BARDOT

Season 1

North American Premiere | TV Series | France | 2023 | Biopic, Drama | 6 x 52 min | Complete season 1 presented in 2 parts | In French with English subtitles
Directed by: Danièle and Christopher Thompson
Written by: Danièle and Christopher Thompson
Produced by: Pascal Breton and Judith Rochelois (Federation Studios), G-Films, Mediaset S.p.A
Cinematography: Michel Amathieu
Film Editing: Catherine Schwartz, Emmanuel Jégo, Clémence Samson
Original Score: Arthur Simonini
Cast: Julia de Nunez (Brigitte Bardot), Hyppolite Girardot (Pilou Bardot), Géraldine Pailhas (Toty Bardot), Victor Belmondo (Roger Vadim), Yvan Attal (Raoul Lévy), Anne Le Ny (Olga Horstig), Noham Edge (Jean-Louis Trintignant), Lou Gable (Mijanou Bardot), Laurent Stocker (Pierre Lazareff)
International Sales: Federation Studios
Original Broadcast: France 2, May 2023

Fresh-faced newcomer Julia de Nunez brings the iconic Brigitte Bardot to visceral, plaintive life in her very first screen performance, opposite the equally charismatic Victor Belmondo (Jean-Paul’s grandson), who plays writer/director Roger Vadim. Touting an all-star French cast, the six-episode biopic series traces the life of the ’50s “French bombshell,” from her first audition at 15, through her explosive international breakout in Vadim’s risqué 1957 …And God Created Woman, to her powerful performance in Henri-Georges Cluzot’s Truth in 1960. Bardot is more than a myth in her native country — “sex kitten,” Marianne (the national personification of liberty), unrelenting animal rights activist, and what Simone de Beauvoir called “the most liberated woman in post-war France,” all rolled into one. And de Nunez indeed manages to evoke all that with grace, poise and apparent ease in this post-WWII Pygmalion story in which a sheltered bourgeois teen-age girl ignites a veritable sexual revolution in France.

Bardot is clearly a family affair. Co-creators, co-writers and co-directors, Danièle and Christopher Thompson have been working together for 23 years. Danièle, herself, began her career as the extremely successful co-writer of a string of monumental French comedy hits co-written and directed by her father, Gérard Oury, including La Grande Vadrouille (1966) and The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973). Her other writing credits include Jean-Charles Tacchella’s Oscar-nominated Cousin Cousine (1975), Claude Pïnoteau’s The Party (1980), and Patrice Chéreau’s Queen Margot (1994) and Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train (1998). In 1999, Danièle Thompson moved into the director’s chair, now co-writing her scripts with her son Christopher, whose acting credits stretch back to 1989. Their joint credits include The Log (1999), Jet Lag (2002), Orchestra Seats (2006), It Happened in Saint-Tropez (COLCOA 2013) and Cezanne et Moi (2016). Bardot had its world premiere at the Series Mania Festival in Lille in March 2023. The entire first season will close the TAFFF 2023 Series Competition, in its North American Premiere screening.