“She created the image of a woman who does not let herself be done”

Since her earliest childhood, cinema has been an integral part of Danièle Thompson’s life. A passion transmitted by his parents. Obviously, she took her first steps as a screenwriter alongside her father, Gérard Oury, with the film The big mop in 1966. Then followed huge hits like Megalomania (1971), The Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973), The party in 1980 and many others. But she is above all a director, a career that began with her first film: The log came out in 1999.

She co-directs with her son Christopher the mini-series Hinny the first two episodes of which are broadcast on France 2 on May 8.

franceinfo: It really is a daring bet. When we dive into newspaper clippings, we realize how Brigitte Bardot’s life has been completely reinvented, readjusted, imagined. Was it scary at first to say yes?

Daniele Thompson: It’s not a matter of fear. It was really a matter of interest. I am now told:Say, it’s still risky to do that“. We didn’t think about it at all with Christopher Thompson, my son, co-writer and director of the series. We really thought about the artistic aspect of this story entirely. We wondered if we would discover exciting things that would make us want to tell them.

When we decide to tell the life of Brigitte Bardot, we obviously think of the look that she will, in fact, have on this series. Did you care about that? Did you catch his gaze?

I can understand it’s weird, but we didn’t have to ask her for permission because she’s a public figure and you can do whatever you want and in no case do you have the intent to hurt him. But if I put myself in his shoes, I can understand that it’s not easy.

“I wonder if Brigitte Bardot will have the curiosity to watch this series tonight or if it’s something that can be disturbing. And I will understand that too.”

Danielle Thompson

at franceinfo

Brigitte Bardot very early had dog, charisma. She broke the screen. She had that extra thing. You who are often behind the camera, what is this extra thing?

This extra thing is a mix between precisely this incredible beauty, because there are millions of photos of this young woman which are more graceful and more delicious than the others, and a nature which is both in spontaneity, in charm, in audacity and in revolt.

We realize how much she has changed mentalities, the way women look too.

All the same, she suddenly created the image of a woman who does not let herself be pushed around, who decides how she is going to dress, how she is going to walk barefoot, how she is not going to comb her hair, how she is finally having affairs with men she wants to have them with. All that in the 1950s is scandalous and besides, she is adored, dragged through the mud, insulted. Suddenly, there is a mixture of reactions, of jealousy of the women in front of this creature which awakens in all the men looks which exasperate them. And then thousands of young girls who dream of looking like her and having precisely the power she has, of freedom and seduction. She gives the impression that we can be like her, that we can perhaps also live like her and we are well before May 68.

You saw yourself again at the same age and said to yourself: “Olala, what she dares to do, I would never have dared to do it“?

Yes, I saw myself again at the same age because I’m younger, but not that much and I actually lived through the 1950s as a child and teenager. Indeed, it was an education all the same, that makes you smile today, but we weren’t allowed to wear pants at school and high school, they were socks and skirts. We wore blouses. And me, I had parents who were actors and who were of course not at all in a bourgeois upbringing. But all the same, I have a memory of not having been launched like that into a life of freedom, as I will tell later in The party where from the age of 11, 12, in my daughter’s generation, we started going to parties with girlfriends. All that was out of the question when I was 13.

When you work today with your son, is your father always a little behind and above your shoulder?

“I loved working with my father, Gérard Oury. I really enjoy working with my son Christopher.”

Danielle Thompson

at franceinfo

My father is always behind. We’ve been working together with Christopher for 20 years. We get along very well and we really have the same reflexes, lots of very different ideas from each other, which is very rewarding. I had that with my father too, so it’s really a series of miracles in my life, that’s for sure.