Et Dieu... créa la femme

Fave movie-quote - "I didn't know that love was a disease."

.... And god created woman???.... Well, yes.... If you consider director Roger Vadim as being "god" and actress Brigitte Bardot as being the "woman" - Then god (Vadim) certainly did create this woman (who happened to be his real-life wife at the time).... Yeah. And he sure put her together very nicely. Indeed.... Mmm-Mmm.

Anyway - (Keeping in mind that this off-kilter Comedy/Romance/Drama was produced in 1956) - For all of its numerous flaws and faults - It certainly turned out to be more entertaining than I had expected it to be.

And, I will enthusiastically admit that - Without its main attraction (the sultry, sexy, sweet-as-honey, Brigitte Bardot, who was 22 at the time) - This adult-oriented, foreign film would have amounted to nothing. I mean, at certain moments in the story Bardot really did shine amongst all the rubble.

Filmed at the St. Tropez beach area of coastal France - "And God Created Woman" was produced on a budget of $300,000. Released internationally - It grossed over $4 million in its first year, alone.

"Et Dieu... crea la femme" is Brigitte Bardot's breakout film. She explodes on the screen, overwhelming the audience (the male audience by sure). I bet that women, as well, are shocked by the thought that such a rival-bomb can exist.

The movie itself have always been underrated. It was a scandal at the epoch and we can easily see why. Actually, the erotic atmosphere created by BB in "Et Dieu... crea la femme" is amazing even for today standards (immensely superior to that of current movies, in my personal opinion). At any rate, the scandal made the movie be automatically considered bad (needless to say, people went crazy to see it). Curiously enough, a dozen of years later several ugly movies were automatically considered good by the critics because of the scandal they raised!

Now that our modern eyes no longer see the scandal, we may judge "Et Dieu... crea la femme" a nice film, made VERY special by Brigitte Bardot's presence. The stunning locations of a still tourism-free Cote d'Azur are beautifully photographed. The story is interesting and entertaining. Melodrama is systematically avoided. The script contains a good deal of typical French wit: sharp, cynical, but with a melancholic subtext. A couple of instances. The mature gentleman Eric Carradine, trying to justify Juliete's bad behavior "I am the only one to be guilty of that" and the old woman "Don't delude yourself, sir...". Again Carradine "I fell in love with a young girl and I gave money for her to marry another man. How do you call it?" and a friend "I call it wisdom".

Bardot brilliantly plays Juliete, a remarkably interesting character. Probably, more than her free and mindless attitude toward love affairs, Juliete's true personality may be described as anarchist selfishness. She doesn't give a damn for others. She just does everything she wants, not caring people's opinions, prejudices or feelings. She loves animals, though. A further point of interest is that, according to her own autobiography, BB's personality has some in common with that of Juliete's. I don't comment Brigitte's sex-appeal. Words are not enough, just look at her and enjoy. The life at the village on the sea and the various other characters are described with accuracy. Jurgens, Trintignant and the remainder of the cast work well.

The cult-scene of the movie is Juliete's Mambo dance. Here we understand what Europeans of the 1950s thought to be a torrid scene. We also see that they were right!

Seeing the movie, many are displeased that (seemingly) a dose of heavy slaps turns the wild Juliete into a devoted spouse. That looks machist ideology. Well, to begin with, to beat guilty women is just a realistic and predictable behavior in the low class environment of a village of fishermen in the 1950s. But, above all, do you think Juliete-Brigitte tamed by few hits? Come on! She accepts the slaps only because in that very moment she has thought it good to take them. But who knows the future? Believe me, Juliete is far from being tamed, and the end of the film by no means coincides with the end of the story...

In spite of possible criticism, I like "Et Dieu... crea la femme". Right or wrong, this film has a relevant place in the history of cinema.

This was the movie which launched Brigitte Bardot as the sex symbol of the fifties and sixties in the the role of the teenager Juliette. And this is really a movie about a woman. She fills the screen during the whole projection with her gorgeous and generous anatomy and also with her way of smiling, talking, laughing, walking and dancing in a mixture of flesh, fire and beauty displaying moreover her personality and her fears, desires and anguish. However she is no "femme fatale" and only a tender teenager who cannot be blamed for having been born so pretty, charming and physically well shaped and who sometimes appears almost like a defenceless child. The story involves not the classical triangle but a quadrilateral instead whose vertices are besides Juliette herself, her young husband, his brother and the rich middle aged businessman who covets her since the beginning. The end of the story is somewhat conventional but acceptable anyway. This movie was received like a bomb in the movie world shaking some moral canons and shocking a lot people although by today's patterns it can be judged as rather innocent. Anyway the story is simple,original and well conceived and the actors play well which makes it a good movie after all.

A rich man by the name of "Eric Carradine" (Curd Jürgens) wants to build a casino but needs the land owned by working class man named "Antoine Tardieu" (Christian Marquand) and his family. As it so happens, both men know a young and attractive woman named "Juliete Hardy" (Brigitte Bardot) who lives life to the fullest and it's because of her wanton disregard for convention that each want her in the worst possible way. Although Juliette loves Antoine and gives serious consideration to running off with him, she accidentally overhears Antoine bragging to a friend that he plans to sleep with her that night and then cast her aside the next morning. To further complicate matters, upon returning home that evening her foster parents tell her that they have decided to return her to the orphanage within a few days because of her flirtatious conduct. So, with nowhere else to go she accepts a sudden marriage proposal from Antoine's younger brother "Michel" (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who absolutely adores her. Needless to say, this infuriates Antoine and the rest of the family who don't think very highly of her at all. Not only that but she doesn't change her conduct in the least--which only intensifies the sexual tension for all concerned. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film created quite a stir when it first came out and it's not hard to imagine why as Brigitte Bardot's performance was absolutely sensational. Having said that, however, I don't think the overall drama was nearly as sharp as it could have been. Additionally, I think it is only fair to say that this film's subject matter pales in comparison to other movies of this type today and with that in mind I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

Sexuality is a mysterious creature at times, determined by many different elements: the physical appearance of a person, the way their body moves, their attitude towards life, the way they express their emotions, their creativity, the subtle fragrance they give off, the way they talk, and sometimes an x-factor that can't be defined. What strikes me about Bardot's powerful sexuality is that cinema really hadn't seen anything like it before she came around. The closest example I can think of in American film might be Lauren Bacall in "To Have and Have Not," but even that misses the mark. Bardot was not only a beautiful woman but she had a fun, mischievous and freedom-loving spirit and a fiery mind lurking around behind her sometimes poorly written characters, and these things make her even more attractive. Plus, she had a great voice. Which is why I was stunned to see a trailer for _Et Dieu... créa la femme_ dubbed into English at the end of the subtitled version. The woman doing Bardot's voice sounded awful, and so much of Brigitte's sexuality was lost. Imagine Bacall telling Bogie "You know how to whistle, don't you Steve?" in a squeaky, high-pitched voice. Would she be as sexy? I don't think so. Yet people watching the dubbed version of this film are getting something similar.

As far as the film itself goes, most everything has already been said in other comments. Bardot does a great job as Juliette - who else could have done the role so well? - and Jurgens was quite good as Eric Carradine. The setting is luscious and fits perfectly with Bardot's character and the overall mood of the tale. The music is excellent, from the title sequence at the beginning through the dance scene at the end. The story can be cliched at times and there are definitely machista elements. But it's not a bad story either, with good tension created between the brothers. The fight sequences, as someone else mentioned, are laughable and poorly done. But it doesn't really matter. It's Bardot's show all the way - from her nude Cinemascope sunbathing shot that opens the film, with the witty dialog between her and Jurgens, to her erotic dance that serves as the climax of the story. Along the way we get several nice scenes that show her broader persona, including the one where she sets the bird and rabbit free in the field, and the scene in the bookstore with the woman from the orphanage.

But, for the sake of Dieu, don't see this movie dubbed.