How does "Bardot" tell the birth of the icon "BB"?

• The first two episodes of Bardot are broadcast this Monday at 21:10 on France 2.
• The miniseries traces the rise of the actress from her debut at age 15 in 1949 to the birth of her son in 1960.
• How this biopic reveals how Brigitte Bardot became the iconic "BB"

And TV recreated Bardot! Over the course of six episodes of 52 minutes, Bardot, miniseries co-written and co-directed by Danièle Thompson and Christopher Thompson, broadcast this Monday at 21:10 on France 2, traces the rise of Brigitte Bardot (Julia de Nunez) from her debut at 15 in 1949 to the birth of her son in 1960. From his rigorous education to his meeting with Henri-Georges Clouzot for La Vérité via the scandalous And God... created the woman, this biopic allows us to discover how Brigitte Bardot became the iconic "BB".

"When I finished Sous le soleil in Saint-Tropez, I said to myself: 'I want to tell Bardot', because it's the whole history of cinema and that of one of the women that has marked the most," says co-producer Pascal Breton, whom 20 Minutes met during a round table organized by France Télévisions.

"The Great Maneuvers"

"What interested us was to look at the birth of the BB icon, to reflect on the genesis of this myth, to know the woman and the girl behind it. We wondered, "Who was this girl? And how did it become this phenomenon? And what does it feel like for a young girl to become a superstar?" " explains co-producer Judith Rochelois.

The duo of producers then called on Danièle Thompson and Christopher Thompson: "Before accepting, we immersed ourselves in the monumental documentation of the time and we thought there was something exciting to tell," explains Danièle Thompson.

"Brigitte is aware of the project. She spoke with Danièle and Christopher and expressed her full confidence in the project, while expressing the wish to stay away from all this, quiet, "adds co-producer Judith Rochelois.

"That damn kid"

"You don't look like a movie star yet, my poor darling," Jeangitte's mother, Anne-Marie Bardot, tells the teenager as she prepares for a date with "Monsieur Allégret." This line alone sums up the rigorous education and milieu of the upper bourgeoisie from which Brigitte Bardot came. "This mother brings her daughter to all the castings while telling her how unready she is at all, ungrateful and not smart enough. Their relationship is very complicated, "jokes Géraldine Pailhas, who lends her features to Anne-Marie Bardot, the severe mother of the future star.

"You barbez them, mom," says the fake ingénue in the director's office, who receives her in the presence of his assistant, a certain Roger Vadim (Victor Belmondo), who would become her first love and her first husband. "He had an apparent carelessness and had this philosophy of smiling at life no matter what," says Victor Belmondo.

"What we liked was Danièle and Christopher's view of this character and even more, as a public service, of an era, it is the portrait of an era that ends and that of an era that begins," says Morad Koufane, deputy director of international series at France Télévisions group.

"The Bridle on the neck"

"We also wanted to talk about this time, the fact that even with such an exceptional destiny, we do not escape the shackles in which women found themselves at the time, which was closer to the nineteenth century than today," adds Danièle Thompson.

In the sanitized French society of the late 1950s, the young Brigitte Bardot immediately appeared as a free, rebellious and nonconformist woman. "Bardot represents a revolution, which was an unconscious revolution, she was a feminist without wanting to," says Danièle Thompson.

"And God... created woman"

"Until we found Julia de Nunez, we thought it was a crazy ambition to make a series about Bardot, because the comparison with the icon that was Brigitte was going to be complicated. We looked not for lookalikes, but for people capable of embodying the characters," says Judith Rochelois.

From the pre-credits of the first episode, the revelation Julia de Nunez dances this almost animal trance at the heart of And God created woman. "I took a lot of dance classes: classical, mambo and flamenco. In life, I'm not a very good dancer. Dance helped me a lot to embody it, "says the actress. And to add: "It's not just a dance, it's a dump, a space of extreme freedom"

Roger Vadim's film, released in 1956, made his wife a global sex symbol. "What happens to him is not trivial at all. She made 17 films before And God Created Woman, some with leading roles. She has a normal career. All of a sudden, this movie happens and life will never be the same," says Danièle Thompson.

"She became in her time an ultra-famous actress, objectified, almost already animalized, pursued. It arouses a wave of admiration and global hatred," abounds Christopher Thompson. "You can't imagine what happened in the United States when the film came out. It's an insane thing: people excommunicated, the ban on showing this film that was going to cause riots, "recalls Danièle Thompson.

"The Case of a Night"

"We didn't want to be exhaustive, but we chose the chapters that seemed interesting to us and to stage the relationships between interesting characters: his relationship with his parents, his meeting with Vadim in the first episode, the filming of And God Created the Woman which marks the end of one love story and the beginning of another, and so on," says Christopher Thompson.

With each new episode, a new love: Jean-Louis Trintignant (Noham Edje), Jean-Louis Trintignant, Sacha Distel (Fabian Wolfrom), Gilbert Bécaud (Mikaël Mittelstadt) or Jacques Charrier (Oscar Lesage). She is "a freedom-loving woman, who has an extremely voluntary way of living her life and choosing the men she wants to be with," notes Christopher Thompson.

"We think that the series will tell the look of men on her, but it tells something else, the way of moving of this woman in this society, in the middle of all these men she desires one after the other," adds Géraldine Pailhas.

"She loves men and she takes it on. It was not done at the time to have one lover after another, and in addition, even if it was done, it was not known, but it was impossible for her to hide, as soon as she put her nose outside, she was caught, "comments Danièle Thompson.

Over the episodes, "This freedom that she embodied has turned against her," laments the writer and director who believes that this "wave of world notoriety has broken her. This prevented a normal career from flourishing. A creature that remains an icon, "always without filter," smiles Christopher Thompson.

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