WALL·E (2008)

WALL·E (2008) is the ninth feature animation film from Pixar Animation Studios. It was directed by Andrew Stanton, who also directed Finding Nemo (2003) and co-directed A Bug's Life (1998). The film follows the love story of two robots in the future. WALL·E was nominated for six Oscars, of which the film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Film.


American postcard from 'The Art of Pixar Volume II. 100 Collectable Postcards' by Chronicle Books. Image: Disney / Pixar. Concept Art by John Lee, layout by Jay Shuster, for WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008). Caption: Digital, 2006.


Brazilian postcard by Mica. Image: Disney / Pixar. Film image of WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008).


American postcard from 'The Art of Pixar Volume II. 100 Collectable Postcards' by Chronicle Books. Image: Disney / Pixar. Concept Art by Ralph Eggleston for WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008).

What would happen if mankind left Earth, but forgot to turn off the last remaining robot?

The year is 2700, and planet Earth has long been uninhabitable. WALL·E or WALL-E (short for "Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-class") is about a self-aware little robot of the same name that compacts waste on an otherwise deserted Earth. Humans fled the planet because it became too polluted and unlivable. Robots that were supposed to help clean up the waste were unable to prevent it. The film is set 700 years after mankind fled into the universe in large spaceships, including the Axiom. While no one is left on Earth, the personality-challenged WALL-E continues to do what he was built to do: clean up.

Unlike his peers, he still functions, repairing himself with parts from other robots. His only company is a cockroach that goes everywhere with him. One day, a robot called EVE (an abbreviation for 'Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator') arrives on Earth with a space probe. WALL-E immediately falls in love with EVE, but she pays no attention to him. EVE is much more advanced than WALL-E and is on Earth looking for a sign of life. When WALL-E shows her his collection of items collected over the years, he shows her, among other things, a living plant in a brown, worn-out shoe. EVE accepts this, following her instructions, and switches to inactive mode, much to the dismay of WALL-E, who does, however, take the opportunity to make 'romantic trips' with her. Sometime later, EVE is picked up by the space probe that sent her. The infatuated WALL-E is abandoned but goes after her.

When the first Pixar film, Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1985), was almost finished, the Pixar team (including Andrew Stanton) immediately thought about which other films they wanted to make. These ideas led to A Bug's Life (John Lasseter, 1998), Monsters, Inc. (Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, David Silverman, 2001), Finding Nemo (Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich, 2003) and WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008). After Stanton directed Finding Nemo (2003), he immediately went to work on the original idea: 'What would happen if mankind left Earth, but forgot to turn off the last remaining robot?

Pete Docter developed the film in 1995, within two months after Stanton told him the story. But unsure about telling a love story with machines, he decided to make Monsters, Inc. (Pete Docter, Lee Unkrich, David Silverman,2001) first. The little robot WALL-E made his first appearance in the short animated film Your Friend the Rat (Jim Capobianco, 2007), which Pixar made as bonus material for Ratatouille (Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava, 2007). Stanton designed WALL·E with the help of binoculars - he decided to create a main character who communicates his emotions without a mouth or nose and only with his eyes.

WALL·E refers in several ways to Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). For example, Captain McCrea takes on the now murderous flight computer, a scene similar to that between the character Dave and the now self-aware flight computer HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. During their struggle, McCrea stands up at a certain point while the musical score 'Also sprach Zarathustra' by Richard Strauss sounds. 2001: A Space Odyssey begins and ends with the same piece. The space capsule in which WALL-E is launched from the Axiom also corresponds to the space capsules from 2001: A Space Odyssey used for EVA.


Brazilian postcard by Mica. Image: Disney / Pixar. Film image of WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008).


Brazilian postcard by Mica. Image: Disney / Pixar. Film image of WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008).


Brazilian postcard by Mica. Image: Disney / Pixar. Film image of WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008).

More human and interesting than any live-action film

WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008) was produced by Jim Morris from Lucasfilm and John Lasseter from Pixar. The film had its premiere on 27 June 2008 at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, after which the film opened in 3992 cinemas in North America.

WALL·E was received overwhelmingly positively by critics. A. O. Scott of the New York Times called the first 40 minutes of the film, which are almost devoid of dialogue, "a cinematic poem of so much wit and beauty that its darker implications take time to sink in".

Perry Seibert at AllMovie: "A first-time viewer could be forgiven for not grasping the consistent vision of WALL·E's subtext on a first viewing, primarily because the look of the film is so detailed and accomplished that you can be awestruck just admiring the visual and aural craftsmanship. Hiring ace cinematographer Roger Deakins as a 'consultant' paid off like a winning lottery ticket. The opening passages of the film - on an Earth populated by nothing but a robot, a cockroach, and lots of garbage - have a realism that trumps everything Pixar has done to this point. "

And Roger Ebert wrote: "The movie has a wonderful look. Like so many of the Pixar animated features, it finds a colour palette that’s bright and cheerful, but not too pushy, and a tiny bit realistic at the same time. The drawing style is Comic Book Cool, as perfected in the funny comics more than in the superhero books: Everything has a stylistic twist to give it flair. And a lot of thought must have gone into the design of WALL·E, for whom I felt a curious affection."

Critics often mentioned that WALL·E was more human and interesting than one could find in any live-action film. In addition to the Academy Award for Best Animated Film, WALL·E received more than 40 other awards, including a Golden Globe, a BAFTA Award, two Grammy Awards, a National Board of Review Award, and a Satellite Award. With a budget of US$180 million, the film grossed $63 million in its opening weekend and eventually made $521,268,238 worldwide. The film is dedicated to animator Justin Wright, an animator at Pixar who died at the age of 27 of a heart attack just before the premiere of WALL·E. He had worked on the credits for Ratatouille (2007) and the storyboards for WALL·E (2008) and the short film Presto (Doug Sweetland, 2008).


American postcard from 'The Art of Pixar Volume II. 100 Collectable Postcards' by Chronicle Books. Image: Disney / Pixar. Lightning Study by John Lee for WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008).


American postcard from 'The Art of Pixar Volume II. 100 Collectable Postcards' by Chronicle Books. Image: Disney / Pixar. Concept Art by Daniel Arriaga for WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008).


American postcard from 'The Art of Pixar Volume II. 100 Collectable Postcards' by Chronicle Books. Image: Disney / Pixar. Concept Art by Jay Shuster for WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008). Caption: Pencil, 2005.


American postcard from 'The Art of Pixar Volume II. 100 Collectable Postcards' by Chronicle Books. Image: Disney / Pixar. Concept Art by Ralph Eggleston for WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008). Caption: Digital, 2005.


American postcard from 'The Art of Pixar Volume II. 100 Collectable Postcards' by Chronicle Books. Image: Disney / Pixar. Concept Art by Kevin O'Brien for WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008). Caption: Digital, 2006.


American postcard from 'The Art of Pixar Volume II. 100 Collectable Postcards' by Chronicle Books. Image: Disney / Pixar. Concept Art by Noah Klocek for WALL·E (Andrew Stanton, 2008). Caption: Marker and Correction Fluid, 2006.

Sources: Roger Ebert (RogerEbert.com), Perry Seibert (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Jason Buchanan (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Wikipedia (Dutch and German), and IMDb.

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991) is an American animated film produced by Walt Disney Pictures. It is Disney's 30th animated feature film. Linda Woolverton wrote the screenplay, Alan Menken composed the music, and Howard Ashman wrote the lyrics. The script is broadly based on the folk tale of the same name by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont.


Danish postcard by Paletti / Euromic, Copenhagen, no. 821522. Image: Disney. Scene from Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991).


Danish postcard by Paletti / Euromic, Copenhagen, no. 821520. Image: Disney. Scene from Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991).


Danish postcard by Paletti / Euromic, Copenhagen, no. 821530. Image: Disney. Scene from Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991).

A cursed prince

In Beauty and the Beast, a young and handsome but very arrogant prince is cursed for his heartlessness after he refuses to allow a sorceress to enter his castle. The prince must continue to live as a hideous beast. The curse can only be broken if he falls in love with someone, and that love is mutual.

If all these conditions are not met before his 21st birthday, the day the last petal falls from the sorceress's magic rose, he will have to live the rest of his life as the Beast. The curse also affects the prince's entire staff; they are transformed into household objects, but retain all their human abilities and characteristics, including the ability to speak.

Belle and her father, the inventor Maurice, live in a small village in the French countryside. Belle is the prettiest girl in the village and loves to spend her time reading. However, both are considered oddballs by the villagers, Belle because she reads so much, and Maurice because of his strange inventions.

Gaston, the strongest and most handsome man in the village, has a crush on Belle, but she is not interested in him. Maurice takes one of his inventions to a trade fair, but gets lost on the way. By chance, he ends up at the Beast's castle.

The enchanted servants welcome him warmly, but the Beast himself wants nothing to do with the intruder. Maurice is locked up in the tower. When her father does not return, Belle goes looking for him and also ends up in the castle. There, she makes a deal with the Beast: she will voluntarily stay with him for the rest of her life if he lets her father go. The Beast agrees.


Danish postcard by Paletti / Euromic, Copenhagen, no. 821531. Image: Disney. Scene from Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991).


American postcard by Chronicle Books from The Disney Animation Postcard Box, 2023. Image: Disney. Scene from Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991). Caption: Gaston with LeFou.


British postcard by The Art Group Ltd, no. 8835. Image: Disney. Still for Beauty and the Beast (1991). Caption: Belle and the Beast befriend the birds.

Drawings of stained glass windows depicting the story

'Beauty and the Beast' was one of the fairy tales chosen by Walt Disney for a possible film adaptation after the success of his very first feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (David Hand, a.o., 1937). Attempts to turn the story into a film had already been made in the 1930s and 1940s, but were ultimately abandoned because it would be too difficult with the resources available at the time. Moreover, Disney was discouraged from making the film after Jean Cocteau released a film adaptation of this story, La Belle et la Bête (Jean Cocteau, René Clément, 1946), starring Josette Day and Jean Marais.

After the success of The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements, John Musker, 1989), The Walt Disney Company revived its plans for Beauty and the Beast. The original screenplay that had already been written was rejected because the producers felt that the story would not be successful. Howard Ashman, Alan Menken, and Don Hahn were now put on the project. Hahn invited directors Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale to direct the film.

Ashman and Menken worked closely with the writers to create a ‘Broadway-style’ film. Because there were only two main characters in the original story, a lot of new characters were added, such as the Beast's staff and Gaston. The opening scene of the film, which tells the backstory of how the prince was enchanted, consists of drawings of stained glass windows depicting the story, a technique that is unusual in Disney films. This was done to preserve the traditional atmosphere of Disney films based on fairy tales without having to draw a book, which had been done so often in the past. In the final script, some of the original scenes were omitted. For example, Belle's stay in the Beast's library was initially much longer, and she would have met even more new characters, such as castle residents transformed into objects, in that scene.

According to Alan Menken, the opening song 'Belle' was the first song he and Ashman wrote for the film. The song ‘Be Our Guest’ was originally intended for the scene in which Maurice enters the castle and is welcomed by the staff. However, Bruce Woodside felt the song was more suitable for Belle, as she is one of the central characters in the story. ‘Human Again’, a song that did not make it into the original version of the film, was added to the film for the 2002 special edition. All the songs in the film were among the last complete works for a film by Howard Ashman, who had also written the lyrics for The Little Mermaid (Ron Clements, John Musker, 1989) and several for Aladdin (Ron Clements, John Musker, 1992). Ashman died six months before Beauty and the Beast was released. A tribute to him is included at the end of the film.

Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991) was a huge success and received positive reviews from almost all quarters. When it was originally released in 1991, Disney's film grossed $145 million in the United States and $403 million worldwide. This made it the third most successful film of 1991, after Terminator 2: Judgment Day (James Cameron, 1991) and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Kevin Reynolds, 1991).


American postcard by Disney MGM Studios in The Art of Disney Animation series, no. ST-8. Image: Disney. Artist working on Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991). Caption: Guests take a guided tour through an active animation studio where artists are working on the next animated film. Sent by mail in 2002.


French postcard by MD. Image: Disney. Still for Beauty and the Beast (Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise, 1991). The French title is La Belle et la Bête.


American postcard by Disney Materials, 2006. Image: Disney. Still for Beauty and the Beast (1991). Caption: This is the evening the Beast has awaited, but can he tell Belle his love? He knows his heart, but does she yet know her own? These lovers are as uncertain as they are hopeful - emotions and a tale "as old as time".

Sources: Wikipedia (Dutch and English) and IMDb.

Brigitte Bardot (1934-2025)

French actress Brigitte Bardot (1934) died today, 28 December 2025, at the age of 91. In the 1950s, she was the sex kitten of the European film industry. BB starred in 48 films, performed in numerous musical shows, and recorded 80 songs. After her retirement in 1973, she established herself as an animal rights activist and made vegetarianism sexy.


Vintage postcard, no. O2. Photo: Sam Lévin.


Dutch postcard printed by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V. Rotterdam. Brigitte Bardot in Doctor at Sea (Ralph Thomas, 1955).


French postcard by Edition P.I., Paris, no. CK 292. Photo: Yousuf Karsh / Camera Press / Ufa. Publicity still for La femme et le pantin/A Woman Like Satan (Julien Duvivier, 1959).


Italian postcard by Rotalcolor, Milano, no. 45.


German postcard by Kruger, no. 902/137. Photo: Herbert Fried / Ufa.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 379. Photo: Sam Lévin.


German postcard by Krüger/Ufa, no. 902/87. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Massive media attention

Brigitte Bardot was born in Paris in 1934. Her father, Louis Bardot, had an engineering degree and worked with his father in the family business. Her mother, Ann-Marie Mucel, was 14 years younger than Brigitte's father and they married in 1933.

Brigitte's mother encouraged her daughter to take up music and dance. At the age of 13, she entered the Conservatoire Nationale de Danse to study ballet. By the time she was 15, Brigitte was trying a modelling career and found herself in May 1949 on the cover of the French magazine Elle.

Her incredible beauty was readily apparent, Brigitte was noticed by Roger Vadim, then an assistant to the film director Marc Allegrét. Vadim was infatuated with Bardot and encouraged her to start working as a film actress.

BB was 18 when she debuted in the comedy Le Trou Normand / Crazy for Love (Jean Boyer, 1952). In the same year, she married Vadim. Brigitte wanted to marry him when she was 17, but her parents quashed any marriage plans until she turned 18. In April 1953 she attended the Cannes Film Festival where she received massive media attention. She soon was every man's idea of the girl he'd like to meet in Paris.

From 1952 to 1956 she appeared in seventeen films. Her films were generally lightweight romantic dramas in which she was cast as an ingénue or siren, often with an element of undress. In 1953, she made her first US production, Un acte d'amour / Act of Love (Anatole Litvak, 1953) with Kirk Douglas, but she continued to make films in France.


Dutch postcard by Hercules, Haarlem, no. 20. Brigitte Bardot in Manina, la fille sans voiles / The Girl in the Bikini (Willy Rozier, 1952).


Vintage postcard, no. 2043. Brigitte Bardot on the set of Doctor at Sea (Ralph Thomas, 1955).


German postcard by Krüger. Photo: Cornel Lucas, 1955. Publicity still for Doctor at Sea (Ralph Thomas, 1955).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3066. Photo: publicity still for La lumière d'en face / Female and the Flesh (Georges Lacombe, 1955).


Swiss-German-British postcard by News Productions, Baulmes / Filmwelt Berlin, Bakede / News Productions, Stroud, no. 56501. Photo: Collection Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne.Brigitte Bardot and Yves Robert in Les Grandes Manoeuvres / Summer Manoeuvres (René Clair, 1955), produced by Filmsonor and Rizzoli Films.

Immoral teenager

Roger Vadim was not content with the light fare his wife was offered. He felt Brigitte Bardot was being undersold. Looking for something more like an art film to push her as a serious actress, he showcased her in Et Dieu créa la femme / ...And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956). This film, about an immoral teenager in a respectable small-town setting, was a smash success on both sides of the Atlantic.

Craig Butler at AllMovie: "It's easy enough to say that ...And God Created Woman is much more important for its historical significance than for its actual quality as a film, and that's true to an extent. Woman's immense popularity, due to its willingness to directly embrace an exploration of sex as well as its willingness to show a degree of nudity that was remarkably daring for its day, demonstrated that audiences were willing to view subject matter that was considered too racy for the average moviegoer.

This had both positive (freedom to explore, especially for the French filmmakers of the time) and negative (freedom to exploit) consequences, but its impact is undeniable. It's also true that Woman is not a great work of art, not with a story that is ultimately rather thin, some painful dialogue, and an attitude toward its characters and their sexuality that is unclear and inconsistent.

Yet Woman is still fascinating, due in no small part to the presence of Brigitte Bardot in the role that made her an international star and sex symbol. She's not demonstrating great acting here, although her performance is actually good and much better than necessary, and her legendary mambo scene at the climax is nothing short of sensational."

During the shooting of Et Dieu créa la femme / And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956), directed by her husband, Brigitte Bardot had an affair with her co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant, who at that time was married to French actress Stéphane Audran. Her divorce from Vadim followed, but they remained friends and collaborated in later work.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam. sent by mail in 1963. Brigitte Bardot in Et Dieu... créa la femme / ...And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956).


Swiss postcard by News Productions, Baulmes / CVB Publishers, Grandson, no. 56783 Photo: Collection Cinémathèque Suisse, Lausanne. Jean-Louis Trintignant and Brigitte Bardot in Et Dieu... créa la femme / And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956).


East-German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb, Berlin, no. 1.975, 1963. Photo: publicity still for En effeuillant la marguerite / Plucking the Daisy (Marc Allégret, 1956).


West German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin-Charlottenburg, no. S 780. Photo: Union Film, Den Haag. Brigitte Bardot in Mio figlio Nerone / Nero's Mistress(Steno, 1956).


French postcard by Editions du Globe, Paris, no. 599. Photo: Sam Lévin.

Sensuality and slight immorality

Et Dieu créa la femme / ...And God Created Woman (Roger Vadim, 1956) helped Brigitte Bardot's international status. The film took the USA by storm, her explosive sexuality being unlike anything seen in the States since the days of the 'flapper' in the 1920s.

It gave rise to the phrase 'sex kitten' and fascination of her in America consisted of magazine photographs and dubbed over French films - good, bad or indifferent, her films drew audiences - mainly men - into theatres like lemmings.

BB appeared in light comedies like Doctor at Large (Ralph Thomas, 1957) - the third of the British 'Doctor' series starring Dirk Bogarde - and Une Parisienne / La Parisienne (Michel Boisrond, 1957) which suited her acting skills best. However, she was a sensation in the crime drama En cas de malheur/Love is My Profession (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958).

Hal Erickson at AllMovie: "This Brigitte Bardot vehicle ran into stiff opposition from the Catholic Legion of Decency, severely limiting its U.S. distribution. Bardot plays a nubile small-time thief named Yvette, who becomes the mistress of influential defence attorney Andre (Jean Gabin). Though Andre is able to shower Yvette with jewels and furs, he cannot "buy" her heart, and thus it is that it belongs to handsome young student Mazzetti (Franco Interlenghi). Alas, Yvette is no judge of human nature: attractive though Mazzetti can be, he has a dangerous and deadly side. En Cas de Malheur contains a nude scene that has since been reprinted in freeze-frame form innumerable times by both film-history books and girlie magazines."

Photographer Sam Lévin's photos contributed considerably to her image of sensuality and slight immorality. One of Lévin's pictures shows Brigitte, dressed in a white corset. It is said that around 1960 postcards with this photograph outsold in Paris those of the Eiffel Tower.


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3944. Photo: Pathé / N.V. City film, Den Haag. Brigitte Bardot in La femme et le pantin / The Female (Julien Duvivier, 1958).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3948. Photo: Pathé / N.V. City film, Den Haag. Brigitte Bardot in La femme et le pantin / The Female (Julien Duvivier, 1958).


German postcard by ISV, no. H 88. Photo: Peter Basch. Publicity still for Les bijoutiers du clair de lune / The night heaven fell (Roger Vadim, 1958).


Dutch postcard by Hercules, Haarlem, no. 1069. Photo: Brigitte Bardot in Les bijoutiers du clair de lune / The Night Heaven Fell (Roger Vadim, 1958).


German postcard, no. 1. Photo: Unifrance-Film. Publicity still for En cas de malheur / Love is my Profession (Claude Autant-Lara, 1958).

Preying paparazzi

Brigitte Bardot divorced Vadim in 1957 and in 1959 she married actor Jacques Charrier, with whom she starred in Babette s'en va-t-en guerre/Babette Goes to War (Christian-Jaque, 1959). The paparazzi preyed upon her marriage, while she and her husband clashed over the direction of her career.

Her films became more substantial, but this brought a heavy pressure of dual celebrity as she sought critical acclaim while remaining a glamour model for most of the world. Vie privée / Private Life (1962), directed by Louis Malle has more than an element of autobiography in it.

James Travers at French Films: "Brigitte Bardot hadn’t quite reached the high point of her career when she agreed to make this film with high-profile New Wave film director Louis Malle. Even so, the pressure of being a living icon was obviously beginning to get to France’s sex goddess and Vie privée is as much an attempt by Bardot to come to terms with her celebrity as anything else.

Malle is clearly fascinated by Bardot and the documentary approach he adopts for this film reinforces the impression that it is more a biography of the actress than a work of fiction. Of course, it’s not entirely biographical, but the story is remarkably close to Bardot’s own life and comes pretty close to predicting how her career would end."

The scene in which, returning to her apartment, Bardot's character is harangued in the elevator by a middle-aged cleaning lady calling her offensive names, was based on an actual incident, and is a resonant image of celebrity in the mid-20th century. Soon afterwards Bardot withdrew to the seclusion of Southern France.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 4518. Photo: Paul Apoteker / Unifrance Film / Ufa. BB with Jacques Charrier in Babette s'en va-t-en guerre / Babette Goes to War (Christian-Jaque, 1959).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3655. Photo: Columbia. Brigitte Bardot in Babette s'en va-t-en guerre / Babette Goes to War (Christian-Jaque, 1959).


French postcard by Editions P.I. Paris, no. 1042, presented by Les Carbones Korès 'Carboplane'. Photo: Francos-Films. Publicity still for Voulez-vous danser avec moi? / Come dance with me (Michel Boisrond, 1959).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 4332. Sent by mail in 1960. Photo: still from Voulez-vous danser avec moi? / Come Dance with Me! (Michel Boisrond, 1959).


Dutch postcard, no. 752. Photo: still from La Bride sur le Cou / Please Not Now! (Jean Aurel, Jack Dunn Trop, Roger Vadim, 1961).

Harley Davidson

Brigitte Bardot's other husbands were German millionaire playboy Gunter Sachs and right-wing politician Bernard d'Ormale. She is reputed to have had relationships with many other men including Samy Frey, her co-star in La Vérité / The Truth (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1960), and musicians Serge Gainsbourg and Sacha Distel.

In 1963, Brigitte Bardot starred in Jean-Luc Godard's critically acclaimed film Le Mépris / Contempt (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963) opposite Michel Piccoli.

She was also featured along with such notable actors as Alain Delon in Amours célèbres / Famous Love Affairs (Michel Boisrond, 1961) and Histoires extraordinaires / Tales of Mystery (Louis Malle, 1968), Jeanne Moreau in Viva Maria! (Louis Malle, 1965), Sean Connery in Shalako (Edward Dmytryk, 1968), and Claudia Cardinale in Les Pétroleuses / Petroleum Girls (Christian-Jaque, 1971).

She participated in various musical shows and recorded many popular songs in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly in collaboration with Serge Gainsbourg, Bob Zagury and Sacha Distel, including 'Harley Davidson', 'Le Soleil De Ma Vie' (the cover of Stevie Wonder's 'You Are the Sunshine of My Life') and the notorious 'Je t'aime... moi non plus'.


Big German postcard by ISV.


Dutch postcard, no. 752. Photo: still from La Bride sur le Cou / Please Not Now! (Jean Aurel, Jack Dunn Trop, Roger Vadim, 1961).


Dutch postcard by Uitgeverij Takken, Utrecht, no. AX 4903. Photo: Dalmas. Brigitte Bardot plays the guitar in the TV show Happy New Year Brigitte, which aired on the evening of 31 December 1961.


Czech postcard by Pressfoto, Praha (Prague). Photo: publicity still for Vie privée / A Very Private Affair (Louis Malle, 1962). Collection: Carla Bosch.


French postcard in the Collection Cinéma series by Editions Art & Scène, Paris, no. CF 101, 1996. Brigitte Bardot and Michel Piccoli in Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963).

Racial hatred

Brigitte Bardot’s film career showed a steady decline in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 1973 just before her fortieth birthday, she announced her retirement.

She chose to use her fame to promote animal rights. In 1976 she established the Brigitte Bardot Foundation for the Welfare and Protection of Animals. She became a vegetarian and raised three million French francs to fund the foundation by auctioning off jewellery and many personal belongings. For this work, she was awarded the Légion d’honneur in 1984.

During the 1990s she became also outspoken in her criticism of immigration, interracial relationships, Islam in France and homosexuality. Her husband Bernard d'Ormal was a former adviser of the far-right Front National party. Bardot has been convicted five times for 'inciting racial hatred'.

More fun is that Bardot is recognised for popularising bikini swimwear, in such early films as Manina / Woman without a Veil (Willy Rozier, 1952), in her appearances at Cannes and in many photo shoots. Bardot also brought into fashion the 'choucroute' ('Sauerkraut') hairstyle (a sort of beehive hairstyle) and gingham clothes after wearing a checkered pink dress, designed by Jacques Esterel, at her wedding to Charrier. The fashions of the 1960s looked effortlessly right and spontaneous on her.

Time Magazine: "She was the princess of pout, the countess of come hither. Brigitte Bardot exuded a carefree, naïve sexuality that brought a whole new audience to French films."


Italian postcard by Bromofoto, Milano, no. 1435. Photo: Cineriz.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 1005. Photo: Ufa.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam, no. 5368. Caption: Brigitte Bardot with her baby.


Yugoslavian postcard by NPO, no. G18. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by Editions Lyna, Paris, no. 2104. Caption: Tu deviens reponsable pour toujours de ce que tu as apprivoisé. Antoine de St-Exupéry.

Sources: Denny Jackson (IMDb), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Craig Butler (AllMovie), James Travers (French Films), French Films, Wikipedia and IMDb.

11 years ago we celebrated her 80th birthday with a Happy Birthday post with 28 of our favourite BB postcards. Check it out and visit the Brigitte Bardot group at Flickr!