MARIANNE FAITHFUL

'THE GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE'

Marianne on the film: “I made a couple of terrible movies that year. I’ll Never Forget What’s ’Isname with Oliver Reed in which, appropriately enough, I have the distinction of being the first person to say “f*ck” in a legitimate movie. And the soft porn Girl on a Motorcycle. It took three months to make. I was away a lot and Mick visited me on location in Zurich and Heidelberg and the South of France. Alain Delon was the star, and very early on in the film he tried to pull me in the same desultory way that Roy Orbison had. When I turned him down, he became very sullen and nasty and difficult. He was such a pompous ass, in any case, and every time he said that ludicrous line, ‘Your body is like a beautiful violin in a velvet case,’ while unzipping my leather suit, I would crack up. It was dozens of takes before I could do it with a straight face.”