Story“Brigitte Bardot, in complete freedom” (1/6). In 1956, the actress shoots “And God … created the woman”, under the direction of her husband, Roger Vadim, who made her a tailor-made role. While the film does not meet with success when it is released in theaters, Godard and Truffaut salute this portrait of a woman who perfectly embodies her time.
On July 4, 1956, Brigitte Bardot began her penultimate day of work on And God created the woman. Since the start of filming, she has been living at the Hôtel de l’Aïoli, at the foot of the citadel hill, near the port of Saint-Tropez, in the company of her husband, Roger Vadim, who makes his debut behind the camera. The couple occupy room 3, with terrace. Of this, the young girl of 16e arrondissement of Paris could almost see the corner house with pink walls and green windows, owned by her parents, at the 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 plays the main role is tailor-made for her. In order for her to identify with Juliette Hardy, an orphan obedient to 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 script in the continuity, rarely going beyond a take, in order to allow his wife to remain in her character. It works. Bardot lets go to his director: “I don’t play, I am. “
Most of the scenes from And God created the woman are shot outdoors. 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 manage to duplicate. This July 4, however, Brigitte Bardot joined Nice for one of the rare studio scenes: a modernist nightclub, with drawn curtains, a checkered floor, with stacked tables, an empty place ready to take shape from the start. appearance of the actress; a fictitious decor recreated in the studios of the Victorine.
The stage is conceived by Vadim as an opera finale where, in accordance with tradition, the main protagonists are summoned: Curd Jürgens, the German billionaire with insolent fortune; Jean-Louis Trintignant, Bardot’s husband, weak and awkward; 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, players of tam-tam and maracas, BB will, to the sound of the mambo, dance without restraint, enter a trance, impose a tempo in the form of a lesson in life. 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. So four minutes, which can turn out to be awesome or ridiculous. At the end, oblivion or posterity. It will be posterity.
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