The Girl on a Motorcycle (Naked Under Leather) Cult DVD Marianne Faithfull. Newly-married Rebecca leaves her husband’s Alsatian bed on the Harley-Davidson given to her by a former lover. Her early-morning ride (escape) to visit her lover is accompanied by reveries about her conflicting desires; her stable husband versus her passionate motorcyclist lover. As she nears her destination, Rebecca’s excitement over this sexual reunion becomes an extended motorcycle masturbation, with the vibration of her V-twin bringing her to a frenzy of erotic speed.
Rebecca’s character is based (visually) on Anke-Eve Goldmann, a real-life German motorcycle rider and competitor, who invented a one-piece leather riding suit for women, which she had made at Harro Leathers. Anke-Eve bucked societal norms by daring to ride a powerful motorcycle in post-war Germany, and faced considerable condemnation initially, but became famous as a journalist writing for magazines around the world by the 1950s. She was friends with author André Pieyre de Mandiargues, who wrote his novella ‘The Motorcycle’ with a central character resembling Anke-Eve, who was then married to a German television producer, but had a passionate affair with a dashing Swiss motorcyclist. Rebecca bears no real resemblance to Anke-Eve, who was confident and strong, although her leather catsuit ‘inspired’ a generation of European men…as did Marianne Faithful’s reverse strip-tease in this film!
‘Girl on a Motorcycle’ (called ‘Naked Under Leather’ in Europe…a more exact representation of the film’s intentions) is part of a long tradition of eroticized girl+motorcycle films, beginning in 1928 with 'Impatience' and continuing with such films as ‘Barb Wire’, etc. The motorcycle as a totem of erotic power, combined with a beautiful woman, is a one-two punch for both filmmaker and audience, and has become an irresistibly enduring subject for films.
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Alain Delon said of Marianne Faithfull: “She is a happening all to herself. She is the type of girl men fought dragons for in mythology, the type that duels have been fought over.” – from an interview with the actors on the making of The Girl On A Motorcycle in the October 1968 issue of ABC Film Review, by Philip Bradford.