Charlotte Rampling —'70s sex symbol

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34031, 20 December 1975, Page 6

Charlotte Rampling —'70s sex symbol

(By

LEONE STEWART)

Vogue magazine has called her the sexiest woman of the 19705. Few seeing the tanned, jean-clad couple feeding their three-year-old son lunch at Christchurch airport yesterday would have suspected they had a super-star in their midst. Charlotte Rampling's sexslave role in the controversial movie, “The Night Porter,” has made her tall, slender body and slant-eyed stare world famous. After the pressures of the past year it has been a relief for her to relax anonymously i for a few weeks in New Zealand, her husband’s former home. The Southcombe’s — her husband. Bryan Southcombe left New Zealand on a working trip 10 years ago would have got through the South Island unnoticed but for those strange, distinctive eyes of Miss Rampling. They had spent a couple of weeks relaxing with Mr Southcombe’s family in Auckland, then hired a car and driven down to Nelson where Bryan Southcombe was born and educated (at Nelson College). They stayed at the big, new D.B. Rutherford Hotel, about which Miss Rampling ' — who likes to stay in I places that reflect the charlacter of the country — was I not very happy. I was lon holiday then, having a drink in the lounge bar in 'order to inspect this addition to the tourist trade. ■And there she was, this I slight girl with the strange I eyes, very casual in denim and definitely not one of the 'local crowd. ; “Don’t look now,” I mur- ! mured to my friend, “but i that girl over there bears an i extraordinary resemblance to I a very trendy English acI tress who’s married to a Kiwi. And the blond, genial [looking guy with her is just ; the way her husband is described.” Ridiculous thought, Charlotte Rampling in Nelson. But there they were — husband and wife, best of [friends, and business partners. returning to the scene of his boyhood and the sort iof carefree, outdoor life they [want for their own children.

Yes, they had hoped to remain anonymous, but no,

Charlotte wouldn’t mind at all having a chat when they got to Christchurch. Sure enough, Bryan Southcombe telephoned from Akaroa, where they were enjoying a small fishing-port atmosphere similar to their home in St Tropez, to arrange an interview. So we met again at the airport, Charlotte offering a friendly hello and a small, firm handshake and Bryan going off to buy Barnaby the double-decker bus he wanted. “Oh yes, go and buy it for him,” urged Miss Rampling. “He hasn’t had any toys this trip and he’s been so good,” she explained. “We don’t spoil him and give him too many things, and so he appreciates what he has.”

Sex symbol Such happy domesticity and concerned parenthood hardly fits the bad and beautiful image the actress has acquired. Although she had had a variety of roles — recently in “Henry VIII” and

Alister McLean’s “Caravan to Vaccares” — “The Night Porter” has made her a sex symbol of the unsure 70s. Leo Lerman, the New York columnist defines it as “her high-bred looks. Her don’t-touch-me availability. Her great, hard stare.” Contemplating all that she gives a quick laugh. “If people think you are sexy, I guess that’s a compliment,” she says, “I don’t know, I think of myself as an actress.”

| Her husband believes it is I because she does indeed seem to be so much part of the decade, and a new way of thinking about women. She appeals because she is, he says, independent but still attractive. Even in her earliest roles back in the 19605, when she came to fame as the bitchy flatmate in “Georgy Girl”, her screen image reflected an odd vulnerability. And then there is that fine-boned, feline little face. Charlotte Rampling, said “The Press” television critic, always looks as if she knows all there is to know about

Rampling. A self-searching intelligence has something to do ’»’ith it too. Why did she accept the role of Lucia in “The Night Porter,” which tells of a sado-masochistic love between a German S.S. officer and one of his concentration camp prisoners? It is a decision she has been explaining and defending since the film was released to hostile reactions and conflicting critical assessments everywhere. (In New Zealand Miss Patricia Bartlett protested its showing uncut in Wellington, and in Christchurch it was seen in a version 10 minutes shorter than the original.) Patiently she explains, being reassuring about not minding having to say it all over again, even on holiday. “I felt it was a film that should be made. I knew that I would have to explain my way out, and I was prepared for that. “I believe there should be constant reminders of what happens when totalitarian Governments come to nower,” she said. “The suc-

cess of the movie has been in the reactions from young people. Of course, I don’t want older people who lived; through the war and felt the pain to see the film and be upset by it.”

Difficult role Although she says she has ; mastered the technique of i turning off a role when she goes home. Lucia was a particularly difficult part and the film a hard one to make. Barnaby was then only four months old, and, says Miss Rampling, it was her dear friend and New Zealand nanny, who kept the family together. At 28, Miss Rampling has been in films for a hardworking 10 years. Now the family makes it all worthwhile. A company of accountants and lawyers runs her career, with Bryan Southcombe at the head of the operation. As she is ever more in demand there is less time for him to spend in the “writing tower” they have built on to their French villa. Bryan Southcombe is keen to write screen plays, and says he sees enough bad examples to know what not to write. Barnaby travels everywhere with them, these days with a young American man who is "trained in childcare. On trips to New Zealand, though, there is no nanny. Both Barnaby and his father like that. “We both get a lot of attention,” grins Bryan Southcombe. The couple met in London in the 19605, when Bryan had his own public-relations firm and she was part of the swinging scene. A warm friendship — “the first I’d ever had with a man I could really trust” — developed slowly over the years. They were married in 1972, and Charlotte Rampling continues to value “my dependable Kiwi who keeps me sane.” “After so many years the glamour of being in films had worn off. I seemed to have no-one really close, and I was getting very lonely.” This is their second visit to New Zealand, their first to the South Island. It has been, says Miss Rampling, simply gorgeous. Both are convinced this is the best country in which to bring up children, and have a long-term plan of buying a New Zealand farm. New Zealand now seems like a refuge to a family that travels constantly. “It’s a wonderfully secure feeling to know it will always be here,” said Charlotte Rampling. She loved seeing the West Coast, and is looking forward to Christmas with the Southcombe family in Auckland. They have bought a camper van for a Bay of Islands trip, and then will join Mr Southcombe’s brother and sister-in-law. on the Coromandel Peninsula.