AND GOD CREATED WOMAN (1956)

In 1956 Brigitte Bardot was a 23 year old aspiring starlet who had already appeared in a number of films.  Her husband, director Roger Vadim, put her into this movie (French title: Et Dieu . . . crea la femme) which skyrocketed his young wife into stardom and made Bardot an international sex symbol.

The superficial plot involves Juliette Hardy (Bardot) an 18 year old orphan.  Juliette just can't help herself - she likes to lie out in the sun naked, go barefooted, dance, drink and she REALLY likes MEN.  Juliette is also fabulously beautiful.

A Girl Just Can't Help It: She's Gotta Take a Sunbath Naked In the Yard!

As the film opens, Juliette's foster mother has had enough and announces that Juliette is going back to the orphanage until she's 21.  By this time, Juliette is being pursued by the wealthy magnate Eric (Curd Jurgens) and Antoine Tardieu (Christian Marquand).

Antoine and Juliette washed up on the beach

Antoine promises to take Juliette away with him, but she overhears Antoine tell his buddies that he just intends to bed Juliette in a one night stand and then dump her.  Outraged, Juliette flees to the lavish yacht owned by Eric but also refuses to sleep with him or become his mistress.

Juliette has resigned herself to going back to the orphanage when Antoine's younger brother, Michel, asks Juliette to marry him.  Juliette realizes that this is a mistake and warns Michel that she will probably betray him because she just can't help it.  When Michel insists, Juliette says yes and they are married over the objection of Michel's mother.

On the way back home from the wedding, Michel gets into a fight with a local tough guy who has called Juliette a whore.  Skipping the wedding dinner, Juliette takes Michel upstairs and consummates their marriage, scandalously coming downstairs wearing only a bathrobe and loading up take out plates to take back upstairs.  Apparently, this was just as scandalous to the censors in 1956 as it was to the family at the dinner.

Juliette tries hard to be a good and faithful wife to Michel.  Eventually, she is bored out of her mind and doesn't know what to do with herself.  The real problems start, however, when Eric buys out the small shipyard owned by the Tardieu family and makes Antoine his local manager.  When Antoine moves back to St. Tropez, Juliette knows they're going to have a hard time keeping their hands off each other.

Juliette has become really bored with this marriage thing!

When Juliette takes a boat with a bad engine out for a spin, Antoine has to swim out and save her.  Washing up on a remote beach, Juliette and Antoine do what comes natural and have sex.  Being a very honest girl, Juliette takes to her bed saying she has a fever and tells Michel and Antoine's younger brother who tells their mother.  Momma Tardieu tells Michel when he comes home that he needs to run that whore off this minute.  Instead, Michel pursues Juliette to a local bar where she is letting loose and wildly dancing with the Rumba band.  Overcome with jealousy, Michel pulls a gun to kill Juliette but is stopped by Eric who was come to the bar to try to take Juliette for himself.  Eric is shot by Michel and has Antoine take him to a doctor who will be discreet and not tell the police.
Eric orders Antoine to leave St. Tropez and transfers him to a job out of town.  In the last scene we see Michel take Juliette home, apparently for a little sexual healing.  The End.

Juliette gets down with the band!

The film was a big hit in France and stirred up a firestorm of controversy when released in the U.S.  The National League of Decency condemned the move and attempts were made to ban the film in various jurisdictions.

Despite its thin plot, And God Created Woman is a visual feast.  Shot in Cinemascope on location in St. Tropez, the color and the scenery jump out at you.  And, of course, the young Brigitte Bardot is stunningly gorgeous and well deserves her "sex kitten" reputation.  Bardot really doesn't do much acting in this, she mostly just struts around showing off her "assets."

As proof positive that time destroys everything, here's a recent picture of Ms. Bardot 

I watched the Criterion Collection DVD with a fully restored print of the movie in the original French with subtitles. Four out of five bikinis.