Brigitte Bardot’s last film before she retired: DON JUAN, OR IF DON JUAN WERE A WOMAN (1973).
1970s interiors: the movie. Man, one after the other. Hip interiors from that period often look like cheap sci-fi sets—or actually, better yet, like those LPs with schmaltzy symphonic versions of romantic songs. Remember those? Fireplace, a rug, a young couple, wine glasses…
And then sex.
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Brigitte Bardot, with ex-husband Roger Vadim again, on the set of her last film, DON JUAN, OR IF DON JUAN WERE A WOMAN (1973). Full circle.
VIE PRIVÉE (A Very Private Affair) (1962) is basically a biopic—it’s Brigitte Bardot playing Brigitte Bardot. Throughout, as in real life, she’s either depressed in her room or being devoured by a frenzied mob. The first person to attract paparazzi, she was forced to give birth at home, which I believe traumatized her: there’s Brigitte Bardot (1934-1960) and Brigitte Bardot (1960-today).
In the film, there’s a scene in an elevator where a woman rips into her for being a bad influence on France. Based on an actual encounter, the scene is presented like a horror film: we just hear the woman raging as the elevator slowly ascends, but we only see BB’s reactions as she’s having a panic attack and can’t get out, then at the very end, as the doors finally open, the woman’s creepy face suddenly emerges as she barks her final insults at a fleeing BB.
Vintage posters for Brigitte Bardot films.
Art from the trailer of 1970 Brigitte Bardot film, L’ours et la poupée (THE BEAR AND THE DOLL). A softporn movie without the porn really; but then that goes for most of Brigitte Bardot’s 1970s movies… She quit acting in 1973 of course—forever.
Allow me to plug my very young BB Instagram account.
It’s Brigitte Bardot’s 84th birthday today, so I’ll celebrate by featuring these mini-galleries of rare photos throughout the day. This is #1 of 10.
Here we have: Brigitte Bardot during a horseback riding lesson for THE NIGHT HEAVEN FELL (1958), a publicity still from A VERY PRIVATE AFFAIR (1962), and Brigitte Bardot in her hometown, Saint-Tropez, circa 1963.
Brigitte Bardot on the set of Et Dieu… créa la femme (AND GOD CREATED WOMAN) in 1956. She wore her own clothes in the film, as she did in many of her films in fact. The name of her character in Et Dieu…, Juliette Hardy, isn’t very far removed from her own name. Saint-Tropez, the location of the film, was familiar to her because she would spend summers there with her parents (and she lives there of course). Et Dieu…, basically, is Brigitte Bardot as seen through the eyes of a smitten Roger Vadim: a luscious cinematic love letter.
The film was shot in Saint-Tropez and at the Studios de la Victorine in Nice.
Nighttime in Mexico: Brigitte Bardot photographed by Gérard Géry during the shooting of VIVA MARIA! (1965). She stayed in a house in Cuernavaca—no glass in the windows, and with a great view of the spectacular night sky.
Brigitte Bardot.
She’s the center of the first photo, taken in the 1940s at the Paris Conservatory, where she trained to become a ballerina.
Images 2 and 3 are from the set of A RAVISHING IDIOT, which also starred Anthony Perkins. Together with LOVE ON A PILLOW perhaps one of the lesser-known films from when she was at the height of her fame.
Image 4 is from VIVA MARIA!
Part two (of two). Brigitte Bardot photographed by Gérard Géry during the shooting of VIVA MARIA! (1965).
Part one HERE. Outtakes on my Pinterest account, which you can find HERE.
VIVA MARIA! is one of her more popular films. I’ve never liked it much though—too burlesque. In her autobiography, BB dedicates quite a few pages to the making of it. She had a great time on location in Mexico: a rarity, because she usually was depressed during films. For a month or so, she felt quite alive. Not bothered by paparazzi for the first time in years, she visited shops, temples, she played guitar, lounged, attended a secret satanic ritual, which gave her a panic attack (and nightmares). At one point, for a scene, she had to swim in a lake with sharks, which were kept at bay with loud drums—one of the crew members lost a leg—but she did it and felt proud afterwards.
She was very jealous of her co-star, Jeanne Moreau, who was more cunning and ambitious, whereas BB was lazy and indifferent when it came to films; instead, she preferred to spend time with the various stray dogs that hung around the set, wondering if she should quit films and dedicate her life to helping animals, which of course eventually she did.
A few fonts and things from WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971). I always thought the candy in the film looked so unappetizing. Like jars of painted kidney stones. The chocolate river in the factory seemed filled with baby diarrhea or something, or like the murky stream near a refinery. But anyway—the film is a classic of course, and Gene Wilder is supreme in it: a cordial demon.