French movie star Brigitte Bardot died on Sunday at age 91. Sometimes referred to as France’s Marilyn Monroe, her startling beauty and engaging singing voice won her instant international fame with her initial film, “And God Created Woman.”
Like Marilyn, she was an intelligent, sensitive woman. But also controversial, given her right wing political views and support for Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party.
She inspired young Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCarthy, who insisted their girlfriends dye their hair blonde.
Intellectuals admired her as well. In 1959, ardent feminist Simone de Beauvoir penned her landmark essay, “Brigitte Bardot and the Lolita Syndrome,” lauding her as France’s most liberated woman.
A non-conformist, she withdrew early from making films to support animal welfare, founding the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, and engaging in activist politics: “I gave my youth and beauty to men. I give my wisdom and experience to animals.”
I do not subscribe to her political views—she detested Muslims and gays. But as a passionate lover of animals and a vegetarian, I have admired her devoted witness on their behalf, protesting dolphin hunts in the Faroe Islands, religious sacrificial rituals, cat slaughter in Australia among other international cruelties.
This was her truest blooming.
In his tribute, French president French president, Emmanuel Macron wrote, “Her films, her voice, her dazzling glory … her sorrows, her generous passion for animals, her face that became Marianne, Brigitte Bardot embodied a life of freedom. A French existence, a universal radiance. She moved us. We mourn a legend of the century.”
Repozez en paix!
—rj
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