While she retired prematurely at the age of 39, Brigitte Bardot has left an indelible mark on France’s popular culture in the 1960s and 1970s. With her wild blonde mane, smoky eyes and pouty lips, Bardot became a symbol of a modern, effortlessly sexy French woman and a style emblem that continues to inspire current trends.
The event series “Bardot,” which is penned and directed by Daniele Thompson (“The Queen Margot”) and Christopher Thompson (“La bûche”), world premiered at Series Mania Festival to unanimous praise and has been pre-sold by Federation nearly worldwide.
“‘Bardot’ is like the French ‘The Crown’ because Bardot embodied France, and through her journey we reminisce about many parts of France’s history and popular culture in the 1950s and 1960s,” Federation’s boss and “Bardot” producer Pascal Breton told PvNew. “That era is a historical moment where everything changes, where we go from black and white to color, and for me Bardot symbolizes this turning point in every way, because we went from a very puritanical and cold society to a liberation, a social, political and sexual revolution.”
He admits he had been wanting to make a series about Bardot for about three decades and was inspired by when he created the cult series “Sous le Soleil,” which is set in Saint Tropez by the beach where he remembers seeing Bardot singing, filmed by Serge Gainsbourg.
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Commissioned and financed by France Televisions and Mediaset, “Bardot” was pre-sold to Netflix for France, Germany and German-speaking territories, Benelux and Switzerland, Turkey (Turkcell), Sweden (SVT), Finland (YLE), Norway (NRK), Portugal (RTP), Czech Republic (Czech TV) Canada (CBC) and Radio Canada, with a raft of further territories in negotiations.
Like Bardot, the series is a sexy breed with a prestige pedigree. In six luscious episodes spanning from 1949 to 1960, Daniele Thompson captures the rebellious star’s conservative upbringing in a bourgeois Parisian environment, her breakthrough turn in “And God Created Woman,” directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim in St. Tropez, while depicting the birth of French cinema’s golden years and what society looked like back then.
Newcomer Julia de Nunez embodies a modern, assertive and fiery Bardot — probably idealized — and the resemblance is stunning. She’s surrounded by a strong supportive cast including Yvan Attal, who plays the colorful French producer Raoul Levy, Victor Belmondo as Roger Vadim, Oscar Lesage as Jacques Charrier, and Geraldine Pailhas and Hippolyte Girardot as Bardot’s parents.
Breton says Daniele Thompson was the ideal talent to create and pen the show, not only because of her background but also because she’s familiar with Bardot, having grown up in Saint Tropez where Bardot lived. Thompson has herself had a glamorous life, as the daughter of revered French director Gérard Ouryand actor Jacqueline Roman. The producer is now eyeing a second season which will explore Bardot’s glorious and short-lived career in music, notably her collaboration with Gainsbourg.
