Brigitte Bardot personified the quintessential sex kitten and became the earliest non-English-speaking performer to reach global renown rivaling that of the biggest domestic American talents. Although most of her films never approached the artistic heights of France’s celebrated New Wave movement, they opened the door for foreign cinema in English-language markets; beyond the well-earned praise accorded her more accomplished contemporaries, Bardot’s smoldering appeal arguably did more than any other element to propel world cinema into widespread popularity. Born on September 28, 1934, in Paris to a prosperous industrialist, she trained in ballet until a modeling offer arrived; by 1950 her photograph already appeared on the cover of Elle. Director Marc Allegret, who had previously discovered Simone Simon, noticed her there. His assistant Roger Vadim soon approached Bardot about appearing in Les Lauriers Sont Coupes. Although Allegret passed on casting the young model, Vadim found himself captivated by her pouty sensuality and married her in 1952. That year Bardot made her screen bow in Jean Boyer’s comedy Le Trou Normand. A succession of minor parts followed until she joined Warner Bros.’ 1955 production of Jean of Arc. Impressed enough to propose a seven-year contract, the studio watched her decline the lead opposite Jean Marais and Isabelle Pia in Futures Vedettes.
After journeying to Britain for 1955’s Doctor at Sea, Bardot returned to France and took her first starring part in 1956’s La Lumiere d’en Face. Producer Christine Gouze-Renal became her mentor and guided her career for several years thereafter. Still largely unknown to international audiences, Bardot quickly scored successes with Cette Sacree Gamine, Mi Figlio Nerone, and En Effeuillant la Marguerite, establishing herself as France’s foremost sex symbol by 1957. With her fame mounting, producer Raoul J. Levy invited Vadim to direct his wife in the erotic melodrama Et Dieu Crea la Femme, co-starring Jean-Louis Trintignant. The picture transformed Bardot into an international sensation, grossing more than four million dollars in the United States alone. Amid rumors of an affair with Trintignant, her marriage to Vadim faltered, yet their professional paths stayed linked for years. Bardot’s popularity among American viewers remained unmatched for a foreign actress. After Levy negotiated a reported $225,000 three-picture agreement with Columbia, she starred in the sex comedy Une Parisienne and then in Vadim’s Les Bijoutiers du Clair de Lune. Plans for an English-language debut titled Paris by Night, again under Vadim and featuring Frank Sinatra, ultimately collapsed. Instead she appeared opposite Jacques Charrier in 1960’s Babette s’en va-t-en Guerre; Charrier briefly became her second husband. During Henri-Georges Clouzot’s La Verite later that year, Bardot attempted suicide on her twenty-sixth birthday. Once filming resumed, the finished picture became France’s highest-grossing release of the year, yet it also ended her Columbia contract; with her appeal waning in the United States and Britain, no further studio deals materialized immediately.
In 1960 Bardot issued the pop album Behind Brigitte Bardot. Additional LPs followed, among them 1963’s Brigitte Bardot Sings and 1968’s Special Bardot, and she notched several hit singles alongside the celebrated singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg. After dismissing the original director of the 1961 comedy La Bride Sur le Cou, Vadim stepped in to finish the project. She next delivered a largely autobiographical performance as a celebrity overwhelmed by fame in Louis Malle’s La Vie Privée, opposite Marcello Mastroianni. Intended as her farewell, the film gave way to persuasion that brought her back for Jean-Luc Godard’s Le Mépris. Though later hailed as a masterpiece, the picture met mixed reviews at the time and required substantial cuts for foreign distribution, resulting in commercial failure and the loss of her title as Europe’s most popular actress to Sophia Loren.
Following her first American feature, the 1964 family comedy Dear Brigitte, Bardot joined Jeanne Moreau in Louis Malle’s Viva Maria!. When that film fell short of worldwide box-office hopes, most of her later pictures stayed confined to France. Even at home her luster faded, and she enjoyed no certified success until 1970’s L’Ours et la Poupee. After the Vadim-directed Don Juan 1973 ou Si Don Juan Etait une Femme and 1974’s L’Histoire Tres Bonne et Tres Joyeuse de Colinot Trousse Chemise also disappointed, Bardot declared another retirement. Apart from scattered television appearances, she honored the vow and consistently turned down every offer to return. In subsequent decades she lived largely as a recluse yet continued to attract attention through her passionate advocacy for animal rights.
