One of the most beautiful women of the 20th century has died. Five facts about Brigitte Bardot

Film star, sex symbol of the 20th century, singer and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot died on December 28 at the age of 91. The writer Simone de Beauvoir called her as important an export product of France as the Renault car, and noted that the actress was not loved in her native country because of her frankness and honesty, shocking the audience. What else is known about Brigitte Bardot — in the material of Izvestia.

Fact 1. Rebelled against her parents

Brigitte Bardot, along with her younger sister Marie-Jean, grew up in a family of wealthy bourgeois: her father Louis Bardot owned several factories, and her mother Anne-Marie Musel was the daughter of an insurance company director. The parents held conservative views, were ardent Catholics, and the children were brought up strictly.

Brigitte recalled in her book that her mother chose her girlfriends, and her father once punished his daughters with 20 lashes for breaking his favorite vase. This incident finally quarreled with her parents and awakened her rebellious spirit. In the future, she committed many shocking acts that caused outrage to her family.

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Fact 2. The fate was determined by the Second World War

During World War II, when Paris was occupied by the Nazis and there was strict surveillance of the civilian population, the Bardot family hardly left the house. During this period, young Brigitte entertained herself by dancing to classical music recorded on records. Noticing the talent, the mother enrolled her seven-year-old daughter in a private ballet school. In 1949, Brigitte began studying ballet at the prestigious Paris Conservatory, where she attended classes by Russian choreographer Boris Knyazev for three years.

It was at the conservatory that Helene Gordon-Lazareff, director of the fashion magazines Elle and Le Jardin des Modes, noticed her and invited her to become a model. At the age of 14, Brigitte Bardot starred for the magazine for the first time, and a year later, after a photo shoot for Elle magazine, she received an offer to star in a film. The film was closed, but during the Bardot auditions, she met 21-year-old assistant director, future director and screenwriter Roger Vadim (Vadim Plemyannikov), who became her first love and lifelong friend. The parents opposed the relationship between the young people and their daughter's acting career, but eventually reconciled, stipulating that the lovers would get married when Brigitte turned 18.

Fact 3. The screen image was created by Roger Vadim

• In anticipation of the wedding, Vadim did everything to make Bardot noticed and gave her a role. At all social events, he made sure that the future actress was the center of attention, and her photos from the events were successful. He started writing scripts specifically for her. Already at the age of 17, Bardot made her film debut, and a year later she married Roger Vadim.

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Her real star was her role in her husband's directorial debut, the 1956 film And God Created a Woman, in which Bardot appeared as both an innocent and a sensual blonde. According to legend, the censors tried to cut nude scenes from the film, but they were not there. As Vadim himself said, in order to shock, Bardot "did not need to undress." The picture made the actress popular not only in France, but also abroad, and the image in which she appeared in the film put her on a par with the sex symbols of the 50s — Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren. After this film, Bardot and Vadim's marriage broke up — the actress fell in love with her partner on the set, Jean-Louis Trintignant.

Fact 4. Exploited on set

• The most difficult experience for Bardot was filming the film "The Truth" directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. She recalled how, during the filming of the heroine's suicide scene, she felt unwell and asked for two aspirin pills. Instead of painkillers, the director gave her a powerful sleeping pill to make the actress look more sleepy in the frame. According to Bardot, she slept for 48 hours because of these pills.

• The director psychologically pressured the actress to achieve the desired result on the set, claiming that her life was over and she would achieve nothing more. Bardot recalled in her book that Clouzot "destroyed all my powers to create an appearance of mental turmoil in the film." Shortly before the premiere, she made another suicide attempt: doctors diagnosed her with depression. Critics called her work in "Truth" the best in the career of an actress — it was this film that revealed her ability to play tragic roles.

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Fact 5. She didn't think she was cut out for motherhood.

• According to Bardot, she has had several abortions, and her only child is her son Nicholas. After learning about the actress' pregnancy, her lover and co-star in the comedy "Babette goes to War" Jacques Charrier insisted on marriage and the birth of a child. According to the actress, she "had no maternal instinct." The marriage lasted three years: after the divorce, Nicholas stayed with his father.

• After the publication of the actress' autobiography, "Initials B.B.," her ex-husband and son sued Bardot for disclosing details of her private life and insults. Jacques Charrier has published his own book, which he called "My Answer to Brigitte Bardot." In the book, he stated that the actress actually loved her son — this was confirmed by her letters.