B.B. TV version: cinema icon, planetary sex symbol, Brigitte Bardot is the heroine of a series simply titled "Bardot", recounting part of her life in six 52-minute episodes, broadcast from Monday on France 2 .
Written and directed by filmmaker Danièle Thompson and her son Christopher, this very classic series focuses on 10 years of the star's life: from her first casting in 1950 until 1960, passing through her explosion thanks to the film "And God...created woman" in 1956.
"It's not a biopic, I don't like that word. It's a slice of life that we treated", explained Danièle Thompson during the presentation of the series to the press at the end of January.
It is a 22-year-old unknown, Julia de Nunez, who had the difficult task of playing the star. "I have always found a resemblance to her," says the actress. "But we did not try to fall into imitation".
In December, Bardot, who will turn 89 this year, told the JDD, with his usual outspokenness, to be "not even aware of this thing". "I don't care: the only thing that matters is my real life with me in it, and not bullshit biopics!" she thundered.
Conversely, Danièle Thompson claims to have written to her to inform her "of this adventure": "She replied very kindly that she wanted to be left alone and that she trusted us".
By retracing a part of the actress's life, the filmmaker wanted to describe "the passions that this extraordinary creature unleashed".
And "talking" about France in the 1950s: "Even with such an exceptional destiny, we cannot escape the shackles, prohibitions, judgments of the time, closer to the 19th century than today".
"She loves men and assumes it. It was not done at the time to have one lover after another and it was not said," adds the 81-year-old director, daughter of filmmaker Gérard Oury.
A free woman before her time, Bardot is insulted in the street by passers-by who reproach her for her morals. The series also evokes her pregnancy, which she will later say was unwanted.
B.B. is portrayed as an increasingly lonely star, whose private life is spied on and whom some relatives sell to the paparazzi. Because, according to Danièle Thompson, "this freedom that she embodied has turned against her".
Intended to be broadcast abroad, the series shows "what it's like for a young girl to become a superstar. It resonates with social networks", according to Judith Rochelois, co-producer with Pascal Breton, who came up with the original idea. .
The cast mixes young actors - including Victor Belmondo (Jean-Paul's grandson) in the role of Roger Vadim or Oscar Lesage in that of her second husband Jacques Charrier - and confirmed actors - such as Géraldine Pailhas and Hippolyte Girardot (his parents) or Yvan Attal (producer Raoul Lévy).
Fifty years after Bardot left the cinema, this is an opportunity for the youngest to rediscover her as an actress who heralded the sexual revolution, she whom they know above all as a passion for animals with reactionary and often controversial positions.
But, for Christopher Thompson, these two faces are not opposed: "At 15, at 22, at 26, all she provokes is because she is unfiltered, completely natural. Today , she is still the same person, without a filter".
05/07/2023 14:15:26 - Paris (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
