BRIGITTE Bardot has always been known to her fans, and now to a growing number of foes, by her initials BB — not bee-bee as pronounced in English but more like bay-bay, which also means baby in French.

When she celebrated her 80th birthday two weeks ago on Sept 28, the event once more turned into a national happening as far as media coverage is concerned; though BB characteristically stayed out of the hullaballoo.

A hugely popular actress and singer in France and an international star following her success in the film And God Created Woman in 1957, she was inevitably referred to as a ‘sex symbol’ by the American media. BB looked down upon that classification with a certain disdain and spurned offers to become a Hollywood star.

Instead, she felt much more comfortable being the main theme of an essay by Simone de Beauvoir entitled The Lolita Syndrome published in 1959 that described her as ‘the most liberated woman of the day’.

During the height of her career and at only 39 years of age, she abruptly decided to move out of the public eye in 1973, seeking quiet refuge in her St. Tropez residence in the south of France. Henceforth, she would not only turn down lucrative film offers but would also refuse to accept France’s most prestigious civilian award, the Légion d’Honneur.

Though she was able to avoid the limelight for more than a decade, BB suddenly caught the interest of media when she created the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare & Protection of Animals in 1986. Unsuccessful in convincing her rich friends to contribute to her foundation, she sold her jewellery to raise funds.

To match coherence with her cause, she became a vegetarian and launched a worldwide campaign for the protection of animals. One of the main fronts of her fight was to obtain a ban on the sale of horse meat, considered a major delicacy in France. She used her personal image to pressurise Chinese, Indian, Danish and Canadian governments, among others, to ban hunting of bears, tigers, elephants, dolphins, rhinoceros and other endangered species.

The Canadian wildlife conservation campaigner Paul Watson was so moved by BB’s support to his cause and her personal visit to his fast interceptor sea vessel, that in her honour he changed its name to MV Brigitte Bardot.

One of her biggest victories was to persuade the Bucharest municipality, the capital of Romania, not to exterminate some 300,000 stray dogs through poisoning. They were sterilised instead and BB’s foundation contributed 100,000 euros to cover cost of the operations.

Many people who agree with BB’s animal protection campaign sympathise with her; others smile sardonically, though abstaining from showing any signs of opposition to her movement. But she has also made lots of enemies among the strong believers of the ‘global village’ ideology that is very popular today even in a country like France known for its ‘cultural exception’ and individualistic thinking.

In various public statements and through her two books, Pluto’s Square (1999) and A Scream in Silence (2003), she bitterly criticises the rising number of immigrants in France, especially from African and Arab countries. “Our country has always adhered to its secular republican status and many among our forefathers have given their lives at war fronts so that it remains so,” she writes, “but today France is submitting itself to an uncontrolled invasion by people who not only refuse to obey the rule of law but will, in the coming years, succeed in imposing on us their own laws.”

Over the past 15 years a number of racial hatred lawsuits have been brought against BB and she has been ordered to pay by different courts fines amounting to nearly 50,000 euros.

Despite her controversial character, even her critics agree that BB has remained an original. She blurts out what she believes in, not caring if it would bring her further animosity. And, most extraordinarily for a movie star known in her days as a sex symbol, she has never gone through any kind of cosmetic surgery to make herself look prettier, younger or slimmer. In her rare public appearances today, BB can be seen as a graceful elderly lady replete with wrinkles, grey hair and all.

There have been many attempts to publish a biography or make a film about her life but she has remained vehemently opposed to the idea. Some time ago when a film producer announced launching such a project, she immediately put him in place: “Wait until I am dead before you start making your film,” she warned him, “or sparks will fly!”

—The writer is a journalist based in Paris.

ZafMasud@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2014