France mourns the loss of life of Brigitte Bardot, the animalist ‘Marianne’ | Cinema: premieres and evaluations | EUROtoday

The façade of the villa that Brigitte Bardot purchased years in the past in La Madrague, in Saint Tropez, on the shores of the Mediterranean, has begun to fill this morning with bouquets of flowers and messages of tribute to the final residing icon of French cinema of the fifties and sixties. Reactions to the loss of life of Brigitte Bardot happen all through the nation, which mourns the lack of the “legend of the century”, a free, dedicated girl, an emblem of freedom or “the quintessence of France”, in accordance with the totally different reactions.

“Her films, her voice, her dazzling fame, her sorrows, her generous passion for animals…”, French President Emmanuel Macron mentioned this morning on social community

Bardot was the primary character to embody the determine of Marianne, one of the crucial highly effective symbols of the Republic, of freedom and democracy for the reason that French Revolution. His bust is current in buildings and public areas and presides over the Place de la République in Paris. In 1969 the artist Alain Aslan sculpted a bust with Bardot’s face.

He has additionally in contrast it with Marianne Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally social gathering, one of many first to react to his loss of life. “Today the French people lose the Marianne they loved so much and whose beauty surprised the world (…). A fervent patriot and lover of animals, she embodied an entire era of French history, but also an ideal of bravery and freedom.”

“Brigitte’s death is a deep pain. France has lost an exceptional woman, notable for her talent, bravery and beauty. She was incredibly French: free, indomitable and pure of heart,” agreed the far-right chief, Marine Le Pen, for whom the actress has represented “the quintessence of France.”

The French author Simone de Beauvoir, creator of The second intercourse one of many basic works of feminism, already referred to Brigitte Bardot as “the locomotive of women’s history.” The actress “appears like a force of nature, dangerous, indomitable,” described her in an article printed in Esquire in 1960.

A logo of feminine emancipation, she really left her profession prematurely, earlier than turning 40, to dedicate herself to a different trigger, that of animals. In a current interview she mentioned that for her the scenario of animals “is more important than the situation of women.” In 1982 he recorded two songs, “All Animals Deserve to Be Loved” and “The Hunt,” and proceeds from the gross sales had been donated to this trigger.

In 1986 she created the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, devoted to rescuing deserted animals: “Despite her 91 years, every day she stayed informed of pending cases, she prepared letters for politicians. She was extraordinary, out of the ordinary,” reacted the spokesperson for her basis, Bruno Jacquelin.

“Icon, a Marianne, “His initials BB went around the world, with his insolent beauty and his total freedom,” said the Minister of Equality, Aurore Bergé. The Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, said that he was “the icon among icons.” “A legend that helped shape our imagination. Indomitably free and, ultimately, very French.”

Bardot was the last living icon of French cinema of the time, after the death of Alain Delon, in August 2024, or Jean-Paul Belmondo, in 2021. Thierry Frémaux, general delegate of the Cannes festival, told the France Info network that Bardot “built and defined the codes of what it meant to be a star and a celebrity worldwide.” And he pointed out: “Sometimes we now have underestimated in France what Bardot represented overseas, within the sixties particularly. It was a complete fable.”

Within the reactions of the world of culture, the filmmaker Claude Lelouch, 88, has highlighted the role that the actress had in the construction of the French identity: “She was greater than an actress, she was France. The normal [Charles] De Gaulle informed me in the future: France is me and Brigitte Bardot.”

Proof of that freedom and that indomitable character that he defended to the purpose of ending his profession to dedicate himself to animals, Lelouch has confessed how he unsuccessfully tried to shoot a movie with Belmondo and the actress because the protagonist and what his refusal was like: “She told me that she didn’t like movies too much because you have to pretend, and she didn’t like pretending.”