`I'm Even More Rebellious than Before` – French Cinema Icon Brigitte Bardot Turns 90

Brigitte Bardot, the charming and inimitable BB, the French actress who became a film and beauty icon for the whole world in the 1950s and 70s, celebrates her 90th birthday today, 28 September. From her home in Saint-Tropez, this fiery and independent woman continues to fascinate fifty years after she left the world of cinema.

Brigitte Bardot, who rose to fame in 1956 with And God... Created Woman, became an almost instant global sex symbol. The conservative society of that time was outraged by this young woman who freely demonstrated her sexuality. 

BB's ‘shock wave’ quickly took France and the world by storm. Everyone began to love her, admire her, envy her, copy her. They copied her hairstyle, clothing style, shoes, ballerina look, make-up.

Perhaps even more than her filmography, Brigitte Bardot's songs testify to her fiery temperament. By her own admission, BB had a lot of fun playing the role of a singer.

One of the most beautiful women in the world, she could seek eternal youth from the best doctors and cosmetic surgeons to turn the traces of the past into an intimate and invisible struggle. However, Brigitte Bardot has long since set her priorities elsewhere: in defence of animals and the planet.

At the age of 90, Brigitte Bardot remains a living myth. Although she has not made a film since 1973 and has not recorded a song since 1982, BB remains a timeless icon. 

Her freedom, her love affairs, her films, and her commitments are all controversial. However, a lesser-known aspect of her personal life has made headlines on numerous occasions: her refusal to accept the role of mother.

In an interview with RTL in 1969, Bardot confessed her aversion to stereotypical female roles, citing a fear of ageing. This refusal to conform to societal expectations was reflected in her vision of motherhood. 

However, in 1960, Bardot gave birth to a son, Nicolas, from her marriage to Jacques Charrier. After their divorce in 1963, the boy was raised by his father.

Today, after the deaths of Belmondo and then Delon, 90-year-old Brigitte Bardot is perhaps the last great star in a world dominated by influencers and YouTubers.

‘She is the last great representative of a certain type of French cinema that made people dream, that was very high quality, that was very well exported,’ Vincent Perrault, author of the book Internationale BB, dedicated to the life of Brigitte Bardot, told RTL.

‘She feels good, she is happy with her husband Bernard,’ the journalist adds.

Brigitte Bardot: ‘She continues to fight for the protection of animals, it's her life's fight. Not to mention the fact that she ‘loves to write’. Brigitte Bardot responds to ‘people who write to her’. Except that at the moment, ‘she is completely overwhelmed by the events, surprised by the scale of this anniversary’. Because, you see, ‘she now receives an average of five kilograms of mail a day from all over the world’.

Today, as before, the iconic hairstyles and looks of Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren, who also celebrated her 90th birthday in Rome last week, are once again relevant.