And TV recreated Bardot! Over six 52-minute episodes, Hinnya miniseries co-written and co-directed by Danièle Thompson and Christopher Thompson, broadcast this Monday at 9:10 p.m. on France 2, traces the rise of Brigitte Bardot (Julia de Nunez) from her debut at age 15 in 1949 until the birth of her son in 1960. From his rigorous education to his meeting with Henri-Georges Clouzot for The truth through the outrageous And God created the womanthis biopic reveals how Brigitte Bardot became the iconic “BB”.
” When I’m done Under the sun in Saint-Tropez, I said to myself: “I want to tell Bardot”, because it is the whole history of cinema and that of one of the women who has marked the most”, says co-producer Pascal Breton, whom 20 minutes met during a round table organized by France Télévisions.
“The Great Manoeuvres”
“What interested us was to look at the birth of the BB icon, to reflect on the genesis of this myth, to know the woman and the young girl behind it. We wondered: “Who was this girl? And how did she become this phenomenon? And what does it feel like for a young girl to become a superstar?” “explains co-producer Judith Rochelois.
The producer duo then called on Danièle Thompson and Christopher Thompson: “Before accepting, we immersed ourselves in the monumental documentation of the time and we said to ourselves that there was something fascinating to tell. “, explains Danièle Thompson.
“Brigitte is aware of the project. She spoke with Danièle and Christopher and expressed all her confidence in the project, while expressing the wish to stay away from all this, quiet, ”adds co-producer Judith Rochelois.
“That damn kid”
“You don’t look like a movie star yet my poor darling,” says Anne-Marie Bardot, Brigitte’s mother, to the teenager as she prepares for a meeting with “Monsieur Allégret”. This line alone sums up the rigorous education and the milieu of the upper middle class from which Brigitte Bardot comes. “This mother brings her daughter to all the castings while telling her how unprepared, ungrateful and not intelligent enough she is. Their relationship is very complicated, ”laughs Géraldine Pailhas, who lends her features to Anne-Marie Bardot, the severe mother of the future star.
“You’re barbering them, mom,” says the fake ingenue in the director’s office, who receives her in the presence of her assistant, a certain Roger Vadim (Victor Belmondo), who was to become her first love and her first husband. “He had an apparent carelessness and had this philosophy of smiling at life no matter what,” greets Victor Belmondo.
“What we liked was Danièle and Christopher’s view of this character and even more, as a public service, of an era, it’s the portrait of an era that is ending and that of ‘an era that is beginning,’ underlines Morad Koufane, deputy director of international series for the France Télévisions group.
“The Bride on the Neck”
“We also wanted to talk about this era, the fact that even with such an exceptional destiny, we cannot escape the shackles in which the women of the time found themselves, which was closer to the 19th century than today” , adds Danièle Thompson.
In the sanitized French society of the late 1950s, the young Brigitte Bardot immediately appeared as a free, rebellious and non-conformist woman. “Bardot represents a revolution, which was an unconscious revolution, she was a feminist without wanting to,” analyzes Danièle Thompson.
” And God created the woman “
“Until the moment we found Julia de Nunez, we said to ourselves that it was a crazy ambition to make a series on Bardot, because the comparison with the icon that was Brigitte was going to be complicated. We did not look for look-alikes, but for people capable of embodying the characters,” reports Judith Rochelois.
From the pre-credits of the first episode, the revelation Julia de Nunez dances this almost animal trance at the heart ofAnd God created the woman. “I took a lot of dance lessons: classical, mambo and flamenco. In life, I’m not a very good dancer. Dancing helped me a lot to embody it, ”says the actress. And to add: “It’s not just a dance, it’s a release, a space of extreme freedom”
Roger Vadim’s film, released in 1956, made his wife a planetary sex symbol. “What is happening to him is not trivial at all. She made 17 films before And God created the woman, including some with starring roles. She has a normal career. All of a sudden, this film arrives and life will never be the same again”, explains Danièle Thompson.
“She became in her time an ultra-famous actress, objectified, almost already animalized, pursued. It arouses a wave of planetary admiration and hatred”, abounds Christopher Thompson. “We can’t imagine what happened in the United States when the film was released. It’s an insane thing: people excommunicated, the ban on showing this film which was going to cause riots, ”recalls Danièle Thompson.
“One Night Deal”
“We didn’t want to be exhaustive, but we chose the chapters that seemed interesting to us and to depict the relationships between interesting characters: his relationship with his parents, his meeting with Vadim in the first episode, the filming of And God created the woman who marks the end of one love story and the beginning of another, and so on,” explains Christopher Thompson.
With each new episode, a new love: Jean-Louis Trintignant (Noham Edje), Jean-Louis Trintignant, Sacha Distel (Fabian Wolfrom), Gilbert Bécaud (Mikaël Mittelstadt) or even Jacques Charrier (Oscar Lesage). She is “a freedom-loving woman, who has an extremely voluntary way of living her life and choosing the men she wants to be with,” notes Christopher Thompson.
“We think the series will tell the way men look at her, but it tells something else entirely, the way this woman moves in this society, in the midst of all these men she wants one after the other” , adds Géraldine Pailhas.
“She loves men and she assumes it. It was not done at the time to have one lover after another, and moreover, even if it happened, it was not known, but it was impossible for her to hide, as soon as she put her nose outside, she got caught, ”comments Danièle Thompson.
Over the episodes, “This freedom that she embodied turned against her”, deplores the screenwriter and director who believes that this “surge of world notoriety broke her. This prevented a normal career from blossoming. “A creature that remains an icon, “always without filter”, smiles Christopher Thompson.