“Ugly” films and the “nightmare” of the Cannes Film Festival: Brigitte Bardot criticizes the film industry

When the "myth" speaks, everyone listens. Brigitte Bardot didn't mince her words on Monday, giving an interview to BFMTV , at her farm in Saint-Tropez, where she goes every afternoon to work. "I live like a farmer, with my sheep, my pigs, my dogs, my cats..." she said in the first minutes of the conversation.

A calm, composed exchange, in which the formidable actress, retired in 1973, spoke on many themes. Among them, cinema. A world in which Brigitte Bardot shone young , very young, with a first appearance alongside Bourvil in Le Trou normand (1952) at only 18 years old. Four years later, it was And God Created Woman, "(This film changed everything) for me , confides the one the whole world nicknames BB It was a positive change. I like positive things." The actress, however, claims to never "think about it" , and today has "neither remorse nor regret" for having ended her career 52 years ago.

"It was a choice ," she says. "I was a prisoner of myself. In my whole life, I couldn't go to a bistro, to a terrace... People recognized me. A prisoner of myself, that's terrible. I can't escape." She continues: "I always wanted to leave before they left me. I didn't feel good about cinema. I felt like I was leaving. I felt like there were no more beautiful stories, pretty scripts, good dialogue, directors... That's why I decided to stop."

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Brigitte Bardot says she feels this feeling even more when she talks about the ^7th art today. According to her, cinema doesn't produce "any good films, it's just 'crap' . " "It's horrible, it's social, it's ugly, it doesn't make you dream. (...) It never made me dream, it's a nightmare. Too many bad films, too many unimportant people. There are no more magnificent actors... There's nothing left, really," laments the former actress.

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In this interview, she also discusses the Cannes Film Festival , whose ^78th edition launches Tuesday evening at 7 p.m. A documentary, entitled Bardot , will be screened on the Croisette on May 19. "I haven't seen it," Brigitte Bardot remarks dryly. "I don't care. It's nice, but oh well. No, (I wouldn't go see it)." The actress nonetheless thinks less of the festival itself, which she considers to be a "nightmare." She does, however, recall the good memories of 1953, when she ran in a bikini on the beach alongside Kirk Douglas, a friend she says she kept until his death in February 2020.

I don't have any more friends. It's a lack. You can't, at 90, make friends who are 50 or 40 years old.

Brigitte Bardot on BFMTV

Brigitte Bardot returned to this theme shortly after. The former French film star thanked above all "the good Lord for still being alive at this moment." She also made a sort of metaphor: "I am someone who thinks a lot about things. I like to meditate on things. The life of trees fascinates me. The leaves on trees are pretty. We don't care, no one is looking. I am watching." Then, she admitted that "the most annoying thing about getting old is losing your friends." "Delon, Belmondo... are gone ," recalls the nonagenarian. "I don't have any friends anymore. It's a lack. You can't, at 90, make friends who are 50 or 40 years old." Before adding, later: "I've been thinking about death since I was very young. During the war, I said to Dad, 'Why am I living?' I must have been 9 years old." I think it's for the animals."

Since retiring from the world of cinema, Brigitte Bardot has dedicated all her time to animals . She has had around a hundred. On her farm, she gives them all her love. BB also confides that "all her days are dedicated to her foundation." "My foundation is unique, it's like me," she says ironically. In recent years, the myth of cinema, a term she says she doesn't understand, has been taken over by a desire to abolish hunting with hounds, the practice of chasing an animal with a pack of dogs. "I'm going to war ," she says. "It's horrible, the French government absolutely must agree to offer me, after 50 years of unanswered requests, this victory. We are the last country in Europe to practice this kind of thing (along with Ireland, editor's note). We don't have the right."

Brigitte Bardot continues, convinced: "This is my last fight. At 90, I'm not going to start again. France can make a decision that would make it shine a little because it's not looking very good right now. Macron could make a good decision. He would start with a good lesson." The Tropézienne takes aim at the President of the Republic: "(Political leaders) don't care. You only have to look at the state the French people are in. (...) 72% of French people are against hunting with hounds. Things aren't moving because we have a government that doesn't make a decision, that doesn't dare to move things forward, and that, until now, hasn't supported me. I'm also talking about previous governments."

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Brigitte Bardot reportedly called Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assembly, last week. An exchange she seems to have appreciated. "I had a friendly relationship with this woman. I felt her support and I admire her for the patience she has and the accuracy of her words," she notes. But her fight is only just beginning. After sending "a hearing aid" to Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister François Bayrou, so that they "stop pretending not to hear," the cinema icon wants to tackle the consumption of horse meat and the treatment of wolves. She also admits, by way of conclusion, that there has, in any case, been nothing good in France since Brigitte Bardot appeared. And "it is sorely missed," she asserts without false modesty.