TOULON – Brigitte Bardot has died in Toulon at the age of 91. The film icon, nevertheless left the silver screen in 1973. We could begin with this unlikely encounter, documented by several photographs. In one of them, she stands with her feet firmly on the ground, displaying the calmness of the dancer she once was. She is wearing simple ballet shoes, a floral dress with a square neckline and a wide, flared skirt.
„I gave men my youth and beauty.“ BB, who had already become a star and became a true icon thanks to the film *
And God Created Woman* bid farewell to the screen fifty years ago, but remained a legend. Her sympathies for the far right and repeated convictions for racist remarks seriously damaged her image. Brigitte Bardot died in Toulon at the age of 91.
In front of her stands a small, stocky man in a checked shirt. The enormous room is filled with sculptures and paintings. It's Picasso. . He is 75, she is 22. It is 1956 at the Cannes Film Festival, and she has only a few films to her credit, including * The Norman hole* by Jean Boyer with Bourvil, *Le racoleur Manina, the girl without veils* by Willy Rozier, supporting role in *Les Grandes Manœuvres* by René Clair and others in Robert Wise's American blockbuster *Helen of Troy *…
Photographers only see her
In Cannes However, she outshines all the actresses, even stars such as Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida. Photographers only have eyes for her. At the screening, he sees Henri-Georges Clouzot's documentary *The Mystery of Picasso*. It's not far, in Vallauris. What are they saying?
We don't know for sure, but it's clear that they get along well. One would expect him to paint her. He doesn't. He could, even after just one conversation. He did it two years ago for one of his young neighbours, Sylvette David, bringing her two drawings two hours after meeting her. But maybe is Bardot „too much"? “, as they say today. Too beautiful, too charming, too free...
Picasso, like the Minotaur, needs to dominate, but here he faces his equal in two different worlds. They are like two stars, unlike any other, but equally intense. Two years earlier Roland Barthes had already included Bardot in his Mythology , just like DS 19, goddess, of course – the pun is included in it. „It represents eroticism stripped of all those falsely protective substitutes, such as semi-clothing, make-up, blurring, innuendo and avoidance.“
However, the explosion had not yet occurred. A few months later, the mambo she danced in front of Curt Jurgens and Jean-Louis Trintignant was a bombshell. Barefoot, with her long legs exposed in motion. It was a magical, tribal trance. Sacred, wrote Simone de Beauvoir., „would sell his soul to the devil to see her dance . “
„And God created woman... and the devil invented BB.“
The film And God Created Woman by Roger Vadim , who was still her husband when she was about to start a new relationship with Trintignant on set, is a manifesto of freedom and sensuality. It was November 1956. A month earlier, she had been invited to London, where she met the Queen of England and crossed paths with Marilyn Monroe. On the Champs-Élysées, a poster for the film proclaimed: „And God created woman... and the devil invented BB ."
A woman. Not the Virgin Mary, mother, man's companion. A woman in her essence, her truth as a woman. The pill is a distant memory, abortions are still severely punished , the women's liberation movement does not yet exist. Bardot never gets involved in these battles, but she appears, just twelve years after the Second World War, as a promise of freedom. She also sings. „ Harley Davidson “, written for her by Gainsbourg, reinforces this image.
A young woman from the Parisian middle class She was not particularly predestined for this. Her father was an industrialist, a devout Catholic, and a descendant of an imperial marshal; her mother, the daughter of an insurance company director, wanted to become a ballerina and transferred her thwarted desire onto her daughter, slapping her when necessary to keep her in line.
She was 15 years old when Hélène Lazareff, editor of the magazine, noticed her. Elle , a Garden of Fashions , her mother's friend. She appeared on the cover Elle . Director Marc Allégret cast her in a scene for the film Les Lauriers sont coupés (The Laurels Are Cut Down). She starred alongside Roger Vadim, who was his assistant. They were in love, but her parents, Bardot and her mother, did not allow it. The young woman attempted suicide, so yes, they could get married, but only when she turned 18.
„They earn millions for showing themselves naked, while my brother is in Algeria.“
And the film God Created Woman did not immediately win over audiences or critics in France, with the exception of Chabrol, Truffaut and Godard, but a few months later it triumphed in the United States, then in England and Germany, and returned to France with a tsunami-like wave. Americans coined the term „Bardolatry“. BB was born. She was not just an actress, but an icon. Her love life became as much, if not more, of a focus of attention than her films.
Her pregnancy, which she experienced painfully, almost in denial, and the birth of her son Nicolas with actor Jacques Charrier were national events that resonated beyond France's borders. She bought her refuge, La Madrague, in what was then just a fishing village. „I create my own world within the world of others.“
But the world caught up with her. Trintignant had to leave for Algeria... In 1961, the OAS, which carried out numerous criminal attacks on behalf of French Algeria, attempted to extort money through threats. . L'Humanité published her response on the front page with her photograph: „I disagree with that because I don't want to live in a Nazi country.“
Three films, or four if we count the delightful *The Bear and the Doll* by Michel Deville, had a profound impact on his career. * Truth* by Clouzot from 1960, with difficult filming, followed by another suicide attempt after adolescence. * Private life* by Louis Malle a year later, also with difficult filming, this time in Switzerland. She is publicly insulted: „That bitch in France. Let her come home and do her dirty deeds!“ In the film, where Malle often captures her in close-up, one woman hurls insults at her: „She earns millions for showing herself naked, while my brother is in Algeria.“
In Godard's film Contempt from 1963, based on Moravia's novel, is often remembered for the iconic scene where he asks Piccoli: „And my bum, do you like my bum?“ , but the real essence of the film lies rather in her perspective when she understands why he leaves her alone with the producer of the unfinished film. In the end, this is perhaps her greatest role, one in which Godard seems to translate into images what she herself later said: „I gave men my youth and my beauty.“
In 1973, while filming with Nina Companeez *A very good and very cheerful story by Colinot Trousse-Chemise*, suddenly felt silly when she looked at herself in the mirror in her costume: „It all seemed ridiculous, pointless, absurd, meaningless to me.“ She ended her acting career. Icons are always lies.
Animal welfare in the spotlight
Now it is Brigitte Bardot's turn to play her own role. She began in 1962, when, after a television appearance and interview with then Home Secretary Roger Frey, she secured Widespread use of bolt guns for the humane killing of large farm animals. . In 1976, her campaign for seal pups stirred up public opinion. People were either moved or ridiculed: what was she doing on that ice floe?
We stigmatise what we consider to be his lack of knowledge about Inuit life... The fact remains that this annual hunt of young animals, stunned and sometimes skinned alive for the white furs worn by rich, elegant women, is quite abhorrent. It has gained widespread support, among other things. by academic Marguerite Yourcenar . The European Union eventually banned the import of these furs. The number of seals killed fell from 200,000 in 1981 to 20,000 in 1985. In 1986, she established the Brigitte Bardot Foundation. animal protection .
Without bias, it must be acknowledged that he will achieve real progress in treating animal suffering and in light of what has become a real social and political problem, whether we are talking about industrial farms, caged hens, slaughterhouses, circus animals...
However, this did not prevent sharp criticism of her. In 1990, Marlene Dietrich in Paris Match stated: „Brigitte Bardot is still a living legend, but she has become so bizarre that it is impossible to preserve her former aura. The admiration she shows for dogs is shocking when one thinks of the horror the world faces in the face of death, pain, misery and despair of sick and starving children.“
„I'll end up as a communist... no, actually, I won't.“
A few years later, it was the father of her own child, Jacques Charrier, who responded to her memoirs. Initials BB , reference to Gainsbourg : „For her, humanity is divided into three parts: human beings (an inferior and despicable race), animals (worthy of love) and herself (worthy of adoration).“
These are her statements from recent years. She speaks and writes openly about her hatred of humanity; she lives with her dogs and her partner Robert d'Aumale, close associate of Le Pen . He makes numerous offensive and racist remarks about Muslims and people from Réunion, whom he claims have „barbaric genes and remnants of cannibalism“. She has been convicted and heavily fined several times for inciting racial hatred, and seems to draw on this as a reason to continue. Politically, she identifies with the far right and supported Marine Le Pen's presidential candidacy in 2012 and then Éric Zemmour's in 2022, before changing her mind in favour of Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.
A few rare statements suggest a brief respite. She said about the Yellow Vests in Le Parisien: „On the one hand, you have ministers with chauffeurs, on the other, people who can barely make ends meet. I'll end up becoming a communist... no, actually, I won't. But Macron is killing ordinary people ." Those ordinary people she never knew. She returns to her dogs. We recall her words once again: „I gave my youth and my beauty to men.“ Perhaps that was enough.
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