Editor’s Note: A version of the following article was originally published in September of 2024 to celebrate Brigitte Bardot’s 90th birthday. MovieFanFare reprints it today to remember the beloved cinematic sex symbol’s passing this past Sunday at her home in the French Riviera resort town of Saint-Tropez.
Few cinema sex goddesses can lay claim to the kind of transcendent global impact made by pert Parisienne Brigitte Bardot, whose unique brand of spontaneous sensuality made her one of film’s foremost fantasy objects from the late ’50s on. Born to a successful industrialist, young Brigitte’s passion from girlhood was ballet; by the time she was 15, she was a cover girl for Elle magazine. Her image caught the eye of future first husband Roger Vadim, who arranged for her first screen test. Bardot made her screen debut in 1952’s Le Trou Normand (Crazy for Love), a vehicle for the comic actor Bourvil.
A string of bit roles followed, and by the mid-’50s, she was headlining such sensational fare as Cette Sacrée Gamine (Naughty Girl) and En Effeuillant la Marguerite (Plucking the Daisy). It was at this point that the Vadim-helmed scorcher Et Dieu…Créa la Femme (And God Created Woman) received worldwide distribution and made Bardot a point woman for the Sexual Revolution. Through the mid-’60s, Bardot mixed trademark vehicles with weightier fare such as En Cas de Malheur (Love Is My Profession), La Vérité (The Truth), Le Mépris (Contempt) and Viva Maria. Her vogue as a box-office draw waned by the early ’70s, however, and she turned her back on filmmaking in 1973 to devote her energies and clout to her notoriously passionate and somewhat controversial advocacy of animal rights causes.
In the wake of her death on December 28 at age 91, Bardot’s catalog of film appearances remains as desired as ever, and here are a few of her more notable turns:
Helen of Troy (1956) – No, the young Brigitte doesn’t play the Ancient Greek beauty. She’s Helen’s handmaiden Andraste, and Rossana Podesta is “the face that launched a thousand ships,” in director Robert Wise’s adaptation of Homer’s Iliad. The Trojan War saga, a U.S./European co-production, also features Jack Sernas, Cedric Hardwicke, and Stanley Baker.
Naughty Girl (1956) – Also known as Mam’zelle Pigalle, this ideal early vehicle offers Bardot as a finishing school student whose club owner dad (Bernard Lanctret) orders his star singer (Jean Bretonnière) to distract the young innocent from his surveillance by the gendarmes.
And God Created Woman (1958) – The first of five films Brigitte and hubby Roger Vadim would make together, this taboo-busting drama has the beautiful Bardot playing a bored young wife who cavorts with her brother-in-law and a handsome millionaire on the sunny shores of St. Tropez. With Jean-Louis Trintignant, Curt Jurgens.
Please, Not Now! (1961) – Vadim-directed favorite farce has Brigitte getting mad—and determined to get even—when her boyfriend (Jacques Riberolles) dumps her for a wealthy American chick (Josephine James).
Dear Brigitte (1965): One of the actress’s rare performances in a Hollywood film was a cameo as herself in this offbeat comedy. James Stewart stars as a literature professor whose eight-year-old math prodigy son (Bill Mumy) has two passions in his young life: handicapping horse races and writing love letters to Bardot, who invites the lad to visit her in France.
Two Weeks in September (1967) – Bardot puts the “Swing” in Swinging London, as a model whose staid marriage to an older spouse (Jean Rochefort) is threatened when she eyes a younger man (Laurent Terzieff).
Shalako (1968) – Based on a Louis L’Amour novel, this U.S./German actioner stars Bardot as a French countess travelling with other European aristocrats across the 19th-century American frontier. It’s up to wandering gunfighter Shalako (Sean Connery) to guide them safely through dangerous Apache territory. Stephen Boyd, Woody Strode, and Honor Blackman also star.
Les Femmes (1969) – Fun offering finds Brigitte hired as a personal assistant to a blocked author (Maurice Ronet), who only finds himself distracted further.
Do you have a favorite film memory of Brigitte Bardot? Please share it with us in the comments.