The rejected daughter of strict Parisian parents, Bardot had rebelled against the conservative values of 1950s France, and earned the freedom offered to few women in those days. Lovers fell at her feet, from Alain Delon to Serge Gainsbourg, money flowed into her bank account and directors wrote \u2014 and changed \u2014 scripts at her behest.<\/p>\n
In interviews at the time, Bardot consistently challenged the orthodoxy of the time. Did she want to stay with the same man for the whole of her life, she was asked, aged about 30? \u201cOh no,\u201d she replied. \u201cIt\u2019s good to change partners as you [grow older], because you need different things.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Bardot visits her dog refuge in Paris in 2001<\/p>\n
GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n
The Vatican saw her as Satan incarnate, while French film producers saw her as the guarantee of box-office receipts. The documentary, for instance, includes extracts of an American TV news story about the release of And God Created Woman, the 1956 film directed by her first husband, Roger Vadim, which reported that \u201c76 million American males\u201d had been charmed by her. \u201cThe Devil takes many different forms,\u201d the reporter added.<\/p>\n
The new documentary also looks beyond the pout that was plastered across glossy magazine covers, to the mental anguish that beset Bardot as her home in St Tropez became a kind of golden prison. There was depression, and suicide attempts. A trip to the shops had become impossible, an appointment at the dentist an ordeal. Bardot\u2019s third pregnancy \u2014 the first two reportedly ending in terminations, then illegal \u2014 was spent trapped at home, her house surrounded by paparazzi. <\/p>\n
Distressed, lonely, unsure of herself, Bardot recalls in the film that was incapable of looking after her son, Nicolas-Jacques Charrier<\/a>, who was largely brought up by his father, Jacques Charrier, her second husband.<\/p>\n While there have been many books, biopics and documentaries about her, the new documentary is a rare chance to hear Bardot speak about a life that has entered modern French folklore. She agreed to be interviewed in La Garrigue, the more secluded of her two properties in St Tropez, though her face scarcely appears on screen \u2014 perhaps a testament to her decision in 1973 to put herself in front of a movie camera no more. Still, it is her voice that narrates the 90-minute film.<\/p>\n SUNSET BOULEVARD\/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n Bardot was recently hospitalised and is said to have difficulty walking. But her memory is sharp, her mind quick and her spirit unbowed. \u201cI was born free and I will die free,\u201d she tells the film-makers, adding that her life has never been easy but that she would not have wanted it so, preferring to \u201cvanquish\u201d difficulties than to avoid them.<\/p>\n In one particularly poignant scene, Bardot says she has always \u201ccarried a latent sadness in me\u201d, arguing that this is common among actresses. She cites examples to prove her point \u2014 Rita Hayworth, Jean Seberg, Romy Schneider and Marilyn Monroe, the last shown smiling and waving before her death from a barbiturate overdose in 1962.<\/p>\n Bardot tells us she almost suffered the same fate, having made at least eight suicide attempts, one of which she survived only through a \u201cmiracle\u201d. She adds that she has rarely wanted to talk about this, or indeed any aspects of her life. \u201cI was hunted, I was besmirched, I was scorned, very often betrayed. What is more, I was insulted. That\u2019s why I protect myself. I am distrustful. I flee all that a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"French](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/\/d4640701-78ff-4344-a606-2f90366b3a65.jpg\")
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