Brigitte Bardot still causing a stir

By Pierre Albert Lambert

PARIS (AFI): In April 1950, the cover of the women's magazine Elle showed a picture of an unknown 16 year-old, with a sulky pout and a combination of innocence and sensuality. It was Brigitte Bardot.

This child, who came from the rich districts of Paris, attempted to escape the stifling atmosphere of her family.

"I wanted to erase the middle class stain," she was to say.

She was soon considered as the "princess of cover-girls", which was not at all appreciated by her parents. Nor were the two saucy little roles that she had already played in the cinema.

In Saint-Germain-des-Pres in Paris, a dandy script-writer aged 25, Roger Vadim, was devoured by the need to succeed. This child of a white Russian immigrant brimmed over with boldness. He met Brigitte, quickly married her and created the character of BB.

"Next to her", a journalist was to write, "the sex queens, Marilyn and Jayne Mansfield, seemed hardly any more dangerous than suburban housewives, made up for a church fete".

In 1956, Vadim's film, Et Dieu crea la femme (And God Created Woman), in which he displayed the charms of his young wife throughout scenes which were daring for the time, created a scandal. This was especially true in the United States where it exploded like a bomb and the shock waves spread all over the world. From then on, films with BB (that impossible dream of married men) would fill cinemas and prefigure the period of free love.

With her superb legs and the graceful poses of a young feline, BB was proud of her body and like showing it off.

"She has the talent to appear naked even when she is dressed and she always gives the impression of emerging from an unmade bed", a British photographer fantasized, subjugated by her "turtle-dove-like laughter and her desires of a young ruffian."

Bardot-mania was under way. All over the world, people did their hair and dressed like Bardot. In France, where her films brought in more foreign currency than Renault cars, BB became a national institution and the most famous person after De Gaulle. Jet aircraft wrote her initials in the sky. The officials bust of Marianne, which is the symbol of the republic, had the star's features. She throned in townhalls with her seductive plunging neckline.

For the Austrians, she was the "Venus of today". The British considered the Bardot phenomenon as "the greatest European shock since 1789". According to a Hollywood critic, "this impressive concentrate of sex-appeal kindles fires such as have never been seen since the Statue of Liberty".

Riots broke out when she visited America, Germany, Brazil, and Colombia. Her photos, which were described as being "obscene", were seized by the Soviets customs. The Vatican raged against the woman through whom scandal arrived. The Mormon church declared her "damned for eternity".

BB aroused as much hatred as passion. Furies spat in her face. One of them attacked her, one day, armed with scissors. A Committee for the Debardotisation of the French Cinema was invented. Bardologist analyzed and dissected the Bardot effect and the reactions of Bardotphiles and Bardotphobics.

But the real BB did not have the temperament of a star. She did not manage to cope with this invading fame, the harassment of the crowds and the paparazzi who spied on her day and night over the walls of her villa in Saint-Tropez. Those close to her insisted that she was the opposite of the naive, depraved girl of her films. The real Brigitte was a generous, spontaneous, romantic girl.

She was temperamental and quickly switched from laughters to tears, and easily become depressed. She attempted to commit suicide twice. According to Vadim, she suffered from the "happiness disease", having an overwhelming need to be happy right away and all the time. Loneliness filled her with anxiety.

"When I am drowning" she admits, "I cling to the first beam which passes by".

The result is a sorry sentimental balance-sheet, with three husbands, an impressive collection of love affairs and just as many disappointments. She was deeply hurt by the so-called "appetite BB for males".

"People were made to think that I needed all of them", she confessed bitterly, "when I only wanted one".

The fragile young woman was also able to show exemplary courage. In 1962, she sent the "tax-collectors" of the OAS (the clandestine army which killed and ransomed to keep Algeria) packing. She quite simply risked her life when she registered a complain for extortion of funds and publicly denounced the "Nazi methods of organization".

Bardot acted in about fifty films before breaking with the cinema in 1967, at the age of 33. Only of two of these productions are worthy of interest to cinema-lovers : La Verite by Clouzot and Le Mepris by Godard. These two works reveal that when BB was well directed, she could show real talent as an actress.

From then on, she developed a disgust and a persistant resentment for the cinema and its circles. She became a misanthropist and hated the world in general. She deplored "widespread pornography" and was indignant at the "herds of nudists" exposing themselves on the beaches. Sexual licentiousness was nothing like what she imagined.

"I offered the example of a free, healthy, natural sexuality", she said.

So BB took refuge with abandoned or persecuted animals whose province she became. Her Brigade for the Defense of the Animals succeeded in having a law passed which imposed the use of an electric pistol to shorten the sufferings of animals in slaughterhouses. She bravely faced insults from pigeon-shooters. Her crusade in favor of baby seals took her to the ice-floes. She was seen setting fire to a pile of furs on a Paris pavement.

Today, at the age of 60, BB continues to fascinate magazine readers. Her biographer, Christine Rihoit explains," Between her and them, a story has been woven which, through her frustrated love affairs, spiced with resentment or frustration, perpetually gives a new boost to desire".

-- Pierre Albert Lambert/ K.B.P.