Bardot

We all have a bright side and a darker side, and Brigitte Bardot never shied away from exploring her contradictions. The Parisian actress, raised in a strict bourgeois environment, dazzled the world with her beauty and an uncommon sense of freedom. Bardot appeared on screens in a somber, postwar Europe, and her charisma made her rise meteoric. In 1973, she stepped away from the spotlight, paparazzi, gossip magazines, and worldly life, choosing environmental activism and animal rights instead. The film’s co-director, after persistent effort, managed a personal meeting with Bardot, who passed away a few months later. The word “iconic” may be overused, but the images in this documentary show exactly that: a symbol-woman, a secular deity, the epitome of 1960s France.