Filmmaker Danièle Thompson, Oscar-nominated for Cousin, Cousine, wrote to Brigitte Bardot asking for permission to make a series about her beginnings in cinema. She did not want her participation in the creative process but she did want to be respectful of the figure she was going to x-ray.
Bardot seemed exhausted by the interest: she wondered why they didn’t just leave her alone, considering that she retired from acting in 1973 and that her main occupation is animal activism. But, aware that someone was going to write her biopic, she expressed that she preferred it to be a veteran like Thompson and her son Christopher who told the story of her life.
This is how Bardot arose, which cleverly narrates the sexual icon and which premieres on Thursday, May 30 on SundanceTV (10:30 p.m.): the creative and family tandem fits the biography into the view that French cinema has of love relationships, sexuality and infidelity.
The first scene shows Bardot in a bar, dancing to the music with the confidence of someone who knows she has the attention of everyone present. The spectator at that moment does not know it but he is witnessing the birth of a star. Then the story goes back to the age of 15 when, after taking some photographs for a magazine, she was given the opportunity to dedicate herself to acting.
She is not particularly interested but understands that she should take advantage of the admiration that her physique arouses. She also sees this career as a potential way to emancipate herself from her parents’ traditional education. This is how the first men in her life appear: Roger Vadim, her first husband who directed her in And God Created Woman, and Jean-Louis Trintignant, her co-star in the film.
Nunez’s Julia channels Bardot’s approachable but unapproachable appeal that goes beyond her hair and eye makeup. The scriptwriters stand out for their portrait of Bardot. She is carefree and takes the profession as a useful entertainment, an easy way to earn a living. She falls in love quickly, embracing every connection with men with intensity.
And, when it comes to his body and sex, he assumes from a young age that he has the right to exploit it and that this does not mean that it becomes public domain. “I wanted to tell him to stop treating women like pieces of meat and like whores. Furthermore, you also have to respect whores,” says the character in a scene before whom he considers her a souvenir.
This also makes her an uncomfortable star both in a conservative past and for a present feminism. For example, she described the actresses of the
But the Thompsons’ thesis is clear. They defend her as a woman who developed with her sexuality and charisma without ever following a rhythm that was not her own.