On the eve of the 78th Cannes Film Festival, Brigitte Bardot, who made her debut there in 1953, 72 years ago, gave an interview to French television

On the eve of the 78th Cannes Film Festival, Brigitte Bardot, who made her debut there in 1953, 72 years ago, gave an interview to French television. Brigitte rarely meets journalists and invariably keeps her own distinctive outlook, which is why she is always worth listening to.

On French TV her interview will air today, while at Cannes in the coming days the documentary «Bardot» will be screened, in which the diva took only an oblique part, since she is interested neither in Cannes nor in cinema as it is today. I want to share something of interest from what was said by one of the great beauties of the twentieth century: not about animal protection, feminism or scandals in the acting profession, but about how she has seen herself through all these years.

Bardot, as is her custom, criticised modern cinema. But can one really argue that it is a nightmare? Too many bad films, too many insignificant people.

“There are no more magnificent actors, no more people who make you dream.”

But the most significant thing, to my mind, is her confession as an actress and her regret that she was not free. She says, quite literally: “I was a prisoner of myself.”

“In all my life I could never go to a bistro and have a coffee on the terrace. I am a prisoner of myself. I cannot run away from myself.”

This was one of the reasons why, at the peak of her worldwide fame, in 1973, she decided to leave the cinema. “It was my choice. I made it.” Can you imagine that she has not made a film for more than 50 years? How many roles she might have played, and how powerful her flash must have been, that its light still reaches us?

“I always wanted to leave before I was left. I felt that cinema was going downhill. I felt that there were no more great stories, beautiful scripts, good dialogue, no more directors. That is how I took the decision to leave.”

Later she left the city too, which had been part of her identity, for country life on her farm in the hills near Saint-Tropez, which became her new reflection