Bardot

TAORMINA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2025 REVIEW! We all know ‘iconic’ is a stupid word when applied to people, except perhaps when applied to Brigitte Bardot, or BB as she is more affectionately known. A straw mop with two kohl ovals and a buck-toothed pout might not sound like the very definition of feminine beauty, but Bardot lit up austere, post-war Europe like a firework.

There was more to her than beauty, of course, and she made great contributions to music, fashion, and animal welfare, all of which are accounted for in director Alain Berliner’s excellent new biography, Bardot.

Born in Paris in 1934, her family lived in the affluent 16th Arrondissement, but she did not have a happy childhood. Her mother’s cold disposition made Brigitte suspect she was adopted, and a strict upbringing combined with the Nazi occupation of Paris conspired to barely allow her out. To hear her describe it, it was only when she turned fifteen that she left the house unaccompanied, this despite having ‘no friends.’

“There was more to (Brigitte) than beauty, of course, and she made great contributions to music, fashion and animal welfare”

But a couple of years of dance lessons later, she met film producer Roger Vadim while testing for a part, and they both quickly fell in love, scandalizing her parents, who agreed to the union only after Brigitte stuck her head in a lit oven in protest. She married him when she turned 18 and was effectively cut off. Her mother brushed her off with the advice, “Good luck, you should have married a millionaire.”

However, it was this relationship with Vadim that sparked her ascent. After insubstantial bit parts here and there, she became an overnight sensation in his directorial debut and box office behemoth, And God Created Woman.

Early footage presented here shows a confident young woman with the press in the palm of her hand – and no illusions; asked if she wants to make sexy films or be a serious actress she doesn’t blink, she’ll make the sexy films then do proper acting when she’s older. Asked further what else she wants, she is unabashed. “Money.” It felt like she had them at their own game.