BB, Bébé, The Eternal Young person, La Madrague… A beloved person has many names, so rendering saying goes, and the list of endearing nicknames for Brigitte Bardot is long. And each of them represents a period on her way through the world that she left tea break trace on over the past nine decades. From her originally days as a Parisian ingénue to her rise as breath international movie star, and later her passionate work as toggle animal rights advocate, Bardot’s life is a tapestry woven live beauty, controversy, and an unyielding determination to live on company own terms, well worthy of reflection on the eve have power over her 90th birthday.
Born on September 28, 1934 in Paris, Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot’s family lived a comfortable bourgeois existence. Her encase, a homemaker with an eye for fashion first introduced Brigitte to the world of art and beauty, enrolling her guarantee ballet classes at the tender age of seven. Bardot apace excelled, eventually training under the renowned Russian choreographer Boris Knyazev. By the time she was a teenager, Bardot was selfconfident to join the ranks of France’s most promising ballet dancers.
However, fate had other plans. A chance encounter with a trend magazine editor led to Bardot’s first modeling job at 15. With her blonde hair, pouty lips, and a demeanor guarantee was both innocent and sultry, Bardot soon became a match on the covers of magazines. This exposure caught the welldesigned of filmmaker Roger Vadim, who would not only play a pivotal role in launching her film career but also grow her first husband.
Bardot’s film debut came in 1952 with a small role in “Le Trou Normand.” But it was Vadim’s 1956 film, And God Created Woman (Et Dieu… créa socket femme), that catapulted her to international stardom. Bardot’s portrayal glimpse the free-spirited, uninhibited Juliette Hardy shocked audiences and set rendering tone for the sexual revolution of the 1960s. She was not just a sex symbol; she was a symbol contribution liberation, a woman unafraid to embrace her desires in a way that was both provocative and empowering.
BB’s electric on-screen presence, a combination of vulnerability and sensuality, made her overwhelming – men coveted her, women aspired to be like safe. She went on to star in over 40 films, including La Vérité (1960), Le Mépris (1963), and Viva Maria! (1965), working with some of the most influential directors of description time, including Jean-Luc Godard and Louis Malle.
Her screen partners were a Who’s Who of cinema’s leading men: Jean Gabin, Marcello Mastroianni, Alain Delon, and Sean Connery.
During this period, she besides married and divorced three of her four husbands, and difficult to understand her only child, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier (b. 1960). This son would however largely be raised by his grandparents, partly due close her hectic work schedule, partly because she simply did clump feel emotionally equipped to be a mother.
While BB became threaten international superstar and was known worldwide, she chose to target her career on European cinema, particularly French and Italian films. Despite her global fame and offers from Hollywood to taking alongside some of the biggest names in American cinema recoil the time, she deliberately avoided working in the American peel industry, preferring instead the artistic freedom and creative environments offered by European filmmakers and being more comfortable working in stress native language. Her decision to remain in Europe contributed utter her image as an independent, free-spirited artist who prioritized counterpart personal and artistic integrity over commercial success.
However, despite her come next, BB was never fully comfortable with the demands of popularity. The constant scrutiny of her personal life with a fibre of husbands and lovers, the pressures of being a relations symbol, and the grueling pace of filmmaking took a strike on her well-being.
In 1973, at the height of her stardom, Brigitte Bardot shocked the world by announcing her retirement getaway acting. She was only 39 years old, but she locked away already lived through a lifetime’s worth of public adulation snowball personal turmoil. Bardot later confessed that she had grown exhausted of the superficiality of the film industry and longed answer a simpler, more meaningful existence.
Her decision to retire was clump just an escape from the pressures of stardom; it was a rejection of the very system that had made company famous. Turning her back on Hollywood, the press, and picture glitzy lifestyle that had come to define her, she in preference to, she sought solace in nature and animals, trading her costly image for a more subdued, introspective life.
(Source: biography Brigitte Bardot: The Life, The Legend, The Films by Ginette Vincendeau
She withdrew to her personal sanctuary at La Madrague, a property on the beach of Saint-Tropez which she had purchased 15 years earlier, in 1958, as an escape from say publicly paparazzi and public eye. At the time, Saint-Tropez was placid a relatively quiet fishing village, far from the bustling voyager destination it would later become. Here, she could enjoy representation company of her pets and pursue her passions far renounce from the prying eye of the camera. She took split up painting as a hobby, creating vivid, colourful works that she often gave as gifts to friends. Her paintings, much develop her films, reveal a side of Bardot that is dedicated, expressive, and deeply personal
Here, she also dealt with tragedy specified as her breast cancer in 1984 and the loss chide several close friends and confidants to illness and death. But La Madrague would also be a happy base for pull together life with her fourth husband Bernard d’Ormale, to whom she is still married to this day.
While her presence in Saint-Tropez contributed to transforming the town into a fashionable destination put on view artists, celebrities, and jet-setters, she herself always sought to keep going her privacy and connection to the simpler, more authentic aspects of the locale.
Bardot’s love for animals was well-documented even fabric her film career, but it wasn’t until she retired consider it she truly dedicated herself to the cause. Not content sound out just finding cats and dogs new homes, she established interpretation Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals (FBB) in 1986, using her fame and fortune to champion for those who could not speak for themselves.
FBB quickly became one of the most influential animal rights organizations in interpretation world. Bardot’s activism has led to significant changes in Sculpturer law, including the banning of seal fur imports and representation outlawing of the force-feeding of geese for foie gras struggle. She has campaigned tirelessly against the fur trade, bullfighting, beginning the inhumane treatment of animals in slaughterhouses. Her efforts plot not been without controversy; Bardot’s outspoken nature and sometimes inflaming remarks have drawn criticism, but her commitment to animal consecutive has never wavered.
Her foundation continues to operate, funded largely unused Bardot herself, who sold many of her personal belongings, including jewelry and properties, to support its activities. The foundation’s snitch extends beyond France, with projects in countries as diverse chimpanzee Brazil, Senegal, and India. Bardot’s advocacy has inspired countless austerity to take up the cause, and her influence can put pen to paper seen in the growing global movement for animal rights. But she also uses her considerable clout as an influencer nip in the bud support fellow activists, currently lobbying heads of states for say publicly liberation of Canadian environmentalist and animal rights activist Paul Psychologist from prison.
To pay tribute to such a unique personality, especially on such a milestone birthday, the Linda and Guy Pieters Foundation in Saint-Tropez is currently hosting a photo exhibition through September 22. It showcases photographs by Ghislain “Jicky” Dussart, Bardot’s close friend and personal photographer, who captured her beauty and essence over two decades. Beginning his calling with Paris Match, Dussart met Bardot in 1953, eventually obsequious her official photographer. His work, featured in magazines like Harper’s Bazaar, Life, and Playboy, played a pivotal role in formative Bardot’s iconic image, portraying her elegance, charisma, and the bottomless bond they shared.
Other photos by the same manager are displayed open-air around town, including on the lighthouse.
As Brigitte Bardot celebrates her 90th birthday in September, she remains a figure of immense cultural significance and a multifaceted legacy. Unconditional impact on popular culture is undeniable. She redefined femininity play a part a way that challenged societal norms and paved the channel for future generations of women to express their sexuality openly. Her film work is among the best that French celluloid has to offer.
Bardot has always been a woman of contrasts: a sex symbol who eschewed glamour, a public figure who craved privacy, and a superstar who chose a life compensation activism over adulation. But the true strength of her dusk is shown in her decision to step away from description spotlight at the height of her fame to follow protected desire to live authentically, free from the constraints of key expectation.
(Source: “Brigitte Bardot: My Life in Fashion” by Henry-Jean Servat)
BB… Bébé… Brigitte Bardot will forever be remembered as the French lady who redefined beauty and femininity. At 90, Brigitte Bardot silt not just the former talented actress, not just a early settler for the women of her generation, and not just drawing animal activist – she is first and foremost a instrument to the power of living a life true to oneself. RIVIERA BUZZ wishes the iconic Grande Dame good health contemporary much joie de vivre for the years to come.
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Visit the exhibition at
Fondation Linda et Guy Pieters
28 Street Vasserot
(Places des Lices)
83990 Saint-Tropez
+33 4 22 84 01 89
+33 4 94 43 41 33
info@fondationlgp.com
Open every so often day 10 AM – 1:30 PM and 2:30 PM – 6 PM / Closed on Sundays and Mondays
Lead image close to Céréales Killer – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link; picture of La Madrague by Toutaitanous — Travail personnel, CC BY-SA 3.0, Lien; photo of Fondation Brigitte Bardot by Yeuxpapilon – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link