Brigitte Bardot, who died at the age of 91, deconstructed the role of fixed representation of women in 1950s cinema, embodying a new era of sexual liberation.
One publication already referred to the Frenchwoman as “a pouting princess and a seductive-eyed countess” – but it was an image she came to hate.
Targeted by aggressive marketing as a hedonistic sex symbol, Bardot was frustrated in her ambition to become a serious actress. Eventually, he gave up his career to fight for animal welfare.
Years later, his reputation was tarnished by homophobic insults and several fines for inciting racial hatred. Her son also sued her after she said she would have preferred to “give birth to a puppy.”
A scar in the memory of an icon who, at his peak, popularized the bikini and female desire, in addition to projecting French cinema to the world.
A rigorous education in Paris
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot was born in Paris on September 28, 1934. She and her sister Marie-Jeanne grew up in a luxurious apartment in the city’s most chic neighborhood. Her wealthy, Catholic parents demanded high standards from their daughters.
Girls’ friendships were strictly monitored; when they broke something, they were whipped as punishment.
As German troops occupied Paris during World War II, Bardot spent most of her time at home dancing to records. Her mother encouraged her interest and enrolled her in ballet classes from the age of seven.
Her teacher at the Paris Conservatory described her as an exceptional student and she won prizes.
Life as a “young girl”
But Bardot found life claustrophobic. She later recalled on her 15th birthday: “I was looking for something, maybe personal fulfillment.”
A family friend convinced her to pose for the cover of Elle, France’s leading women’s magazine, and the photos caused a sensation.
At the time, elegant women wore their hair short, carefully matched their accessories, and wore tailored jackets and silky evening wear.
Brigitte’s hair fell over her shoulders. With the slender, athletic body of a ballerina, she looked nothing like her fellow models.
Represented in a young and modern outfit, she has become the embodiment of a new “young girl” style. At 16, she became the most famous girl in Paris.
Her photos caught the attention of director Marc Allegret, who tasked his assistant, Roger Vadim, with finding her.
Screen tests were unsuccessful, but Vadim, who was six years older, took her in, first as his protégé, then as his wife. They begin an intense relationship, but when Bardot’s parents find out, they threaten to send him to England.
Roger Vadim, kind of “wild wolf”
In retaliation, she attempted suicide, but was discovered and arrested in time. Brigitte was in love with the future director. He appeared to her like a “wild wolf”.
“He looked at me, scared me, attracted me and I didn’t know where I was anymore,” he explained. Under so much pressure, her parents relented, but forbade the couple from marrying until Brigitte was 18. Once this step was completed, the couple went to the altar.
Become an icon
Vadim began to transform Bardot into the star he believed he could be. He sold their wedding photos to Paris-Match magazine and instructed her on how to behave in public.
He also helped his new wife find small roles in a dozen small films, often playing innocent female interests.
But, until 1956, she was most famous for posing in a bikini – an outfit previously banned in Spain, Italy and much of the United States because it bordered on decency – and for popularizing a beehive hairstyle.
Then came the bleached hair and the part that made her a star. That year, Vadim’s first film, “And God Created Woman”, premiered in Paris. The work made no money in France, but it caused an uproar in the United States.
In a country accustomed to Doris Day (Hollywood actress), Bardot caused a sensation. His character pursues his sexual appetites, unapologetically, like men. She dances barefoot in a trance, her skin glistening with sweat, her hair loose.
His lack of inhibition caused the breakdown of the social order; Outside of the cinema, the reaction was just as intense. The existentialist Simone de Beauvoir hailed her as an icon of “absolute freedom,” elevating Brigitte to the rank of philosopher.
But the American moral majority has mobilized. The film was banned in some states and newspapers denounced its depravity. For the public, Bardot became indistinguishable from the character she played. Paris-Match magazine called her “immoral from head to toe.”
And when Bardot became involved with her co-star, Jean-Louis Trintignant, her image as a wanton libertine became inescapable.
She divorced Vadim, who reacted as only a Frenchman can. “I would rather have that kind of wife,” he said, “knowing that she is unfaithful, than have a wife who just loves me and loves no one else.”
He continued to work with Bardot and later lived with Catherine Deneuve and married Jane Fonda.
A reluctant mother
In 1959, Brigitte married, after several loves, the actor Jacques Charrier, with whom she played in “Babette goes to war”.
The couple had a son, Nicolas, but Bardot was unhappy with the pregnancy: she repeatedly punched herself in the stomach and begged a doctor to provide her with morphine to induce an abortion.
“I looked at my flat, slim stomach in the mirror like a dear friend on whom I was about to close the lid of a coffin,” she later recalled.
After the divorce, Nicolas did not see his mother for decades. He sued Bardot for moral damages when she published an autobiography in which she claimed she would have preferred to “give birth to a puppy.”
Brigitte was now France’s highest-paid actress, with some suggesting she was more valuable in terms of foreign trade than the country’s automobile industry.
But she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress. “I didn’t really get a chance to act,” she complained, “most of the time I had to take off my clothes.”
She began to attract the attention of Europe’s most respected filmmakers, gaining critical success in Jean-Luc Godard’s powerful New Wave drama “Le Mépris.”
But the overall quality of her output was mixed, especially when she ventured outside of France and into Hollywood.
A third marriage, to a millionaire German playboy, was followed by a series of lovers – although, breaking her mold, she rejected Sean Connery.
She has also recorded dozens of albums, alongside Serge Gainsbourg and Sacha Distel, adding them to her list of achievements. With Gainsbourg, she recorded the torrid “Je T’aime… Moi Non Plus”, while begging him not to release it.
A year later, he re-recorded the song with British actress Jane Birkin. It became a huge hit across Europe, with Bardot’s version remaining a secret for 20 years.
Animal rights advocate
After nearly 50 films, she announced that she was retiring to devote her life to animal welfare in 1973. “I gave my beauty and my youth to men,” she said. “I will give my wisdom and experience to the animals.”
She raised 3 million francs (then around 2.2 million reais) to create the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, auctioning off her jewelry and cinema memorabilia.
Bardot – or BB as he was known in France – campaigned against the annual slaughter of seals in Canada and angered some of his countrymen by condemning the consumption of horse meat.
She became a vegetarian, criticized the Chinese government for “torturing” bears, and spent a lot of money on a program to sterilize Romanian stray dogs.
A troubled end to a troubled life
In her later years, she was repeatedly prosecuted for racial hatred. She opposed the way the Islamic and Jewish religions kill animals for food. But the way she expressed her criticism was inexcusable, if not illegal.
In 1999, she wrote that “my country is invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims.” This earned Bardot a huge fine.
She then criticized interracial marriages and insulted homosexuals who, in her words, “twerk, put their little fingers in the air and, with their thin castrato voices, complain about what these horrible heterosexuals are doing to them.”
Bardot was in court so often that in 2008 the prosecutor said he was “tired” of charging him.
In the 1960s, Brigitte Bardot was chosen as the official face of Marianne, emblem of French freedom. She herself has become an icon: a beautiful, liberated and modern woman who refuses to conform to outdated stereotypes.
After three failed marriages and several suicide attempts, she left the stage to fight against animal cruelty. To her surprise, the media’s fascination with her continued, even as fame turned to notoriety.
She is survived by her fourth husband, Bernard d’Ormale, former advisor to the late far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen.
And, during a difficult end to an equally troubled life, Bardot’s political views led her to spend her final years in virtual recluse, facing charges of inciting racial hatred in court.
This text was originally published here.
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