Perhaps this piece should have been titled, And Now for Something Completely Different, à la the 1971 Monty Python film. Then again, perhaps not as it is not a send-up, but after a year of SMACs where Trump has been the target of SMAC’s disgruntlement, it was definitely time for something completely different. So, instead of the normal vitriol, this is a tribute piece to an icon, or is it an iconoclast as she was a rebel and a breaker of moral codes. We are talking about the passing of Bridgitte Bardot, aged 91.
To appreciate the effect she had on the world, one must remember that she was coming of age in the early 1950s. Europe had been shattered by two World Wars within a generation and was ripe for social revolutions. One of those was the sexual revolution which was to really gain traction in the 60s. French films and Bardot were in the vanguard. Although acting since 1952, the film that made her an international sensation was And God Created Women in 1956. It earned her the nickname ‘sex kitten’.
She did not have the high cheek-boned beauty of a Sophia Loren or the voluptuousness of the later sex goddess, Rachel Welch or Marilyn Munroe’s overt sexuality. Yes, she was a bottle blonde, but her tousled bouffant and wide-eyed innocent look hinted at a playful and cheeky naughtiness, ideal attributes for a mistress. Her naturally luxurious lips also added to her desirability. Because she was not part of American culture which largely dominated the world, we are unaware of her extensive oeuvre that consisted of 47 films, several musicals and 60 songs before her early retirement in 1973.
Although the world was enamoured with her, it was her home country that she particularly affected. In 1967 she was invited to meet the French president, Charles de Gaulle at the Elysée Palace, where women were banned from wearing trousers as evening wear. In an audacious breach of protocol, Bardot turned up dressed as a Napoleonic hussar (no, not hussy) with her blonde locks tumbling over her epaulettes. De Gaulle, then in his late seventies, was transfixed, solemnly declaring her to be a ‘French export as important as Renault cars’. (I would not have described her as such as I personally knew those cars to be unconventionally engineered – typically French. Then again, maybe it was apt.) In 1969, Bardot became the first real-life model for Marianne, the fictitious emblem of the French Republic, personifying liberty, equality, fraternity and reason – a bust of whom is displayed in every town hall.
Personally, she was always her own woman and her life mirrored her cinematic personality. She was married four times and had 17 romantic relationships; she explained, “I have always looked for passion. That’s why I was often unfaithful. And when the passion was coming to an end, I was packing my suitcase.”
She became an animal rights activist from the 70s, but unfortunately, Bardot didn’t age well like a fine Bordeaux, that other classic French product. In the latter part of her life, she became Islamophobic and a supporter of Le Pen’s far-right political party.
Nevertheless, the current French president, Emmanuel Macron, led the tributes; “Her films, her voice, her dazzling fame, her initials, her sorrows, her generous passion for animals, her face that became Marianne – Brigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom. … A French existence, a universal radiance. She moved us. We mourn a legend of the century.”