With the recent release in this country of roughly half a dozen Brigitte Bardot films, Americans can now see what the proverbial 50 million Frenchmen have been pawing the ground about of late. Miss Bardot is the kind of cutie who is continually being referred to as a gamine. That's one good reason why we won't refer to her as a gamine, but there's a better reason: a gamine is a street urchin, and from what we can tell from her films, Brigitte spends very little time out of doors. Enchanting as she is on the screen, though, our Paris correspondent tells us the camera captures only a fraction of her qualities and that, to be fully appreciated, she must be observed in the intimacy of the film studio.
When he dropped by to visit her during working hours (hers as well as his), he found her gabbing gregariously with technicians, grips, actors, cameramen, writers and assorted assistant directors, clad the while in what looked like a trio of cocktail napkins plus, in austere moments, shoes. Good spirits and carefree camaraderie prevailed, and the general atmosphere was one of friendly chaos.
"Depravity?" She blinked when the word came up during our between-takes interview. "That has something to do with sin, no? I know what sin is."
She should. She has put more sin into more cinema than any other recent film femme we can think of offhand, or even onhand. In such movies as The Bride Is Much Too Beautiful, And God Created Woman, The House Across the Road, Mademoiselle Striptease (also known as Please! Mr. Balzac) and one or two others, she has invariably played the Spanish fly in the filmic ointment, fomenting ferment in the yesty males of her supporting cast and causing an epidemic of heavy breathing all around. The Bardot body has a good deal to do with all this, naturellement, but don't sell the face short: though not "much too beautiful" by the classic yardstick, it nevertheless has a direct appeal for all fellows who savor cuteness-cum-carnality.
Our interview didn't get much further than the depravity discussion, for soon someone in authority clapped his hands loudly and called for order, and Brigitte, murmuring "Excusez-moi," walked off to be wetted down for a bathing scene by an obliging young man with a waiting pail of warm water.
On the set of And God Created Woman, Brigitte's real-life boyfriend, actor Jean-Louis Trintignant, cuddles close to the Bardot bosom in preparation for a torrid love scene, while Brigitte's ex, Roger Vadim, who wrote and directed the film, guards her modesty with a bed sheet.
Above: Brigitte, half-clad and casual, chats during a break for lighting adjustments.
Below: a cooperative assistant director helps her down from a perilous perch after a take.
A bare Bardot stretches out in preparation for shot used as background for title and credits in And God Created Woman.
Above: wearing only a cache-sexe or three, BB is doused for a bath scene.
