Jack Cardiff was, of course, one of the greatest cinematographers of the 20th Century (Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes, The African Queen, War and Peace, The Vikings, The Dogs of War) and a respected mid-range director whose best flm was Sons and Lovers. And yet he directed this minor embarassment — a soft-porny motorpsycho leather-sex jagoff movie with Alain Delon and Marianne Faithful.

I mention this only because a Bluray version of Girl on a Motorcycle (which an Amazon editor calls “a psychedelic cult classic, Europe’s answer to Easy Rider“…despite the fact that it was released a year before Easy Rider) will arrive on 4.24.12. And to remind that all respectable directors have made one or two embarassments, or at least films they’d rather not be remembered for.

Name a great director, and I’ll name a film he/she was at least mildly ashamed of. John Ford? Mr. Roberts. Hal Ashby? Lookin’ To Get Out. Joel and Ethan Coen? The Ladykillers. John Frankenheimer? Prophecy. Howard Hawks? Monkey Business. Jerry Lewis? The Day The Clown Cried. Woody Allen? Curse of the Jade Scorpion. Otto Preminger? Rosebud. John Schlesinger? Honky Tonk Freeway.