Film icon Brigitte Bardot, who passed away at the age of 91, shunned life in the spotlight as a libertine and sex symbol for a life in far-right French politics and as an activist for animal rights.
She was the ultimate sex symbol whose iconic style helped define post-war cinema and intoxicated a generation.
But French film icon Brigitte Bardot, who has died aged 91, was as known for the 1950s sexual revolution as she was for her later life of political controversy and animal rights activism. Known as BB, the trailblazer starred in nearly 50 films before retreating from the world stage into charity work and far-right politics.
She became known as a symbol of sexual liberation after starring in the 1956 hit production And God Created Woman. The film was directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim, who promised the young dancer would become “the unattainable fantasy of all married men”.
The prophecy was sealed in a scene in which Bardot danced a mambo in a flowing skirt slit to the waist, also incurring the wrath of film censors. Bardot was frustrated with her desire to pursue a serious acting career, even though she was ruthlessly promoted as a hedonistic sex symbol.
Bardot struggled with objectification, despite not reveling in her libertine role. On her 26th birthday in 1960 she attempted suicide and at the height of her fame in 1973, she retired from acting, aged 39, to champion animal rights.
In 1978, she stated, “I knew my career was entirely dependent on my physique. “So I made the decision to leave cinema, first, as I have always done with men.” She also famously said: “I gave my youth and beauty to men, I give my wisdom and experience to animals. ” “
To safeguard both domestic and wild animals, Bardot founded her own animal rights organization, the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, in 1986. The actress later became vegetarian and in 2013 threatened to apply for Russian citizenship in protest against plans to kill two sick elephants in a French zoo.
In 2001, Bardot signed a deal with the mayor of Bucharest to save 100,000 stray dogs from death. According to its website, Bardot’s foundation now has “more than 70,000 donors worldwide, nearly 300 employees and more than 500 volunteer investigators and delegates”.
Yesterday, in a statement announcing her death, the foundation described Bardot as “a world-renowned actress and singer, who chose to abandon her prestigious career to dedicate her life and energy to animal welfare and her foundation”. According to local media, Bordot had been admitted to a hospital in Toulon, but her foundation did not provide specifics about her death.
French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the star, known for her tousled blonde hair and bold eyeliner, and described her as “a legend of the century”. Brigitte Bardot lived a life of freedom, according to Mr. Macron’s tweets: “Her films, her voice, her dazzling glory, her initials, her sorrows, her generous passion for animals, her face that became Marianne. a French lifestyle with a worldwide impact. She touched us. A century-old legend is in mourning. ” “
Elsewhere, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) said Bardot was known as “a symbol of sexual liberation in film” and added that the film star had received a nomination for Viva Maria in 1967.
Bardot and Marie-Jeanne were born in Paris in 1934, and they were raised nearby the Eiffel Tower in a posh apartment. She soon began her ballet studies at the National Superior Conservatory of Paris, where her mother had already taught her at the age of seven.
Aged 15, a family friend encouraged Bardot to pose for the cover of Elle magazine where photographers said she embodied the new “jeune fille” – young girl – style. Director Marc Allegret’s interest in the images was also piqued by them. Bardot was located by his assistant, her future husband Vadim.
Screen tests for acting were initially unsuccessful, but the pair began an affair. She attempted suicide after Bardot’s parents learned the truth, but she was shot and killed.
When she turned 18 in 1952, she eventually was able to marry Vadim, who was six years her senior. During their five-year marriage, he helped her find roles in various small films before the pair teamed up for Vadim’s debut And God Created Woman.
She later appeared in the 1959 film Voulez-vous danser avec moi. Along with Sami Frey in the 1960 film The Truth, which was directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jean-Luc Godard, a well-known director of French New Wave cinema, who also directed her in Contempt in 1963 and Masculin Feminin in 1966.
Bardot cultivated a reputation as a “sex kitten” and enchanted the world during her acting career. A teenager John Lennon had a life-size image of the actress plastered on his ceiling. And Bob Dylan wrote his first-ever piece of music in her honour, Song for Brigitte.
However, the church was outraged by her sexual revolution, so the Vatican organized an exhibition showcasing her in the name of Evil in 1958. In 1957, Bardot and actor Jacques Charrier started dating after they wed Vadim.
By the time they married in 1959, she was already heavily pregnant with her first and only child. On January 11, 1960, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier was born. Later, Bertot would say, “I wasn’t made to be a mother.” ” “
Bardot and Charrier were unionized in 1962, but they divorced. In 1966, she wed German millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs. But that relationship was similarly short-lived and by 1969, they had divorced.
Bardot did not wed again until 1992, when she wed businessman Bernard d’Ormale, who had advised the far-right Front National.
Bardot sold off her personal items and jewelry to raise money for her foundation during her second career as an activist for animal rights. During her crusade she highlighted the slaughter of baby seals and condemned the use of animals in laboratory experiments.
She stated in an interview with The Associated Press about her 73rd birthday in 2007 that “man is an insatiable predator.” I’m not interested in my past swag. That means nothing in the face of an animal that suffers, since it has no power, no words to defend itself. ” “
Bardot recalled her transformative visit to Canada in the 1980s when she witnessed its annual seal cub culls in a 2011 letter to the WWF conservation organization. “I will never forget these pictures, the screams of pain, they still torture me but they have given me the strength to sacrifice my whole life to defend that of the animals,” she said.
The Société Protectrice des Animaux (SPA), France’s oldest animal protection organization, paid tribute to an “iconic and passionate figure for the animal cause” in response to her death.
She has dedicated her life to defending those who have no voice since the 1970s, according to La SPA, and later through her foundation, which was founded in the 1980s. “Her unwavering commitment has helped raise awareness and achieve major advances for animal protection. ” “
The organization claimed Bardot participated in numerous awareness-raising campaigns, including one that he carried out in 1973 when he built a former SPA shelter in Gennevilliers. “Thank you, BB, for everything you have accomplished,” it said.
After quitting the movie, she moved to Saint-Tropez, a hermitage on the French Riviera. However, her public life became more and more content as her campaigning earned supporters’ support.
She embraced far-right politics and made repeated racist and inflammatory remarks. She received criticism for making remarks about homosexuals, Muslims, and immigrants, which resulted in five convictions for inciting racial hatred.
She warned against “the Islamization of France” and a “subterranean, dangerous, and uncontrolled infiltration” in her 2003 book “A Cry in the Silence.” In 2022, a court fined her 40,000 euros ($47,000) after she described people from Reunion, a French overseas territory, as “degenerates” who had “kept their savage genes”.
She backed far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, who referred to her as the “Joan of Arc of the 21st Century,” in both the 2012 and 2017 presidential elections. In a social media post from yesterday, Le Pen claimed that Bardot was “incredibly French: free, untamable, whole” and that “we will miss her greatly.” ” “
After her break from both, Bordot frequently spoke out against the use of fur and proudly refused to undergo plastic surgery, and she continued to shun the film and fashion industries. During the Harvey Weinstein scandal that unravelled in 2017, she again swam against the tide, hitting back at the #MeToo campaign which denounced the abuse of women.
She referred to the actresses who had shared abuse stories in her 2018 statement to Paris Match, saying that “the majority are being being being hypocritical and ridiculous.”
Source: Mirror
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