When Brigite Bardot was 'a phenomenal accelerator of change' in French society
Brigitte Bardot, who died on Sunday at her home in Saint-Tropez at the age of 91, was French cinema’s first “superstar”, once regarded as an icon of women’s liberation in conservative, pre-May 1968 France. Despite having an influence in the modernisation of French society, she would reject the feminist cause and took up that of animal rights after she left acting in 1973, and became close to the far-right in her later years. To better understand Bardot’s chequered life, Mediapart turned to Émilie Giaime, a senior lecturer in contemporary history and the media at the Catholic Institute of Paris, who argues that Bardot served as “the accelerator” of a new era of modernity in France, “both capitalist and hyper-mediatised”.
BrigitteBrigitte Bardot, who died on Sunday at her home in Saint-Tropez at the age of 91, was French cinema’s first “superstar”, and regarded as an icon of women’s liberation in the conservative French society pre-May 1968. She was catapulted to stardom at the age of 22 when she featured in director Roger Vadim’s 1956 film Et Dieu… créa la femme (And God Created Women), after which “Bardot-mania” swept around the world.
