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French screen star Brigitte Bardot has died. She was 91 years old. Bardot was an international sex symbol and, later in life, an animal rights activist. But she was also accused of inciting racial hatred more than once. Bardot's death was announced in a statement by the Brigitte Bardot Foundation. NPR's Elizabeth Blair reports.
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: In the 1950s and '60s, the world gushed over Brigitte Bardot. She was called ravishing, incandescent and the impossible dream of married men.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JE TAIME - MOI NON PLUS")
BRIGITTE BARDOT: (Speaking French).
BLAIR: Bardot sang, danced, modeled and starred in dozens of films. She wasn't just stunning, with her hourglass figure, tousled hair and lush lips. She was also overtly sexual, revolutionary for the buttoned-up 1950s. Bardot was raised Catholic and upper middle-class and studied ballet. As a teenager, she appeared on the cover of ELLE magazine, attracting the attention of future filmmaker Roger Vadim, who was six years her senior. The two married in 1952. Bardot's parents made them wait until she turned 18.
In Vadim's 1957 movie, "And God Created Woman," Bardot plays a seductive 18-year-old. Set in Saint-Tropez, she lounges about in the nude, tempts the men around her and is unashamed. In one of her most famous scenes, she dances barefoot with abandon.
(SOUNDBITE OF PAUL MISRAKI ET SON ORCHESTRE'S "ET DIEU CREA LA FEMME")
BLAIR: Vadim wanted Bardot's appearance in his films to shake off sexual taboos, as he said in this undated interview from the documentary, "Vadim Mister Cool."
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "VADIM MISTER COOL")
ROGER VADIM: (Speaking French).
BLAIR: "I have always aimed to kill the myth, this odd rule in Christian morality," Vadim said, "that sex must be coupled with guilt." Bardot was the perfect partner in killing that myth. Even the feminist writer, Simone de Beauvoir, praised her independence. In the game of love, de Beauvoir wrote in Esquire in 1959, Bardot is as much a hunter as she is a prey.
CLAIRE SCHUB: The word freedom would be the one that was - the word that was most associated with her.
BLAIR: Claire Schub teaches French literature and film at Tufts University.
SCHUB: Her fashion choices, her hair, her makeup, her pout - she became this icon, this legend all over the globe.
BLAIR: Bardot's every move was covered in the media. The attention and the often misogynistic reviews of her acting got to her. In her autobiography, she writes that she suffered from depression and attempted suicide. In 1973, she retired from acting and moved permanently to Saint-Tropez. She also believed that she had a much higher calling, namely protecting animals. In an interview for the 2019 documentary, "Brigitte Bardot, Oath To Animals," she dismissed her life as a movie star as frivolous.
(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "BRIGITTE BARDOT, LE SERMENT FAIT AUX ANIMAUX")
BAROT: (Speaking French).
BLAIR: "An animal's life," she said, "is more important than all of these antics I was doing." In retirement, she founded the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, which campaigns against the fur trade, foie gras and trafficking puppies, among other causes.
Later in life, Bardot's image took a turn. She started supporting right-wing political candidates. She made racist and homophobic comments. She called Muslims invaders and railed against the killing of animals in the name of religion. The French government charged her with inciting racial hatred multiple times. Brigitte Bardot, the stunning beauty who once stood for sexual freedom for women, made headlines for very different reasons as she aged. Elizabeth Blair, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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