LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Roger Vadim: Brigitte Bardot
built 179 days ago
Roger Vadim directs his ex-wife Brigitte Bardot once again in this conventional film about an innocent young woman, Genevieve (Bardot), who ends up on the losing side of a relationship with an alcoholic -- at least for awhile. Genevieve is a typical, introverted, middle-class woman who would like to be a homemaker and live relatively well. Instead, she goes to a small town to receive an inheritance, and by accident she walks into the wrong room in her hotel. And just in time. The alcoholic Renaud (Robert Hossein) who occupies the room has tried to kill himself with an overdose of sleeping pills. Genevieve saves his life, and the two soon strike up a dysfunctional relationship.
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Vadim spent the remainder of the 1970s writing literary works, including two volumes of memoirs, Memoirs of the Devil and Bardot Deneuve Fonda. He returned to film in 1981 with Night Games, in which a young married woman who was the victim of a childhood rape attempts to conquer her sexual fears by engaging in sexual fantasizing. Vadim's final film was a remake of his first, And God Created Woman. Starring Rebecca De Mornay in the role created by Bardot, the 1988 version tells the story of a wrongly imprisoned female who promises her inheritance to a prison worker in exchange for a marriage that will expedite her parole. Once released... she focuses her energies on becoming a rock-and-roll star rather than a wife. While finding much to recommend the film, Roger Ebert wrote: "Is this a movie worth seeing?
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Annette Vadim is a stunning woman, but she’s ... a talented actress who is often overlooked due to being Vadim’s second wife between his marriages to the much better-known and celebrated beauties Brigitte Bardot and Jane Fonda. Before starring in Blood and Roses Annette appeared in Vadim’s Dangerous Liaisons (1960) and Jean Cocteau’s surreal masterpiece The Testament of Orpheus (1960). She brings a vulnerability and sadness to her role of Carmilla that is hard to forget. She also shares a fascinating chemistry with her lovely co-star Elsa Martinelli. Unfortunately Annette Vadim only made a few more films after Blood and Roses before retiring from acting in 1965. Elsa Martinelli on the other hand went on to become a mildly popular international star after appearing in films such as Hatari!
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After several years as a minor actor and unsuccessful screenwriter, Vadim secured financing for his own film, which would feature his young wife. In 1955, he released And God Created Woman, starring Bardot as a woman who marries in order to escape life in an orphanage. She does not love her new husband... and seduces his younger brother. The film became known for two scenes that spotlight the sensuality of Bardot. The first is the film's opening sequence in which Bardot lounges nude on the beach of Saint-Tropez, and the second is a barefoot dance she performs on a table top. Though she did not appear completely nude, Bardot's sensuality and her character's sexual freedom incited critical debates about art and pornography.
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Vadim (Bardot's husband at the time) captures Bardot's pure sensuality without any cheap devices. The nude scenes are handled with tactfully placed props or camera compositions. There are several sequences where Bardot's seductive qualities are highlighted, especially in her dance numbers. There is no denying her sex appeal, and though the storyline is far from overshadowed, it is easy to be distracted by the presence of one of film's most beautiful women occupying the screen. The St. Tropez locations are beautifully shot, and Vadim's use of composition shines in this widescreen presentation. He makes full use of the wide aspect ratio, often with characters occupying the extremes of the shot, or, as in Bardot's first appearance, by filling the screen with her.
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Vadim wurde am 26. Januar 1928 als Sohn eines ukrainischen Aristokraten und einer Französin in Paris geboren und wuchs in Palästina, Ägypten und der Türkei auf, wo er französische Privatschulen besuchte. Seine Karriere beim Film begann 1947, nachdem er bereits im Alter von 16 Jahren Bühnenerfahrung gesammelt hatte und die Schauspielschule von Charles Dullin besucht hatte. Von 1947 bis 1955 war er als Regieassistent für den französischen Regisseur Marc Allégret tätig. 1952 heiratete Vadim die französische Filmschauspielerin Brigitte Bardot, die er Ende der vierziger Jahre kennen gelernt hatte (Scheidung 1957), als er als Journalist für Paris Match arbeitete. In Vadims erster eigener Regiearbeit Et Dieu créa la femme (1956; Und immer lockt das Weib) spielte sie die weibliche Hauptrolle und wurde mit ihrer erotischen Ausstrahlung über Nacht zum Star und zum neuen Sexsymbol. Der Regisseur bediente sich hier wie auch in seinen späteren Arbeiten einer Filmsprache, die am visuellen Reiz schöner Oberflächen und an der sinnlichen Aura seiner Darstellerinnen orientiert war.
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