger-snapping delight; how could it have escaped Bobby Darin's attention?