IN late September of 1960 the 26-year-old daughter of a well-to-do Versailles industrialist walked alone into the small garden of a cot- tage on the French Riviera coast.
by legend
Raising her bare arms she quickly and quietly cut the veins of both wrists.
It is important to think of her at an ordinary girl of middle- class birth. For, in the lads of millions, she is as
unreal as candy floss und the problems she has had to face are frequent ly obscured by legend, prejudice and idolatry.
But she was real enough that
day in the garden.
To understand Bardot
why Brigitte
tried to end her life, you should see her she leaves
gala prezlere in Paris. loveliness shimmers, unreal and unattainable as a butterfly in flight.
Nightmare
THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1961.
OUT OF THE VALLEY
of Despair an idol
.. prejudice
by HERBERT KRETZMER
PEOPLE as different as you can imagine but linked by a common experience. They ore people who have faced a moment of Supreme danger and pulled through safely. Their stories are as unusual as they are inspiring. Today: Brigitte Bardot.
can't. Her Privee" the girl falls from the Brigitte
Peopic stare. edge of a high building, pursued They point. They walk past the by a cameraman, from whom table to be near her, to see her she has been endeavouring to close up. escape,
boty
The
moving
and
created
hysteria
"The attempted suicide waken- ed her to many things. For instance, she has told me many times that, after her recovery, she realised a maternal drive for her baby she never had before. The first time the baby said 'Mama' to her Brigitte realised what her death would have meant to the child. She came face to face, in other words, with
responsibility to other people.
Big crisis
"Her life, of course, is still im- possible. It always will be. But
sensc this 1
4 new strength in Brigitte."
the early days She falls in slow motion, her seemed glamorous, but now it cartwheeling, her hair, has become a terror to her. Her streaming in the wind, her eyes whole nature, which is simple already dead, awaiting release, and bourgeoise fights it.
spirit behind "H Is 100 late to choose "Vie Privee's" ambitious theme (bscurity. Certainly she wants is its attractive and purposeful to be an actress. There is a woman producer. Christine ced in her But she didn't Grouze Renal.
know she would become entangled in a myth.
"i remember one day Brigitte care to me, almost mad with distress. She had been visiting friend in a hospital and had been attack.od by one of the
to stab
Suddenly,
like the opening moments of a recurring night- mare, the jostling crowd in the
Mme, Renal says and I theatre foyer recognise her as
she do not doubt her that the film they have knows Bardet better than any- the star of ju51 sten
body in France. She has pro- duced at least five Bardot aims, Their
fingers point, spiay, has been Bardot's closest friend, reach out to touch her. The blind brute force of fan worship date, and adviser through women employed at the hospi- envelops her like a suffocate the years of obscurity and fame. wal. This woman tried
"I love Brigitte," Mme Renal blanket. The police heave them said: "Nobody understands her Brigitte with a fork, screaming selves into a protective covey, as I do. When she is troubled that her son was fighting in made Algeria while Brigitte millions of tranes
taking her clothes off and showing her disgusting body.
shielding the girl from the she turns to me. mindless mob which has elevat- her mother."
ed her to shrine-status.
A staircase begins to sway
beneath the crush. Someone screams.
This scene, pinpointing the
hysteria that attends the upper
I have become
Freedom
strula of popular gods, comes Few mothers,
astonishing French nim titled 47, is s
however, look
"Brigite was like a terrifñed child
She never dreamed the
could be ga detested, I tried to
comfort her, tried to explain that worship
and cavy were inseparable. I have used that
halfway through Д new and as good as this woman who, at samar
same scene in the Alm, but 1
as trim
"Vie Privec. It stars Brigitte Frescrvod 1$ why Bardot, and has its world open- When 1 met her to ing in Paris on February 15. office she wore ย
Vie Privee"
(Private Life)
is the most notably important alm Bardot has ever made since I deliberately sets out to dupli- cate the eircumstances of her
and well- have shifted it out of the bos- teenager, pilal and into a lift, because her Paris the essence of the problem is a
chunky kind of claustrophobia,
weste over 1 PTCY dress, see? smoked glasses, and un alt of intelligent vitality."
"Suicides," she said, "do not happen in 24 hours. They are
own tragic and tinselled life. a culmination of the way we
The fim tells the story of Jili.
a (Swiss girl of 16, who becomes
Paris.
a ravishing screen legend in
Ambitious
are forced to live.
People, she went OIL,
Sacrifice
everywhere in the world have "Brigitte, you see,
do you
could only
an ambivalem attitude towards be happy with a man who is Brigitte, They hate her and
love her at the same time.
stronger than she.
She would
Behind all that fan worship have to have a man of intelli-
kind of loathing....
gence, maturity, 4
10
someone, say, years older than she is. But mah would have, believe such
inevitably, to sacrifice
there is destre,
and envy,
"Brigitte, you must
1
me,
But It is really the story
of
Brigitte Bardot herself,
onyone can imagine.
this
His
hates her life more than tuentity. He would be splashed the "Fame for her has been an across the fan magazines.
whole family would be dragged
creation of the universal sex imprisonment.
She cannot even
icgend about her name, her own pretend to the common freedom in. He would be known, never fatal inability to cope with the acclaim forced on her, until the to buy a pair of shoes in St as himself, but as the man who
married Bardul without 300 people
The Tropez
only escape 15 the oblivion of
death, In real life Brigitte following her and crowding into
Bardot sought flight through the shop. suicide after cameranten pur-
"No man of self-respect and strength and talent could bring himself to play such a part. In Michele my film there is just such a man in his way, loves her. But
"Look, a star like
eat In a Patis
sued her to her cottage hide- Morgan can
away. In the last seme of "Vie restaurant and nobody cares, but he is a man of the theatre,
•
BY. THE WAY.
by Beachcomber
who, in dedicated and respected. "It not
Your
fault, or mine,' he tries to explain, we are the victims.
"That is why Brigitte has always been involved in sorrie idiotic Jove affair with these young French: stars, rock 'n' roll singers, and the rest. They are not what Brigitte needs. She
THE Politeness Campaign or men have decided that the au-knows that.
believe me, say
Courtesy Drive of British thorities have no right to con- "She is bored, Railways to improve relations trol the moral behaviour of un-with all of thern. I don't between the railway staffs and dergraduates. They may think they don't love her in their own the publie is already taking they are very daring, but their way. But remember. They have escapades will seem rather tame nothing to lose and everything. The other day the amplifier at when Nikaboka, the son of to gain from the association. * London terminus was blaring Koolukatfatti and Shugakuki,
effect
out a valee, when a porter ap- comes to Balliol with his proached a lady, bowed, and wives.
said, "May I have the pleasure
of this dance?" Another porter, Wugwell tries again
struggling with luggage, said to
72
a girl, "Have you redd ay DEAR ZABOULA-We of the
circus cannot get used to
dirty books lately?" "He was your being Mrs Wretch-would
Locked up
"Brigitte tried to take her own
just making conversation," said you consent this year to appear life because she felt she
in the ring for a brief mo- locked up. She
a guard.
In passing
N°
TO wonder the spires of Ox-
last
was
felt she had
ment, to receive a bouquet and nowhere to go. The myth had a kiss from Anselmo the clown? become too strong for her. The kiss would be a mere
ford are whispering the formality, and need not arouse "She felt she was going mad,
enchantments of
middle-aged. Certain
CHESS
the jealousy in your hubby's breast. and so she tried to end it. Be young Such a
gesture on your part lieve me, it was a serious
no joke. would pack the ninepennies and attempt. It was
by LEONARD BARDEN
Here is a study by
[5167)
Korolkov. Whito to move and
If
do us a bit of good. Be a sport, people say otherwise it is the Zabble, and help your old pals envy that talks. of the circUB,
Something wrong
נו
Mme. Renal closed her eyes Your old boss, for a moment behind her dark Ernie Wugwell. glasses. She ran slim angers through her ash-blonde hair in a combing motion. "I know this somewhere to be true," she said. "She is a daughter to me. She does not FIES who act no agents for show herself to many people. It several countries: often. get is not my tenderness that blinds confused. One of them, who was me.
working for Russia, America, Albania, China, and East Ger many, was rudely rebuffed when his papers got mixed up, and he offered to sell American secrets to p American agent who was working exclusively for America.
Nothing to do with me
Her baby
"Sho will never," Mr 05 Renal added, "try it again.
seoher every and I tell
you sho
than
T SEE that cows in America changed more win. This problem stumped are being given false-teeth knows. many competitors in the 1901made of steel, so that they can British Championship. If you can and the complete solution at more. Someone comumentet
that it makes
dety
SA OTE
anyon,
She has conquered – zasny them looks very things. Most important of all, from the P diagram before tomorrow you on reckon old. So many of them also go she is learning to be along. Sho bald with worry: (dies, etc.) (en nover could bear to be alone. middle age. Why not give them That is the simple reason why Wigste
she accepted all those mediocre -{London Express service), love affair not to be alone, B
yourself a
**London zenima KETTİRDİ,
In France last week proof of Bardot's new-found maturity re- vealed itself dramatically when she publicly scorned a cash de mand by France's neo-Fascist secret army. That sort of gesture needs courage. As Mme. Renai told me:---
"She will age magni- ficently now the big crisis is over. Her strength had to. come from within, as it did. The deepest despairs of her youth are over. She has come out of the out of the shadow valley
"
(London Express Scrvlaa).
Brigitte Bardel —– Boredom and a razor blade
WORLD'S MOST