In "And God Created Woman", Brigitte becomes Bardot

On July 4, 1956, Brigitte Bardot began her penultimate day of work on And God… Created Woman. Since the beginning of filming, she has been installed at the Hôtel de l'Aïoli, at the foot of the hill of the citadel, very close to the port of Saint-Tropez, in the company of her husband, Roger Vadim, who is making his debut behind the camera. The couple occupies bedroom 3, with a terrace. From this one, the young girl from the 16^th arrondissement of Paris could almost see the corner house with pink walls and green windows, owned by her parents, at the very top of the rue de la Miséricorde, where she has spent most of her summers since 1950. She's 21 years old. In Saint-Tropez, "BB" returns home.

It's not just the landscape that belongs to Bardot. The first film in which she played the main role was tailor-made for her. So that she identifies with Juliette Hardy, an orphan obeying the sole principle of her pleasure, in love with a mature and adventurous man, but married to the latter's little brother, Vadim strives to turn his screenplay in the continuity, rarely going beyond a take, in order to allow his wife to stay in character. It works. Bardot tells his director: “I don't play, I am. »

Most of the scenes in And God Created Woman were shot on location. Vadim favors an unusual way of filming, with a freedom that the New Wave will popularize soon after, and a charm and elegance that no one will be able to duplicate. This July 4, however, Brigitte Bardot joins Nice for one of the rare studio scenes: a modernist nightclub, with lowered curtains, a checkerboard floor, with stacked tables, an empty place ready to be embodied as soon as appearance of the actress; a fake decor reconstituted in the Victorine studios.

The scene is designed by Vadim as an opera finale where, in keeping with tradition, the main protagonists are summoned: Curd Jürgens, the German billionaire with insolent fortune; Jean-Louis Trintignant, Bardot's husband, weak and clumsy; Brigitte Bardot, spontaneous, frank, free. Only Christian Marquand, in the role of the older brother of Trintignant, a close friend of Roger Vadim in life, is missing. Surrounded by five musicians from the West Indies and Cuba, tam-tam and maracas players, BB goes, to the sound of the mambo, dancing without restraint, going into a trance, imposing a tempo in the form of a life lesson. This scene, the actress has been going over it in her head since the start of filming. As usual, she will submit to a single take. Four minutes, therefore, which can turn out to be brilliant or ridiculous. In the end, oblivion or posterity. It will be posterity.

You have 87.47% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.