And God… Called Woman Back to Him: RIP BB

 

Et Dieu rappela la femme

FRANÇOIS-GUILLAUME LORRAIN has an in-depth article in the Le Point weekly, which is unusual for not being entirely adulatory (adieulatory?), but which does betray a leftist bent (notably in the second sentence). (Merci pour les Instaliens, Monsieur Driscoll et Madame Hoyt.) 

   

Le Point: 

Bardot has just died. Hadn't she already died a little? It's difficult to survive one's myth, even by remaining reclusive, except to resurface for outbursts that reeked of the far right. The "outrageous" sex symbol had become an indignant old woman. Sunset Boulevard in La Madrague [the name of BB's fisherman cottage]. For women, fame is the tunic of Nessus: the great stars—Garbo, Dietrich, Callas—ended up alone, hidden away, or committed suicide, Marilyn, Romy… 

 When did she begin to die? Perhaps as early as that day in 1958: after yet another Paris Match cover where she was seen on all fours or walking barefoot in minishorts, ogled by hundreds of onlookers in front of the Vachon haberdashery in Saint-Tropez. There she was! Accessible. Because she was the first accessible star in the age of mass culture and mass media. She looked almost like everyone else, or at least like a pretty girl from a wealthy neighborhood. The metal shutter was lowered, the police were called, and she was whisked away amidst insults: trash, slut…

If you don't feel like cutting and pasting lots of French text (especially if it is leftist, unabashedly or otherwise), you can find lots — eighty+ years' worth — of photos of the Sex Kitten at The Daily Mail. Plus check out a couple of short AI videos on Brigitte Bardot's life and career.

Besides her private life, Le Point also presents the movie star's singing career and the icon BB's five unforgettable films with as many trailers. Incidentally, as a kid I watched Viva Maria! on television, expecting the revolutionary movie in Central America to be nothing more than a fun politics-free Western-type action romp (American trailer: Viva Fun! Viva Love! Via Suspense! Viva Striptease! Viva Adventure! Viva Don't Miss It!), and was severely disillusioned when one of the characters — none other than Bardot herself — shouted "private property is theft!" (Later, the other of the two Maria characters in the Louis Malle movie — Moreau, as can be seen in the French trailer — mocks U.S. anti-communism: No, of course "We have no intention of attacking the United States.") Still, that had nothing to do with my not being as attracted to BB as to Raquel Welch.