Q U I N T E S S E N T I A L
S T Y L E
This page: Brigitte Bardot in A Woman Like Satan, directed by Julien Duvivier, 1958. > Opposite page: Brigitte Bardot on the set of director Jean-Luc Godard’s film Contempt (Le Mépris), 1963; > Inset: Bardot and Jane Birkin (left) on board a cross channel ferry to Dover for the film Don Juan (Or If Don Juan Were A Woman), 1972.
“Owning a woman’s soul is a harder task than
Living Legend Brigitte Bardot by
Q44
/ SPRING 2016
Liz Smith
or perhaps because of—her position in France as the epitome of sexual allure, good movies were not coming her way. She was a symbol, an image, the eternal girl/woman of the newspapers and paparazzi photos. She had resisted Hollywood— fame in Europe was enough for her—but even her first husband and the “creator” of her image, Roger Vadim, had little to give her as she matured. Anticipating Bardot’s retirement, he had directed her one last time, in Don Juan (Or if Don Juan Were A Woman) which was also released in 1973. This seemed nothing more than a coarsening of her nymphet in And God Created Woman, which was Vadim’s original homage to her youthful beauty, their own relationship, and its inevitable end. Bardot was much like America’s Kim Novak—she loved
Cl ai re R i f f ard/ O p e n Ar t Pro du ct i o ns . Op p o si t e pa ge : © Sun s e t B ou le va rd/ Co r bi s ; Po p pe rf o to / Getty Imag es
owning her body.” So said Brigitte Bardot in her very last film, released in 1973, The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot. By this point in Bardot’s career and her life, her soul was far more important to her than the perfect body that had brought her fame, three husbands, one child, and international fame. Bardot was 39 years old when she retired from movies, four years older than she’d anticipated. She’d hoped to be gone by 35, before the encroachments of middle age marred her image. She was still a beauty, but time was taking its inevitable toll. Also, the white-hot frenzy had come and gone. Despite—