Brigitte Bardot (1934-2025)

Brigitte Bardot (1934–2025), one of the most recognisable and iconic actresses in 20th‑century cinema, passed away on 28 December. Dubbed “B.B.” by a captivated press, she embodied a new kind of sensual freedom in films that ranged from Roger Vadim’s Et Dieu… créa la femme (1956) to Jean‑Luc Godard’s Le mépris (1963), where her luminous presence became inseparable from the very idea of cinematic allure. As Belgian philosopher Frank Vande Veire writes in his Sabzian essay on Bardot in Le mépris, her screen persona transcended narrative function: “Bardot is Bardot is Bardot… Everywhere she went, her name, her persona, her logo had preceded her, turning her into a kind of hallucinatory stand‑in of herself,” an image both irresistible and irreducible to simple interpretation, revealing the gap between the woman and the myth projected onto her.

After retiring from acting in 1973, Bardot devoted herself to animal welfare, founding the Brigitte Bardot Foundation. Yet her later years were marked by controversy: outspoken commentary on immigration, Islam, and national identity led to her alignment with far‑right causes in France and multiple convictions for racism and hate speech. These positions cast a long shadow over public memory of her life and work.