Danièle and Christopher Thompson talk about Brigitte Bardot, from her beginnings as a model on the cover of Elle to the film adaptation of Henri Georges Clouzot’s La Vérité. An exciting painting from the 1960s, told in the style of a glossy magazine, but staged by perfect actors.
In France there are rarely series that tell the story or the journey of living personalities. The Americans do not hesitate to tell the OJ Simpson affair, the British the life of the Queen of England The crown. So it’s a textbook case that this is the case Bardot in six episodes broadcast on France 2 since Monday May 8, already available in full on France Télévisions.
Danièle Thompson, the co-director, did not ask Brigitte Bardot’s permission. She just told her. “Bardot didn’t want to be interested in what we were doing, specifies Danièle Thompson. EShe wrote to us directly that she trusted us but didn’t want to know anything. So no right of access, she didn’t ask for it.
If you will, it wasn’t about asking permission when a character is a public figure, and unfortunately that’s a part of their story that’s probably very difficult for them to live with.”
It is the young actress Julia de Nunez who wonderfully embodies Bardot, a liberated woman. His touch of madness, his desire to break free from a rigid family, his love for a director before moving on to Jean-Louis Trintignant or Gilbert Bécaud. So many true stories, the result of research by the two authors Christopher and Danièle Thompson:
“We have seen countless books written about her. There are her own memoirs. It was a topic, both for the lower-level press and for the progenitor of this somewhat trashy tabloid press. And then so was she.” Subject of research and study by all the great intellectuals of the time, from Marguerite Duras to Lucien Bodard.
Traditional in its narrative, the series resembles a magazine on glossy paper, but benefits from excellent actors, starting with Victor Belmondo in the role of Roger Vadim. We discover reconstructed mythical places like La Madrague. A rich series of anecdotes.
What particularly stands out is the authors’ desire to explain why Brigitte Bardot quickly withdrew from public life. “There’s a lot of talk about what captivity was like, that is, this desire for freedom, this form of freedom that it finally gave to women, adds Danielle Thompson. There was something without her wanting it, she is not an activist, but something new happened to women after this famous film: And God created woman (from Roger Vadim appeared in 1956, ed. editorial) Who was this global symbol of women’s freedom? And with her it was the opposite.
bardot, the sequel, Monday evening May 15, on France 2. The 6 episodes are already available on France.TV.
