00:00Hi Manon, good to have you with us on the program now. So Brigitte Bardot has a really packed legacy. She's described as a sex symbol. She's of course an actress, a singer, an activist as well. For those of our viewers less familiar with her, what do you think she's most known for and will be most remembered for really?
00:17Yes, hello. Well, Brigitte Bardot was more than a movie star. She was a cultural earthquake, a woman who really changed how the world looked at friends, femininity and freedom.
00:31And it's very symbolical that she died on a day when cinema itself is celebrating 130 years of existence since December 28th, 1895, when the first ever screening happened in Paris.
00:45And so Bardot became an international phenomenon in the 50s with É Dieu Créer la Femme and God Created Woman, directed by her then husband, Roger Vadim.
00:57And the film shocked audiences, fascinated critics and made Bardot an overnight symbol of sexual emancipation, long before the term was widely used.
01:08And Hollywood took notice, but Bardot never truly belonged to it.
01:13She remained deeply French, which meant resistant to the studio system and the celebrity culture.
01:20And she went on to star in La Vérité, The Truth in 1960, directed by Henri-Georges Clouseau,
01:27which really further established her as an international star, particularly in Europe and the U.S.
01:34And later in Jean-Luc Godard's Le MĂ©pris, Contempt, in 1963, she became part of cinema history once again.
01:44The film is now considered a masterpiece of modern cinema.
01:48But she also starred in lighter, popular films, such as Viva Maria in 1965, alongside Jeanne Moreau.
01:57And by the end of the 60s, Bardot became one of the most photographed women in the world, often compared to Marilyn Monroe.
02:05And she influenced fashion, music, pop culture.
02:09In 1969, she was even chosen as the model for Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic.
02:15And by then, her face had become completely inseparable from the image of France itself.
02:23Now, Manol, she's not unanimously celebrated, though.
02:27Why is she so controversial?
02:31Well, her later life deeply divided public opinion.
02:35In 1973, at just 39 years old and after 46 films,
02:40she completely retired from cinema and devoted herself entirely to animal rights activism,
02:47founding the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which played a significant role in changing animal welfare laws in France and Europe.
02:56However, in her later years, Bardot became increasingly controversial due to her outspoken and radical political statements,
03:06particularly on immigration, Islam and national identity.
03:11And these positions led to legal convictions and alienated much of the public, especially younger generations.
03:20As a result, Bardot remains a paradox, a pioneer of female freedom on screen and a deeply polarizing public figure off screen.
03:30And I think her legacy is really inseparable from both.
03:35And if you want to learn more about her, I would recommend the documentary called Bardot,
03:40which was just released in France.
03:41And we interviewed the director, Elora Thévenet, on France 24 a few weeks ago.
03:47Manon Kerjean, France 24's cinema critic.
03:51As a reminder, you can, of course, check out clips of that documentary on our website.
03:54Manon, thank you very much for that roundup of Bardot's legacy.
03:58Manon Kerjean, France 24.
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