Cinema created and destroyed the marriage of Brigitte Bardot and Roger Vadim

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The fiery romance between cinematographer Roger Vadim and actress Brigitte Bardot lasted only five years. But its fruits are still being reaped by people all over the world - these are beautiful films made by a couple of outstanding creative people.

The French director, screenwriter and journalist Roger Vadim has married five times - and always with very beautiful women. Moreover, these were not just marriages: all of his wives, except for the last one, became celebrities. And the first on this list was the charming Brigitte Bardot.

We remember Brigitte from the late 1960s more: a kind of sex bomb, a symbol of eroticism, a vamp woman. However, she became like that later … Vadim was not the first to notice that Brigitte was special, not like everyone else. But it was he who made her a girl as beautiful as Aphrodite. He was a Pygmalion man who knew how to see diamonds and how to cut them.

The ugly duckling and the ladies' man

Brigitte Bardot, like many future beauties of stars, was considered ugly in childhood. She was too cheekbone and too big-mouthed. Her front teeth protruded somewhat forward - as a child, she was forced to wear a bar to correct the bite. What was special about this ugly duckling? Amazing natural grace, thin waist, the ability to keep your head straight and, carefully looking into your eyes, listen to the interlocutor. From fifteen-year-old Bardo there was a light that could not be described in words.

The first woman-photographer from the fashion magazine Elle drew attention to this stream of light emanating from a fifteen-year-old girl. She was a friend of Bardo's parents, the prosperous bourgeois. In 1950, a photo shoot of a lovely girl, who was soon to be sixteen, appeared in this edition. She was presented as a future ballet star: Brigitte was actively involved in classical dance.

Roger Vadim (real name - Roger Vladimir Plemyannikov) was a descendant of a Russian aristocratic family on his father, and a Frenchman on his mother. His father served as the French consul in Egypt. The boy was born in 1928, he began to show independence early. And already in his very young years, he began to demonstrate a passion for bohemian life and beauty, mainly female. He wrote poetry and prose, became a master of secular reporting, worked as assistants to the director Marc Allegre.

The photo of the adorable girl from the cover was brought by Vadim to Allegra. He, not yet knowing what the charming Brigitte would do in the cinema, ordered the assistant to urgently find her, "until they intercepted."

Fifteen-year-old Brigitte melted from the passionate glances that Roger Vadim threw at her. The girl did not understand yet: the future director did not just like her, he fell in love with her not only as a girl. Vadim immediately understood: before him is a diamond, which, with a little effort, can be turned into a sparkling diamond. Therefore, he began to show her attention.

The family of respectable bourgeois Bardot was horrified. Vadim was accused of almost attempting to seduce a minor. But this man always knew how to get into the trust of those with whom he considered it necessary to maintain good relations. He convinced Monsieur and Madame Bardot of the seriousness of his intentions. But the parents did not calm down: they wanted the young to get married according to the Catholic rite. Roger readily converted from Orthodoxy to Catholicism. For this, the secular rake even attended catechism classes! Then the venerable Bardo couple made the following claim to the groom: why, as they would say now,"Hangs out" at the cinema and does not have a permanent job? Vadim easily got a job as a full-time reporter at Paris Match: such a step brought him even closer to the coveted world of actresses and models.

Mom and dad of the young beauty calmed down somewhat. True, they could not even think that the young had entered into an intimate relationship a long time ago. Brigitte was not only attractive by nature, but also sensual …

When the girl was eighteen, they got married. At the same time, the bride's father insisted that the young spend the night together only after the wedding. Many years later, Vadim recalled how he spent his "wedding night" after a secular ceremony on a narrow couch in the living room. And all alone.

And God created a woman

The young couple did not go well at first. Brigitte starred in commercials, appeared on the movie screen a couple of times in minor episodes. There was a catastrophic lack of money: they rented a disgusting apartment with no amenities. Vadim began to show the worst sides of his nature: at night he disappeared in a cafe with friends, chatted with them, drank wine, played cards - in general, he lived a social life, into which the young beauty he won was not allowed. Bardo cried and was angry, although she understood: her beloved was faithful to her. It seemed to the girl that this was how she would spend her life in poverty and obscurity.

In fact, Vadim did not sit idly by. First, he gradually began to create from his wife the image of the dream girl of an entire generation. From a dark brown-haired woman, she dyed her hair blonde. He taught her how to fluff her hair fluffy, eyeliner and lips thickly, wear bikinis and other sexy, provocative outfits. Now it was a bright flower, not a boring good girl, the daughter of a big factory boss. Secondly, Roger was looking for money for a film according to his own script. Soon the main event in their life together happened: Vadim got money for shooting. The painting was called "And God created a woman." She became an event in the world of cinema. Its director was now called the father of the French new wave.

The plot of the picture, released in 1956, was not particularly intricate: a young beauty, a fatal triangle, suffering. The main feature was Brigitte Bardot, who played the main role. Critics compared her to a primordial woman, to Venus by Botticelli, a beauty emerging from the foam of the sea. The actress was both sensual and innocent, meek and energetic, serious and frivolous. Her partner was Jean-Louis Trintignan, whom Vadim chose for the main role for his intelligence and seriousness.

Soon, all of France was only talking about the new stars that the young director sparked. The sad thing in this story for Vadim was that a passionate romance began between his wife and Trintignant, despite the fact that Jean-Louis was married.

Easy break

Vadim acted in his usual manner: he easily let go of Brigitte - without noisy scandals, presentation of demands and senseless hysterics. For this act, Bardo remained grateful to him for life. Now he became for her something like a father: a friend, adviser and executor. Brigitte, until his death in 2000, called her ex-husband "old Russian".

Why did Vadim let his wife go so easily? Not only because their passion has cooled somewhat. He just felt like a man who had done his job. The master who cut the diamond.

The next diamond, the authorship of which belongs to Roger, was the beautiful Danish woman Annette Stroyberg. Then Catherine Deneuve fell into his skillful hands, whom he saw as a quiet, short-haired girl and saw in her a superstar. And then - the American Jane Fonda, from whom this Pygmalion created the prima of European cinema. He went down in history no longer as a director, but as a person who discovered three talented and amazingly beautiful stars of world cinema. Vadim quickly realized why he was valued in the world of cinema, and shortly before his death he wrote a scandalous memoir, in which he called himself “the devil who lights the stars” …

Meanwhile, Jean-Louis Trintignant went into the army for three years. Windy Brigitte, of course, did not wait for him. She swirled in a whirlwind of romance. Her lovers included the most famous and handsome men in the world. She gave birth to a son, Nicolas, from actor Jacques Charrie.

Nevertheless, Bardo did not find happiness either in love or in motherhood. She proved to be an indifferent mother who abandoned her child in the care of her father. All of her marriages and romances were brief. And in 1973, having starred in more than four dozen films, she left the cinema and devoted her life to protecting animals. It seems like Bardo loves our smaller brothers more than humans.

Roger Vadim, not without sarcasm, spoke of his ex-wife that she does not feel lonely only when one dog sits on her lap, while the other licks Brigitte's hand at the same time. Everyone who knows Bardo today fully agrees with him.