November 28, 1956: "And God Created Woman" Premieres

November 28, 1956: And God Created Woman -- in the original French, Et Dieu... créa la femme -- premieres in France. It is the 1st film directed by Roger Vadim, written by Vadim and Raoul Lévy, and stars Vadim's wife, Brigitte Bardot.

The film takes place in Saint-Tropez, on the French Riviera, 545 miles southeast of Paris, and 80 miles southwest of Monte Carlo. Bardot, then 22, played 18-year-old Juliette. She lies nude in her yard. She walks around barefoot in public. Her behavior enrages the local women, and excites the local men. She accepts a rich man's marriage proposal, but cheats on him with another man. At a bar, she makes a spectacle of herself dancing, and is shot at by the brother of the man she cheated with, who misses. He then slaps her repeatedly, but she laughs it all off. Finally, she walks off... with her attacker.

The movie makes a legend of Bardot, who becomes France's answer to Marilyn Monroe and Gina Lollobrigida, although another Italian, Sophia Loren, was hot on their heels (among other things). Bardot and Vadim were divorced the next year, but their stars continued to rise.

When the film was released in America the following year, the Executive Staff of the National Legion of Decency, the Catholic organization that had forced enforcement of the Hays Code upon movies since 1934, gave it a rating of "C," for "Condemned." "A-I" would have meant "Morally Objectionable for General Patronage," "A-II" would have meant "Morally Objectionable for Adults and Adolescents," "A-III" would have meant "Morally Objectionable for Adults," and "B" would have meant "Morally Objectionable in Part for All." But "C" was the worst rating they gave.

The Committee's explanation: "The theme and treatment of this film, developed in an atmosphere of sensuality, dwell without relief upon suggestiveness in costuming, dialogue and situations. In the field of motion picture entertainment the extent and intensity of the objectionability of this picture constitute an open violation of Christian and traditional morality."

The Committee gave these ratings from 1936 to 1959. Most of the films they gave "C" ratings to were foreign, and not limited by the Hays Code in their own countries. Most of those were French, Italian and Swedish.

Lévy became a tragic figure: He shot himself to death in 1966, shortly after the end of an affair that had wrecked his marriage, and a year after his film Marco the Magnificent, about medieval figure Marco Polo, had badly flopped, costing him his fortune. He was 44 years old.

By the early 1960s, Bardot began singing, recording albums in French. In 1964, she starred with Anthony Perkins in The Ravishing Idiot, released in America, with the James Bond films in mind, as Agent 38-24-36. She didn't make a film in America until 1965, in Dear Brigitte, with Jimmy Stewart.

By 1969, however, with both European and American films getting racier, and the Hays Code having fallen and been replaced by the Motion Picture Association of America's G, PG, R and X rating system, Bardot's style became passé.

In 1973, she made one more film with Vadim: Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman. She made one more film, The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot, and retired from acting. She has married 4 times, and has 1 child, from her 2nd marriage, to French actor Jacques Charrier: Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, raised after the divorce by his father, built a life for himself in Norway, where he married, had 2 daughters, and, after a long estrangement, reconciled with her in 2014.

On the one hand, Bardot has used her retirement from show business to highlight the plight of animals, much like fellow entertainers Doris Day and Betty White. On the other hand, her 4th and current husband, Bernard d'Ormale, is a former adviser to the Le Pen family, the leader of French politics' right wing, and she shares their stances, disappointing many who once loved her. As of November 28, 2022, she is still alive, 88 years old, but has become a recluse: This 2007 image is the last known photograph of her.

Also as of November 28, 2022, not counting individuals implied as being part of a group, like the Beatles and the performers at Woodstock, Bardot is 1 of 4 people mentioned in Billy Joel's 1989 song "We Didn't Start the Fire" who are still alive. The others are singers Chubby Checker and Bob Dylan, and 1984 New York "subway vigilante" Bernhard Goetz.

Roger Vadim, with that one post-divorce exception, moved on from her. In 1960, he made the film Et mourir de plaisir, meaning, "And die of pleasure." It is a vampire film, starring his next wife, Danish actress Annette Strøyberg, and Italian actress Elsa Martinelli. It was released in America under the title Blood and Roses.

In 1965, Vadim married Jane Fonda, and cast her in his 1968 science-fiction film Barbarella, which opened with her stripping in zero-gravity, and included a scene in which the villain, Durand Durand, tries to torture her by placing her in an "excessive machine," designed to pleasure a person to death, returning to an earlier Vadim theme. But she takes all the machine can give, and shorts it out, leading to her ultimate victory. (Durand Durand was played by Irish actor Milo O'Shea, and, yes, the British band Duran Duran named themselves after the character.)

The National Catholic Office for Motion Pictures, successor to the Legion of Decency, condemned Barbarella. By this point, though, not only had the Hays Code fallen, but Vatican II had happened: American Catholics now tended to make up their own minds, and so the Hollywood studios no longer gave a damn what the Church thought. The film was a success, and, since And God Created Woman is mainly thought of as Bardot's film, and Fonda has had many other hits, when people think of Vadim, Barbarella is the 1st film they think of.

Vadim continued to direct until 1997, and died in 2000. He married 5 times. With Strøyberg, he had a daughter, Nathalie Vadim. With Fonda, he had a daughter, Vanessa Vadim. Both Nathalie and Vanessa have become directors. With 4th wife Catherine Schneider, he had a son, Vania Vadim, a photographer and former actor.

UPDATE: Brigitte Bardot died on December 28, 2025, at the age of 91.

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November 28, 1956 was a Wednesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. One game was played in the NBA: The Boston Celtics beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 105-93 at the Boston Garden. And 1 game was played in the NHL: The New York Rangers beat the Boston Bruins, 2-1 at the old Madison Square Garden.