(pronounce
"Bardoe") (French pronunciation: [bʁiʒit baʁdo]; born 28 September
1934) is a French former actress, animal rights activist, fashion model, and singer.
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 the controversial film And God Created Woman.
During her career in show business Bardot starred in 48 films,
performed in numerous musical shows, and recorded 80 songs. After her
retirement from the entertainment industry in 1973, Bardot established
herself as an animal rights activist. During the 1990s she became
outspoken due to her criticism of immigration, race-mixing, some aspects
of homosexuality and Islam in France, and has been fined five times for
"inciting racial hatred,".
Brigitte Bardot Early life,
Brigitte
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-Jean ('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
and was noticed by a young film director, Roger Vadim, while
babysitting for a friend. He was so taken with the picture that 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 cancelled but it made her consider becoming an
actress. Moreover, her acquaintance with Vadim, who attended the
audition, influenced her further life and career,.
.
Brigitte Bardot Career,
Although
the European film industry was then in its ascendancy, Bardot was one
of the few European actresses to have the mass media's attention in the
United States. She and Marilyn Monroe were perhaps the foremost examples
of the female sexuality in films of the 1950s and 1960s.
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, often in varying states 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.
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.
There
was a widely popular claim that Bardot 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. One of Levin's
pictures show Brigitte from behind, dressed in a white corset.
British
photographer Cornel Lucas made iconic images of Bardot in the 1950s and
1960s that have become representative of her public persona.
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 her
life story 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 where
she had bought the house La Madrague in Saint-Tropez in May 1958.
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 the notorious "Je
t'aime... moi non plus". Bardot pleaded with Gainsbourg not to release
this duet and he complied with her wishes; the following year he
re-recorded a version with British-born model and actress Jane Birkin,
which became a massive hit all over Europe,.
Brigitte Bardot Personal life,
On
21 December 1952, at the age of 18, Bardot was married to 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 co-star in
And God Created Woman, Jean-Louis Trintignant (married at the time to
French actress Stephane Audran), followed by her divorce from Vadim. 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 they eventually
separated.
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).
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 la
croisée 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.
In 1974 Bardot appeared in a nude photo shoot in the Italian edition of Playboy magazine, which celebrated her 40th birthday,.
Brigitte Bardot 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.[9] 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 with Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society. She sought to discuss the issue with Stephen
Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, though her request for a meeting was
denied.[broken citation]
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. 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".
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. She is planning to house many of these stray animals in a new
animal rescue facility that she is having built on her property,.
Brigitte Bardot in Politics, controversy and legal issues,
Brigitte Bardot (2002)
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.
In 1997 she was fined for her comments published in the 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 Carré 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.
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 an “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 made comparisons of her close gay friends to today's
homosexuals who, "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." In her recently book, 'Un cri
dans le silence', Bardot also wrote that some contemporary homosexuals
behaved like "fairground freaks".
In
her defence, Bardot wrote in 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 for the comments.[citation
needed] The "Ligue des droits de l'homme" (Human Rights League)
announced they were considering similar legal proceedings.
On
10 June 2004 Bardot was convicted by a French court for "inciting
racial hatred" and fined €5,000, the fourth such conviction/fine the
French courts gave her. The courts remarked passages where Bardot
referred to the "Islamisation of France" and the "underground and
dangerous infiltration of Islam".Bardot's book was also against "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."
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 concluded on 3 June 2008, with a conviction and fine of 15,000
Euros, the largest of her fines to date. The prosecutor stated that she
was tired of charging Bardot with offences related to racial hatred,.
Brigitte Bardot Influence,
Statue of Brigitte Bardot in Buzios, Brazil
In
fashion the Bardot neckline (a wide open neck that exposes both
shoulders) is named after her. Bardot popularized this style which is
especially used for knitted sweaters or jumpers although it is also used
for other tops and dresses.
Bardot
is recognized 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.She was the subject for an Andy Warhol painting.
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.[30] A statue by Christina Motta
honours Brigitte Bardot in Buzios, Brazil.
Brigitte Bardot wore a bikini at Cannes Film Festival in 1953, starting the trend of bikini-clad stars for the festival
Bardot
was idolized by young John Lennon and Paul McCartney 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.")
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.
In 2007 she was named among Empire magazine's 100 Sexiest Film Stars.
The
first-ever official exhibition looking at Bardot's influence and legacy
opened in Paris on 29 September 2009 - a day after her 75th birthday.
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 Bardot.
The
most famous song about Brigitte Bardot in her home country, however,
remains "Initials B.B.", a song in french by Serge Gainsbourg, in which
the singer describes poetically the sudden vision he has of the movie
star while lost in an English pub. This song's main theme was inspired
by Dvorak's "New world Symphony". It is still widely broadcast on French
radios today.
Bardot
has also been referenced in many other songs, including "I Shall Be
Free" (Bob Dylan), "Mouth-to-Mouth Resuscitation" (John Hartford), We
Didn't Start the Fire" (Billy Joel), "Message of Love" (The Pretenders),
"Dodo" (David Bowie), "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), "Moscow
Discow" (Telex), "Shir Nevu'i Cosmi Aliz" (Yoni Rechter & Eli
Mohar), "Smiles Like Richard Nixon" (The Bad Examples), "The Naughty
Little Flea" (Miriam Makeba), "Bijou" (Stew), "Stratford-On-Guy" (Liz
Phair), "Barbarella" (Paul Baribeau), "Brigitte Bardot T.N.T."
(Pizzicato Five), "Zombie Jamboree" (Harry Belafonte), "Porta Portese"
(Claudio Baglioni), "Aclimatándonos" (La Tabaré Riverock Banda) as well
as "Force ou Faiblesse" by French rapper Disiz la Peste, "Se og hør"
(Raga Rorckers). Also, she is mentioned in Damien Dempsey's 2007 single
"Your Pretty Smile", Robin Thicke's 2009 single "Meiplé (Me I Play)"
featuring Jay-Z, "Just Like Brigitte Bardot", Joshua Kadison, and "The
Actor" by Robbie Williams,.
Brigitte Bardot Filmography,
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 (aka Madmoiselle Pigalle) (1956)—Brigitte Latour
Nero's Mistress (1956)—Poppée
Mademoiselle Striptease (aka 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
The Night Heaven Fell (1958)—Ursula
En cas de malheur (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
Come Dance with Me (1959)—Virginie Dandieu,
Brigitte Bardot 1960s,
The Testament of Orpheus (1960)
It Happened All Night-L'affaire D'une Nuit (1960)—Cameo
The Truth-La Verite (1960)—Dominique Marceau
Please, Not Now!-La Bride Sur Le Cou (aka Only for Love) (1961)—Sophie
Famous Love Affairs-Amours Celebres (1961)—Agnès Bernauer
A Very Private Affair-Vie Privee (1962)—Jill
Lykke og krone (1962) (documentary)
Love on a Pillow-Le Repos Du Guerrier (1962)—Geneviève Le Theil
Contempt-Le mépris (1963)—Camille Javal
Le Parti Des Choses (1964) (documentary)
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-A Coeur Joie (1967)—Cecile
Spirits of the Dead (aka Tales of Mystery and Imagination (UK)) (1968)—Giuseppina
Shalako (1968)—Irina Lazaar
The Bear and the Doll-L'ours Et La Poupee (1969)—Félicia
The Women (1969)—Clara
The Vixen-Les Femmes (1969),
Brigitte Bardot 1970s,
The Novices (1970)—Agnès
Rum Runners (1971)—Linda Larue
The Legend of Frenchie King (aka Petroleum Girls/Les Pétroleuses) (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,
Brigitte Bardot Discography,
Bardot released several albums during the 1950s and 1960s
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)
[Burlington Cameo Brings You] Special Bardot (1968. RCA)
Single Duet with Serge Gainsbourg "Bonnie and Clyde"
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