Bond Girls Are Forever

2002
6.5| 0h46m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 06 November 2002 Released
Producted By: Planet Grande Pictures
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

Through vintage film clips of past Bond movie epics, and with the participation of several former "Bond Girls" as interviewees (among them Dr. No's Ursula Andress and Diamonds Are Forever's Jill St. John), the documentary traces the evolution of the typical James Bond heroine from decorative damsel in distress to gutsy (but still decorative) participant in the action.

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Reviews

Interesteg What makes it different from others?
Greenes Please don't spend money on this.
Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.
Hot 888 Mama . . . 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!
gridoon 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)
postmanwhoalwaysringstwice Originally created for TV's American Movie Classics to coincide with the fortieth anniversary of the first James Bond film, "Bond Girls Are Forever" (2002) collected film footage and new interviews with the leading ladies of those first twenty or so Bond films. The short documentary was slightly revamped in 2006 to include information about the film "Casino Royale". The documentary was co-created and is narrated by Maryam D'Abo, who played one of the more helpless and overall useless Bond girls in 1987's "The Living Daylights" opposite Timothy Dalton. She tracks down most of her Bond movie sorority sisters (a comparison made in the film) to discuss the significance in their lives and careers of having appeared in the series. There's certain repetitiveness to her discoveries, however for hardcore Bond fans the opportunity to see these women again is both exhilarating and disappointing, given the overarching mystique and fantasy elements of their presence in their respective films. The feminist criticism of the series and the empowerment of female characters within the past several entries is discussed, however the absence of Grace Jones, Roger Moore's adversary in "A View to a Kill", was felt by this viewer (as well as the other Moore era actresses Carole Bouquet, Barbara Bach, and Tanya Roberts). Though "Bond Girls are Forever" is a far more interesting entry into the Bond legacy than many other shows made about the phenomena there's a shallowness about it that's equivalent to many of the characters several of the women interviewed portrayed.
David S. Rose With a title like this one, you'd expect the usual, fluffy, ET-type of superficial clip flick. To my surprise, however, this retrospective/interview documentary, hosted (quite well) by former Bond girl Maryam D'Abo, turns out to be highly watchable, and not just for all the requisite clips of attractive women in bikinis. D'Abo, who co-wrote the script as well as hosted the interviews, does an excellent job of 'bonding' (ouch!) with her fellow eye-candy compatriots, and it really is fun (and interesting) to see the evolution of the role over time.Since the film was made some 40 years after Honor Blackman as Pussy Galore rolled in the hay with Sean Connery, and that image is firmly fixed in our cultural consciousness, it is somewhat disconcerting to see her now, white-haired and pushing 80 (but still regal). On the other hand, most of the more recent vintage actresses seem to have aged surprisingly well, and (at least to my mind) come across even sexier today than they did in their films. This is not the least because they are allowed to speak their minds without a script. Surprise, surprise, instead of just being decorative, many of them come across as being thoughtful, gracious and eloquent.The interviews with D'Abo were filmed casually, usually in public settings such as restaurants, bars or parks, but with extremely high production values. And since the film was made with the support of the franchise owners, there are more than enough clips from the original films to satisfy even hard core fans.While this was shot in 2002, AMC is running it in rotation now with the Bond films themselves, so I'd suggest that you set your Tivo to record it for you so that you can watch it at your leisure.