BARDOT

North American Premiere | France, UK, Belgium | 2025 | Documentary, Biopic | 90 min | In French with English subtitles, in English |

Directed by: Alain Berliner
Written by: Elora Thevenet, Nicolas Bary, Alain Berliner, Jessica Menendez
Produced by: Nicolas Bary (TimpelPictures), Elora Thevenet, Julien Loeffler, James Kermack & James Barton-Steel (Featuristic Films), Benoît Rensonnet (Agent Double Productions)
Cinematography: Boris Abaza, Aurélien Dubois, Gaëlle Tanguy
Film Editing: Jérôme Pey
Cast: Brigitte Bardot (self, narrator), Naomi Campbell (self), Claude Lelouch (self), Josephine Thiesen (Brigitte Bardot), Stella McCartney (self), Paul Watson (self), Allain Bougrain-Dubourg (self), Hugo Clément (self)
International Sales: Fremantle

Synopsis

Brigitte Bardot opens the gates of La Madrague, her private estate in Saint-Tropez, and candidly reflects upon her life. Now 90, she and those close to her recount her meteoric rise to fame in Roger Vadim’s 1956 sensation And God Created Woman, her notorious love affairs, the pioneering role she played in redefining the image of women as free and sexual beings, and her lifelong battle for animal rights. A woman of extraordinary courage and conviction, Bardot also shares her struggles, her vulnerabilities, and the immense solitude that engulfed her amidst the media frenzy that has surrounded her throughout her career.

Director’s biography

Born in Brussels, writer/director Alain Berliner hit the ground running, when his first feature, Ma vie en rose (1997) premiered in the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, racked up prizes at a slew of international film festivals, nabbed a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, and was nominated for both a BAFTA and Cesar Award for Best First Feature. His subsequent features include The Wall (1998), Passion of Mind (2000) and J’aurais voulu être un danseur (2007), as well as the TV series Clara Sheller (2008), and TV movies La Maison du canal (2003), The Skin of Sorrow (2010), My Son (2014), Stolen Babies (COLCOA 2016), and Murders in Savoie (2017). Bardot premiered as an official selection in this year’s Cannes Classics program.