Brigitte Bardot () (born 28 September 1934) is a
French actress,
former fashion model,
singer and
animal welfare/rights activist. In 2007 she was named among
Empire's 100 Sexiest Film Stars.
[Empireonline.com Retrieved 19 December 2007.]
In her early life Bardot was an aspiring
ballet dancer. She started her acting career in 1952 and after appearing in 16 films became world-famous due to her role in controversial film
And God Created Woman. During her career in
show business Bardot starred in 48 films, performed in numerous musical shows, recorded 80 songs.
After her retirement from the
entertainment industry in the 1973, Bardot established herself as an
animal rights activist. During the 1990s she became outspoken in her criticism of
immigration,
interracial relationships,
Islam in France and
homosexuality[Jonathan Benthall Animal liberation and rights Anthropology Today Volume 23 Issue 2 Page 1 - April 2007], and has been convicted five times for "
inciting racial hatred".
Biography
Early life
Brigitte Bardot (full name
Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot) was born in
Paris to Anne-Marie 'Toty' Mucel (1912-1978) and Louis 'Pilou' Bardot (1896-1975). Her father had an engineering degree and worked with her grandfather in the family business. Toty was sixteen years younger and they married in 1933. Brigitte's mother enrolled her and her younger sister Marie-Jeanne ('Mijanou', born 5 May 1938) in dance. Mijanou eventually gave up on dancing lessons to complete her education, whereas Brigitte decided to concentrate on a
ballet career. In 1947, Bardot was accepted to
The National Superior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance and for three years attended the ballet classes of
Russian choreographer Boris Knyazev. (One of her classmates was
Leslie Caron). By the invitation of her mother's acquaintance, she modeled in a fashion show in 1949. In the same year she modeled for a fashion magazine "
Jardin des Modes" managed by another friend of her mother, journalist Hélène Lazareff. She appeared on a 8 March 1950 cover of
ELLE.
[The Biography Channel - Brigitte Bardot Biography] and was noticed by a young
film director Roger Vadim. He showed an issue of the magazine to director and
screenwriter Marc Allégret, who offered Bardot the opportunity to audition for "
Les lauriers sont coupés" thereafter. Although Bardot got the role, the shooting of the film was canceled, but it made her consider becoming an actress. Moreover, her acquaintance with Vadim, who attended the audition, influenced her further life and career.
Career
Although the
European film industry was then in its ascendancy, Bardot was one of the few
European actresses to receive mass media attention in the
United States. She and
Marilyn Monroe were perhaps the foremost examples of female sexuality in films of the 1950s and 1960s, and whenever she made public appearances in the United States the media hordes covered her every move.
Brigitte Bardot debuted in a 1952
comedy film Le Trou Normand (English title:
Crazy for Love). In the same year she married Roger Vadim. From 1952 to 1956 she appeared in seventeen films; in 1953 playing a part in
Jean Anouilh's
stageplay "
L'Invitation au château" ("
The Invitation to the Castle"). She received media attention when she attended the
Cannes Film Festival in April 1953.
"She is every man's idea of the girl he'd like to meet in Paris," wrote the film-critic Ivon Addams in 1955.
Her films of the early and mid 1950s were generally lightweight
romantic dramas, some of them historical, in which she was cast as
ingénue or
siren, and often with an element of undress. She played
bit parts in three English-language films, the British comedy
Doctor at Sea (1955),
Helen of Troy (1954), in which she was understudy for the title role but only appears as Helen's handmaid, and
Act of Love (1954) with
Kirk Douglas. Her French-language films were dubbed for international release.
[
god created woman1.JPG|thumb|left|230px|Brigitte Bardot and [[Jean-Louis Trintignant] in
And God Created Woman]] (1956)
Roger Vadim was not content with this light fare. The
New Wave of French and Italian art directors and their stars were riding high internationally, and he felt Bardot was being undersold. Looking for something more like an art film to push her as a serious actress, he showcased her in
And God Created Woman (1956) with
Jean-Louis Trintignant. The film, about an immoral teenager in a respectable small-town setting, was a big international success. It is often (wrongly) described as her first film (it was her seventeenth) and said that it launched her to overnight stardom, but it did help move her towards the cinematic mainstream.
In hindsight, light comedies suited Brigitte Bardot's acting skills best. A fine example is her 'Une Parisienne' from 1957, one of the few of her films of which she has said she feels proud.
In
Hollywood, Bardot was considered too risqué to handle — erotica like Bardot's
Cette sacrée gamine (
That Crazy Kid, 1955) was not typical of the American cinema of the time, and it was considered acceptable at the box office so long as it was clearly labeled "European." The
Doris Day era was in full swing, and
Jane Russell in
The French Line (1953) was thought to have been going too far by showing her
midriff. Furthermore, Bardot's limited English and strong
accent, while beguiling to the ears of men, did not suit rapid-fire Hollywood scripts. In any event, staying in Europe benefited her image when the 1960s began to swing and Hollywood slipped into the background for a while, and Bardot was voted honorary sex-goddess of the decade. In fact, there was a widely popular claim that Brigitte Bardot, as an actress, did more for the French international trade balance than the entire French car industry.
In Bardot's early career professional photographer Sam Levin's photos contributed considerably to her image of sensuality and slight immorality. One of Levin's pictures show Brigitte from behind, dressed in a white corset. It is said that around 1960 postcards with this photograph outsold in Paris those of the Eiffel Tower.
She divorced Vadim in 1957 and in 1959 married actor Jacques Charrier, with whom she starred in
Babette Goes to War in 1959. The paparazzi preyed upon her marriage, while she and her husband clashed over the direction of her career. Her films became more substantial, but this brought a heavy pressure of dual celebrity as she sought critical acclaim while remaining a glamour model for most of the world.
Vie privée (1960), directed by
Louis Malle has more than an element of autobiography in it. The scene in which, returning to her apartment, Bardot's character is harangued in the elevator by a middle-aged cleaning lady calling her offensive names, was based on an actual incident, and is a resonant image of celebrity in the mid-20th century.
Soon afterwards Bardot withdrew to the seclusion of
Southern France.
In 1963, she starred in
Jean-Luc Godard's critically acclaimed film
Contempt.
Brigitte Bardot was featured in many other films along with notable actors such as
Alain Delon (
Famous Love Affairs,
Spirits of the Dead),
Jean Gabin (
In Case of Adversity),
Sean Connery (
Shalako),
Jean Marais (
Royal Affairs in Versailles,
School for Love),
Lino Ventura (
Rum Runners),
Annie Girardot (
The Novices),
Claudia Cardinale (
The Legend of Frenchie King),
Jeanne Moreau (
Viva Maria!),
Jane Birkin (
Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman).
She participated in various musical shows and recorded many popular songs in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly in collaboration with
Serge Gainsbourg, Bob Zagury and
Sacha Distel, including "Harley Davidson", "Je Me Donne A Qui Me Plait", "Bubble gum", "Contact", "Je Reviendrais Toujours Vers Toi", "L'Appareil A Sous", "La Madrague", "On Demenage", "Sidonie", "Tu Veux, Ou Tu Veux Pas?", "Le Soleil De Ma Vie" (the cover of
Stevie Wonder's "
You Are the Sunshine of My Life") and notorious "
Je t'aime... moi non plus".
Personal life
On 21 December 1952, at the age of 18, Bardot married director Roger Vadim. In order to receive permission from Bardot's parents to marry her, Vadim, originally an
Orthodox Christian, was urged to convert to
Catholicism. They divorced five years later, but remained friends and collaborated in later work. Bardot had an affair with her
And God Created Woman co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant (who at that time was married to French actress
Stephane Audran) followed by her divorce from Vadim.
[{(({cite book | author=[[Brigitte Bardot]
[{(({cite book | author=[[Jeffrey Robinson]
The two lived together for about two years. Their relationship was complicated by Trintignant's frequent absence due to
military service and Bardot's affair with musician
Gilbert Bécaud, and was eventually ended.
The 9 February 1958 edition of the
Los Angeles Times reported on the front page that Bardot was recovering in Italy from a reported nervous breakdown. A suicide attempt with sleeping pills two-days earlier was denied by her public relations manager.
.
On 18 June 1959 she married actor
Jacques Charrier, by whom she had her only child, a son, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier (born 11 January 1960). To Bardot this was an undesirable pregnancy which she once compared to having a tumor growing within her. After she and Charrier divorced in 1962, Nicolas was raised in the Charrier family and did not maintain close contact with Bardot until his adulthood.
Bardot's other husbands were
German millionaire playboy
Gunter Sachs (14 July 1966 - 1 October 1969), and Bernard d'Ormale (16 August 1992 - present). She is reputed to have had relationships with many other men including her
La Vérité co-star
Sami Frey, musicians
Serge Gainsbourg and
Sacha Distel. In the late 1950s she shared an exchange she considered
croiser de deux sillages ("the crossing of two wakes") with actor and true crime author
John Gilmore, then an actor in France who was working on a New Wave film with
Jean Seberg. Gilmore told
Paris Match: 'I felt a beautiful warmth with Bardot but found it difficult to discuss things in any depth whatsoever.' In the 1970s, she lived with the sculptor Miroslav Brozek and posed for some of his sculptures.
Activism
In 1973 just before her fortieth birthday, Bardot announced her retirement. After appearing in more than fifty motion pictures and recording several music albums, most notably with
Serge Gainsbourg, she chose to use her fame to promote
animal rights.
In 1986 she established the
Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals. She became a
vegetarian and raised three million French francs to fund the foundation by auctioning off jewelry and many personal belongings. Today she is a strong animal rights activist and a major opponent of the consumption of
horse meat. In support of animal protection, she condemned
seal hunting in Canada during a visit to that country. She sought to discuss the issue with
Stephen Harper,
prime minister of Canada, though her request for a meeting was denied.
[BRIGITTE BARDOT FOUNDATION for the welfare and protection of animals]
She once had a neighbor's donkey castrated while looking after it, on the grounds of its "sexual harassment" of her own donkey and mare, for which she was taken to court by the donkey's owner in 1989
[PHOTOICON ONLINE FEATURES: Andy Martin: Brigitte Bardot][Mr Pop History]. In 1999 Bardot wrote a letter to
Chinese President
Jiang Zemin, published in French magazine VSD, in which she accused the Chinese of "torturing bears and killing the world's last tigers and rhinos to make
aphrodisiacs".
[BBC News Bardot savages Chirac and China]
She has donated more than $140,000 over two years for a mass
sterilization and adoption program for
Bucharest's stray dogs, estimated to number 300,000.
[BBC News Bardot 'saves' Bucharest's dogs] She is planning to house many of these stray animals in a new animal rescue facility that she is having built on her property. The environmentally sound structure will be built out of recycled
Pringles cans and reclaimed asphalt.
Politics, controversy and legal issues
Bardot expressed support for President
Charles de Gaulle in the 1960s.
Her husband Bernard d'Ormal is a former adviser of the far right
"Front National" party.
Bardot has been convicted five times for "
inciting racial hatred".
In 1997 she was fined for her comments published in
Le Figaro newspaper
.
In 1998 she was convicted for making a statement about the growing number of
mosques in France
.
In a book she wrote in 1999, called "Le Carre de Pluton" (Pluto's Square), she criticizes the procedure used in the
ritual slaughter of sheep during the Muslim festival of
Eid al-Adha. For the comments, a French court fined her 30,000 francs in June 2000.
[BBC News Bardot fined for racist remarks] .
In a 2001 article named,
Open Letter to My Lost France, she said: "...my country, France, my homeland, my land is again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims."
In her 2003 book,
A Scream in the Silence, she warned of the “Islamicization of France”, and said of Muslim immigration:
"Over the last twenty years, we have given in to a subterranean, dangerous, and uncontrolled infiltration, which not only resists adjusting to our laws and customs but which will, as the years pass, attempt to impose its own."
In the book, she goes on and talks about her homosexual friends, and said today's homosexuals, "jiggle their bottoms, put their little fingers in the air and with their little castrato voices moan about what those ghastly heteros put them through". She says French politicians are, "weather vanes who turn left or right as the fancy takes them... Not even French prostitutes are what they used to be". She says
modern art has become "shit—literally as well as figuratively."
[Brigitte Bardot unleashes colourful diatribe against Muslims and modern France : Indybay]
In her defense, Bardot wrote a letter to a French
gay magazine, saying, "Apart from my husband—who maybe will cross over one day as well—I am entirely surrounded by homos. For years, they have been my support, my friends, my adopted children, my confidants."
In May 2003 the
Movement Against Racism and for Friendship between Peoples announced they were going to sue Bardot. The "
Ligue des Droits de l'Homme" (
The Human Rights League) announced they were considering similar legal proceedings.
On 10 June 2004 Bardot was convicted by a French court of "inciting racial hatred" and fined 5,000 €, the fourth such conviction/fine she has received from French courts. The courts cited passages where Bardot referred to the "
Islamisation of France" and the "underground and dangerous infiltration of Islam"
. Bardot's book also attacked "the mixing of genes" and compared her beliefs with previous generations who had "given their lives to push out invaders".
Bardot denied the "racial hatred" charge and apologized in court, saying: "I never knowingly wanted to hurt anybody. It is not in my character.
She excused her opposition to
interracial marriage stating that she was born in 1934 and such marriage was looked down on then.
In 2008, she was convicted of inciting racial/religious hatred in relation to a letter she wrote, a copy of which she sent to
Nicolas Sarkozy when he was
Interior Minister of France. The letter stated her objections to
Muslims in France
ritually slaughtering sheep by slitting their throats without stunning them first. She also objected to France's rapidly growing Muslim community "trying to take over France and impose their culture, values, lifestyles" etc. on France and its native people. The trial
[Brigitte Bardot: Heroine of Free Speech] concluded on 3 June 2008, with a conviction and fine of fifteen thousand Euros, the largest of her fines to date. The prosecutor stated that she was tired of charging Bardot with offences related to racial hatred.
Bardot's influence
[
buzios.jpg|thumb|Statue of Brigitte Bardot in [[Armação dos Búzios|Buzios, Brazil].]]
Bardot is recognised for popularizing
bikini swimwear in early films such as
Manina (
Woman without a Veil, 1952), in her appearances at
Cannes and in many photo shoots.
Bardot also brought into fashion the
choucroute ("Sauerkraut") hairstyle (a sort of
beehive hair style) and
gingham clothes after wearing a checkered pink dress, designed by Jacques Esterel, at her wedding to Charrier.
[Style Icon : Brigitte Bardot][Sixties Central]
The fashions of the 1960s looked effortlessly right and spontaneous on her and she joined
Marilyn Monroe and
Jackie Kennedy in becoming a subject for
Andy Warhol paintings.
In addition to popularizing the bikini swimming suit, Bardot has also been credited with popularizing the city of
St. Tropez and the town of
Buzios, Brazil, which she visited in 1964 with her boyfriend at the time, Brazilian musician
Bob Zagury.
[BuziosOnline., Character and stories. Retrieved 19 December 2007.] A statue by Christina Motta
[BuziosOnline.com] honours Brigitte Bardot in
Buzios, Brazil.
Bardot was idolized by young
John Lennon and
Paul McCartney[{(({cite book | author=[[Barry Miles]
p69[{(({cite book | author=[[Bob Spitz]
p171. They made plans to shoot a film featuring
The Beatles and Bardot, similar to
A Hard Day's Night, but the plans were never fulfilled.
Lennon's first wife
Cynthia Powell lightened her hair color to more closely resemble Bardot, while
George Harrison made comparisons between Bardot and his first wife
Pattie Boyd, as Cynthia wrote later in
A Twist of Lennon. Lennon and Bardot met in person once, in 1968 at the Mayfair Hotel, introduced by Beatles press agent
Derek Taylor; a nervous Lennon took
LSD before arriving, and neither star impressed the other. (Lennon recalled in a memoir, "I was on acid, and she was on her way out.")
[{(({cite book | author=[[John Lennon]
p24
According to the liner notes of his first (self-titled) album, musician
Bob Dylan dedicated the first song he ever wrote to Bardot. He also mentioned her by name in "I Shall Be Free", which appeared on his second album,
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.
She dabbled in
pop music and played the role of a
glamour model. In 1965 she appeared as herself in the
Hollywood production
Dear Brigitte (1965) starring
James Stewart.
In 1970 the sculptor
Alain Gourdon used Bardot as the model for a bust of
Marianne, the French national emblem.
Mentions of Bardot in music
The first song to reference Brigitte Bardot was "Gimme' that Wine" by
vocalese group
Lambert, Hendricks and Ross on the Columbia label in 1960.
Indie singer
Jordan Galland also has a song called "Brigitte Bardot". In 1966, Harry Belafonte recorded "Zombie Jamboree" which has an entire verse dedicated to Brigitte Bargot.
Bardot has also been referenced in many other songs, including "
I Shall Be Free" (
Bob Dylan), "
We Didn't Start the Fire" (
Billy Joel), "Message of Love" (
The Pretenders), "I Think I'm Going To Kill Myself" (
Elton John), "Warlocks" (
Red Hot Chili Peppers), "You Went The Wrong Way, Old King Louie" (
Allan Sherman), "You're My Favourite Star" (
The Bellamy Brothers), "It's Not Enough" (
The Who), "Contempt" (
Silkworm), "Big Wedge" (
Fish),"Brigitte Bardot" (
Tom Zé), "Alegria, Alegria" (
Caetano Veloso), "Loaded" (
ZZ Top), "Brigitte Bardot" (
Creature), "Bardot" (
Marden Hill), "Shir Nevu'i Cosmi Aliz" (
Yoni Rechter &
Eli Mohar), "Smiles Like Richard Nixon" (The Bad Examples), "Bijou" (
Stew), "Stratford-On-Guy" (
Liz Phair), and "Brigitte Bardot T.N.T." (
Pizzicato Five).
Ambiguity over name
Several sources reference Bardot as being christened Camille Javal. Camille Javal was the part played by Bardot in the 1963 film
Le Mépris (English title
Contempt).
Quotations
About Bardot
- "She is the princess of pout, the countess of come hither. Brigitte Bardot exuded a carefree, naïve sexuality that brought a whole new audience to French films." Time magazine.
- "I’ve always preferred mythology to history. History is composed of truths that become lies, mythology of lies that become truths. One characteristic of our age is that it creates instant myths in every field. The press is responsible for inventing people who already exist and endowing them with an imaginary life, superimposed on their own. Brigitte Bardot is a perfect example of this odd concoction. It is likely that fate set her down at the precise point where dream and morality merge. Her beauty and talent are undeniable, but she possesses some other, unknown quality which attracts idolaters in an age deprived of gods." – Jean Cocteau
[Jean Cocteau, in Stop, October 1962.]
Filmography
col-begin
col-2
1950s
- Crazy for Love {1952} — Javotte Lemoine
- Manina, the Girl in the Bikini (1952) — Manina
- The Long Teeth (1952) — Bridesmaid (uncredited)
- His Father's Portrait (1953) — Domino
- Act of Love (1953) — Mimi
- Royal Affairs in Versailles (1954) — Mademoiselle de Rozille (uncredited)
- The Light Across the Street (1955) — Olivia Marceau
- School for Love (aka Joy of Loving)(1955) — Sophie
- Caroline and the Rebels (1955) — Pilar d'Aranda
- Doctor at Sea (1955) — Hélène Colbert
- The Grand Maneuver (1955) — Lucie
- Helen of Troy (1956) — Andraste
- Naughty Girl (Mademoiselle Pigalle) (1955) — Brigitte Latour
- Nero's Mistress (1956) — Poppée
- Mademoiselle Striptease (Plucking the Daisy) (1956) — Agnès Dumont
- And God Created Woman (1956) — Juliette Hardy
- Her Bridal Night (aka The Bride is Too Beautiful) (1956) — Chouchou
- Une Parisienne (1957) — Brigitte Laurier
- "Sait-on jamais?" (1957)
- The Night Heaven Fell (1958) — Ursula
- Love Is My Profession (aka In Case of Adversity, UK: literal English title) (1958) — Yvette Maudet
- The Woman and the Puppet (1959) (aka A Woman Like Satan) — Éva Marchand
- Babette Goes to War (1959) — Babette
- Do You Want to Dance with Me? (1959) — Virginie Dandieu
col-2
1960s
- The Testament of Orpheus (1960)
- It Happened All Night (1960) — Cameo
- The Truth (1960) — Dominique Marceau
- Please, Not Now! (aka Only for Love)(1961) — Sophie
- Famous Love Affairs (1961) — Agnès Bernauer
- A Very Private Affair (1962) — Jill
- Lykke og krone (1962) (documentary)
- Love on a Pillow (1962) — Geneviève Le Theil
- Contempt (1963) — Camille Javal
- Paparazzi (1964) (short subject) — Cameo
- Bardot and Godard (1964) (short subject)
- Agent 38-24-36 (1964) — Penelope Lightfeather
- Too Many Thieves
- Forbidden Temptations (1965) (documentary) — cameo
- Marie Soleil (1965) — cameo
- Dear Brigitte (1965) — cameo
- Viva Maria! (1965) — Maria I
- Masculine, Feminine (1966)
- Two Weeks in September (1967) — Cecile
- Spirits of the Dead (aka Tales of Mystery and Imagination (UK)) (1968) — Giuseppina
- Shalako (1968) — Irina Lazaar
- The Bear and the Doll (1969) — Félicia
- The Women (1969) — Clara
- The Vixen (1969)
1970s
- The Novices (1970) — Agnès
- Rum Runners (1971) — Linda Larue
- The Legend of Frenchie King (aka Petroleum Girls ) (1971) — Louise
- Film Portrait (1972) (documentary)
- Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman (1973) — Jeanne
- The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot (1973) — Arabelle
col-end
Discography
Bardot released several albums during the 1950s and 1960s
[www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:a9ftxqe5ldfe~T2]
- And God Created Women (1957, Decca)
- Behind Brigitte Bardot (1960, Warner Bros)
- Brigitte Bardot Sings (1963, Philips)
- B.B. (1964, Philips)
- Brigitte Bardot Show 67 (1967, Mercury)
- Brigitte Bardot Show (1968, Mercury)
- Cameo Brings You Special Bardot (1968. RCA)
- Single Duet with Serge Gainsbourg "Bonnie and Clyde"
