CINÉ LUMIÈRE
17 Queensberry Place
London SW7 2DT
Brigitte Bardot’s image and style continues to hold its power sixty years after the release of the film that launched her into stardom with a big bang. While her stunning, fresh and unrestrained beauty was the essence of her stardom, coupled with her open sexuality and unique style, these combined to create a potent, trend-setting power which ever since her heyday, has recurred again and again in fashion, every spring and summer… why?
Bardot’s career became a classic melange of the time; she started modelling at an early age before getting into films, a world that she abandoned as she turned 40, though she also tried her hand at recording some discs too. She was immensely popular – and still is – but not always universally loved. Nonetheless, her style has without fail annually always produced a list of lookalikes, and continues to influence the style of actresses, models and fashion campaigns worldwide.
Our expert guest speaker for this on-stage conversation, Ginette Vincendeau, gave us an exclusive insight into her enduring modernity, how the BB style and image have become so powerful, look at some of her associations with fashion brands, and why the iconic BB still matters in fashion today.
…AND GOD CREATED WOMAN
ET DIEU… CRÉA LA FEMME
dir: Roger Vadim
with Brigitte Bardot, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Curd Jürgens
France/Italy | 1956 | 95 mins | cert. PG | col
Set in Saint-Tropez, the film tells the story of Juliette a young girl who awakens the desire of all men in town with her beauty and sensuality. She’s in love with a man but, when her guardians threaten with sending her back to the orphanage, she marries his younger brother.
The film represented Bardot’s breakthrough making of her a global celebrity. Although initially it only enjoyed a discreet success in France, the film quickly became a phenomenon when news arrifed of the stirr it was causing in the United States with some states and priests advising not to watch it because it was a “devilish” influence. This year marks the 60th anniversary of its release in British cinemas.
ABOUT PROF. GINETTE VINCENDEAU
Prof. Ginette Vincendeau is Professor of Film Studies at King’s College and main research interests focus on French cinema, stars and women’s cinema and gender in cinema. She is a regular contributor to Sight & Sound magazine and to BBC radio. Among other books, she has published Brigitte Bardot as part of the BFI Palgrave Macmillan Film Star collection and Brigitte Bardot. The Life, the Legend, the Movies. In 1998 she was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her services to French Culture.
ABOUT JOANA GRANERO SÁNCHEZ
Founder of Fashion & Cinema, Joana Granero Sánchez is also a speaker, producer and Director of the London Spanish Film Festival. As a speaker she has interviewed actors and filmmakers such as Javier Bardem, Greta Scacchi, Emilia Fox, Andres Velencoso, Carlos Saura and Matt Tyrnauer.
