The icon that was Brigitte Bardot often overshadowed her work as a film actor. Starting in 1952 at just 18, Bardot was cast primarily for her blonde-haired beauty and voluptuous figure, not for her acting chops. However, when asked, Bardot was capable of delivering quality performances. She just wasn’t asked all that often.
In the Beginning
Bardot’s early years in cinema were marked by supporting roles or leads in frothy French comedies. Those films may not have made much of a dent in terms of critical acclaim, but they did catch the attention of numerous French filmmakers for at least one reason: Brigitte Bardot.
After four years of modest results, Bardot broke through in 1956 with a trio of box office successes in her native country. Naughty Girl is a musical farce that relies on slapstick and pratfalls, yet it received reasonably good reviews. It was also the first film that Bardot carried as a full-fledged leading actor. The film built its campaign around her to great success, becoming the 12th most popular film in France that year.
The Breakthrough Year
Another light comedy, Plucking the Daisy, would go on to be the 20th biggest hit of the year in France. But it would be her third film, directed by her then husband, Roger Vadim, …And God Created Woman, that would make Bardot an international sex symbol. As Juliette, a young nymphette with unapologetic desires, Bardot established herself as a movie star, and the term “sex kitten” was coined in her name. The film’s plot, in which Juliette is torn between two brothers, was almost incidental to Bardot appearing in various stages of undress. Even in the more sexually liberal France, the film caused quite a stir. Across the Atlantic and into the United States, …And God Created Woman was a full-on scandal.
However, the film (and Bardot’s appeal) could not be denied, and the movie ended up being a massive success stateside and internationally, and is often credited with opening the United States market to foreign films, especially those of the French New Wave. With the release of …And God Created Woman in the U.S., Bardot became a one-woman affront to the Hays Code that had set restrictions on language, violence, sex, and nudity since 1934. While the Hollywood standard of the Hays Code would survive until 1968, Bardot’s 1956 coming-out party led other filmmakers to chip away at the standard until the code was effectively broken by films like 1966’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (language) and Blow-Up (sex and nudity), and 1967’s Bonnie & Clyde (sex and violence).
Stardom & Critical Acclaim
Bardot remained a massive star for several years. Hits like The Parisian, In Case of Adversity (which gave Bardot a chance to show her skills in drama), The Female, Babbette Goes to War (which made news for Bardot NOT taking off her clothes), and The Testament of Orpheus (directed by French legend Jean Cocteau) were all well-received commercially, and some critically as well.
Critical respect for Bardot as an actor would come in 1960 with Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Truth. Bardot stars as Dominique, a woman on trial for the murder of a prominent man. The reasoning behind the murder is the mystery of the film, and Bardot acquits herself quite well as the suicidal and seemingly fickle young woman at the center of the tale. The Truth went on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film, and Bardot won the only major acting award of her career: the David Di Donatello (the “Italian Oscar”) as Best Actress.
Love on a Pillow from 1962 would see Bardot reteam with ex-husband Vadim for another well-received drama. The romantic drama A Very Private Affair, directed by Louis Malle, starring Bardot as a young girl infatuated with an older man played by Marcelo Mastroianni, was an even stronger critical success.
After …And God Created Woman, Bardot’s most notable film was likely Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt (1963). Godard’s look at a screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) who uses his wife’s (Bardot) charms to curry favor with a film producer (Jack Palance) backfires predictably. But this being a Godard film, the predictable plays out in an unconventional manner. Godard had his actors improvise dialogue, and shot the film as a series of tracking shots. The synopsis may have been straightforward, but the storytelling was anything but. In an effort to make Contempt more commercial, Godard was forced to film a nude scene with Bardot. He did so in a passive-aggressive manner, showing as little of Bardot’s body as he could get away with. One might say that Godard shot Bardot’s bum with contempt…for the film’s financiers. Contempt was not a massive hit upon release, but it may well be the most notable film of Bardot’s career.
After a rollicking run of success, Bardot’s output started to slow ever so slightly. She received some of the best reviews of her life in Francois Truffaut’s Viva Maria! in 1965. Bardot plays one Maria, opposite the legendary French actress Jeanne Moreau, as another Maria. In Truffaut’s comedy, the two inadvertently create the striptease and become involved in a Central American revolution. It’s no small feat to hold your own against Jeanne Moreau, but Bardot handled herself with genuine skill, and both women were nominated for BAFTA awards as Best Actress (Moreau won).
Bardot would be seen in a cameo performance in another Godard classic, Masculin, Féminin, the following year. In 1968, she would work with Malle again on an anthology film, Spirits of the Dead, that also featured Vadim and Federico Fellini directing installments.
Sudden Retirement
As Bardot began to approach 40, her box office shine started to dim. 1971’s The Legend of Frenchie King with co-star Claudia Cardinale promised more than it delivered, and her final film, The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot (1973), failed to make a ripple. Then, at the age of 39, Bardot retired from acting to devote her life to animal rights. Bardot never wavered from her pursuit of the ethical treatment of animals, but controversies of her own making would punctuate the back half of her life.
Post-Acting
Five times in her post-acting days, she would be fined for making racist comments. Bardot held a harsh view on immigration and was particularly scathing towards Muslims. She was also dismissive of the Me Too movement and made disparaging comments about gay men, despite being an icon to those who identify as LGBTQ+. Her political views veered toward the hard right. Bardot endorsed the fascist Marie Le Pen for president in the last French election.
For many film lovers, women, and gay men, Bardot was a symbol of liberation and sexual freedom. She played women on screen who weren’t afraid to enjoy sex (a big thing in those days), and she embraced the homosexual community. It’s hard to know how one squares an international movie star’s dismissal of those who adored her. It is a knot that is hard to untie.
But there can be no denying the phenomenon of Brigitte Bardot. Despite being a beauty-first actor, she worked with several legends of French cinema during the golden age of the Nouvelle Vague. Bardot was even a pop star in France, recording a handful of hits, the most notable being a salacious duet called Bonnie & Clyde with Serge Gainsbourg.
How one weighs the scales on Bardot’s life, views, career, and talent level is practically a choose-your-own-adventure tale. But no one can deny that she happened.
Brigitte Bardot died on December 28, 2025. She was 91 years old.
