Summary
Juliette is a orphan living with her foster mother in St Tropez. She is in love
with Antoine, who owns a local boatyard, but ends up marrying his younger brother, Michel.
Juliette is pursued by both Antonine and a wealthy business man who is planning to buy
the boatyard so he can build a casino. Finally, things come to a head. Angered
by his wife’s excessive flirtations, Michel confronts Juliette and makes his move to rein
her back.
Review
This is a remarkable film in a number of ways, although the scenario is unimaginably bland
and unconvincing, and the ending disappointingly tame. The importance of the film
lies in two things: the fact that it catapulted Brigitte Bardot to the status of a film
star and, most significantly, it provided the foundation for the French New Wave.
Bardot dominates this film with an incredible screen presence, which can only be attributed
in part to her physical beauty. There is a depth of personal attachment in her portray
of Juliette that endears her to the audience from the very first scene. She is the
both the orphan victim, friendless and vulnerable, and the wild, untamed creature (like
the rabbit she befriends in the film), subject to animalistic passions and moments of
blind folly. This is Bardot at her best and it is a little disappointing that Vadim,
like so many directors after him, chose to accentuate her porn appeal in preference to
her impressive acting talent.
Et Dieu... créa la femme comes very close to belying the myth that the French
New Wave began with Truffaut and Godard’s first films. The film shares many of the
characteristics of that era of French cinema, particularly the vividness of the photography
and the sheer energy in the film. For its time, this must have been a very daring
film, particularly given the conservative tastes of French cinema-goers in the mid 1950s.
Vadim was so impressed with his work that he remade the film in the late 1980s, but, lacking
the presence of Bardot, the result was scarcely a patch on the original. The original
Et Dieu... créa la femme succeeded, despite the shallowness of its subject
matter, because it happened at just the right time. Its impact on French cinema
can only be guessed at, but it was probably very considerable indeed.
© James Travers 2002
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