Metzengerstein

Metzengerstein

1968/ 45 min/France/Italy French/English

Directed by: Roger Vadim

Music by: Jean Prodromidès
Cinematography: Claude Renoir
Editing by: Hélène Plemiannikov

Histoires extraordinaires (Spirits of the Dead) is a 1968 "omnibus" film comprising three segments.American International Pictures distributed this horror anthology film featuring three stories by Edgar Allan Poe directed by European directors Roger Vadim, Louis Malle and Federico Fellini. Jane Fonda, Alain Delon, Peter Fonda, Brigitte Bardot, and Terence Stamp are among the stars.

Stories:
All three segments are based on stories written by Edgar Allan Poe. The original stories were "Metzengerstein", "William Wilson" and "Never Bet the Devil Your Head".

"Metzengerstein" segment:
At the age of 22, Countess Federica inherits the Metzengerstein estate and lives a life of promiscuity and debauchery. While in the forest, her leg is caught in a trap and she is freed by her neighbor Baron Wilhelm, whom she has never met because of a long-standing family feud. She becomes enamored with Wilhelm, but he rejects her for her wicked ways. His rejection infuriates Federica and she sets his stables on fire -- Wilhelm is killed attempting to save his prized horses.

One black horse somehow escapes and makes its way to the Metzengerstein castle. The horse is very wild and Federica takes it upon herself to tame it. She notices at one point that a damaged tapestry depicts a horse eerily similar to the one that she has just taken in. Become obsessed with it, she orders its repair. During a thunderstorm, Federica is carried off by the spooked horse into a fire caused by lightning that has struck.

Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim, born Roger Vladimir Plemiannikov (January 26, 1928 – February 11, 2000) was a French journalist, author, actor, screenwriter, director, and producer who launched Brigitte Bardot's career in the film And God Created Woman. The scene of Bardot dancing barefoot on a table remains one of the most erotic scenes in French cinema.
Vadim was born in Paris, France. His Belarusian father, Igor Plemiannikov, had immigrated from Ukraine and become a naturalized French citizen, and was a vice consul of France to Egypt.

Vadim became a stage actor at the age of 16. In 1947 he became assistant writer to film director Marc Allégret.

As well as his movie achievements, Roger Vadim was celebrated for his romances/marriages to such beautiful women as actresses Brigitte Bardot and Jane Fonda. He also lived with Catherine Deneuve, with whom he had a child Christian Vadim, prior to his marriage to Fonda. The transsexual Warhol Superstar Candy Darling wrote of an alleged affair with Vadim in her diaries, My Face for the World to See. She claims that the relationship took place during his marriage to Jane Fonda. In addition to his theater and movie work, he wrote several books including his autobiography D'une étoile à l'autre (From One Star to the Next).

Vadim also painted and sculpted. Some of his artwork was sold In the Modern Master Art Gallery on Beverly Blvd. In 1981 Los Angelos, California. The gallery was owned by his life long friend Jacques M. Harvey also a painter, chef, author from Paris France. They met while working together as a part-time journalist at Paris Match Magazine.
Vadim died at age 72 of lymphoma and is buried in the St. Tropez Cemetery, Saint Tropez, France. He was survived by his wife, French actress Marie-Christine Barrault, and four children: Vanessa, born to Fonda; Christian with Deneuve; Nathalie, born to actress Annette Stroyberg; and Vania, his child with heiress Catherine Schneider

Filmography
• The Naked Heart (1950)
• Blackmailed (1951)
• En Effeuillant la Marguerite / Mademoiselle Striptease (1956)
• And God Created Woman (1956) starring Brigitte Bardot
• Sait-on jamais ? / Does One Ever Know (1957) starring Brigitte Bardot
• Sois belle et tais-toi / Be Beautiful but Shut up (1957) starring Brigitte Bardot
• Les Bijoutiers du Clair de Lune / The Night Heaven Fell (1958) starring Brigitte Bardot
• Les liaisons dangereuses / Dangerous Liaisons (1959)
• Blood and Roses (1960)
• La Bride sur le cou / Please Not Now! (1961)
• Les Sept péchés capitaux / Seven Capital Sins (1962)
• Les Parisiennes / Beds and Broads aka Tales of Paris (1962)
• Le repos du guerrier / Love on a Pillow (1962)
• Un château en Suède / Castle in Sweden (1963)
• Sweet and Sour / Dragées au Poivre (1963)
• Le vice et la vertu / Vice and Virtue (1963)
• La Ronde / Circle of Love (1964)
• La curée / The Game is Over (1966)
• Spirits of the Dead/"Metzengerstein" segment (1968)
• Barbarella, Queen of the Galaxy (1968)
• Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971)
• Hellé (1972)
• Don Juan 73 (1973)
• La jeune fille Assassinée / The Murdered Young Girl (1974)
• Une femme fidèle / Game of Seduction (1976)
• Jeux de Nuit / Night Games (1980)
• Hot Touch (1981)
• Surprise Party (1983)
• Faerie Tale Theatre (1984 TV, segment "Beauty and the Beast")
• The Hitchhiker (1986 TV, segment "Dead Man's Curve")
• And God Created Woman (1988)
• Safari (1991 TV movie)
• Amour fou (1993, TV movie)
• La Nouvelle tribu (1996, TV mini-series)
• Mon père avait raison (1996, TV movie)
• Un coup de baguette magique (1997, TV movie)