Of
Valerio Cappelli
«I met her when she was about thirty years old, while I was shooting a film in Paris. She was friends with Ursula Andress, who was my partner. She was cheerful, she said that men don’t understand anything about women”
«Yes, I met Brigitte Bardot», says Fabio Testi, reached by telephone in Rio for the Christmas holidays.
«In Paris, at Chez Régine which was a very renowned nightclub, founded by the singer Régine Zylberberg in the 70s, who was with an Italian. They threw crazy and extravagant parties.”
Who else do you remember on the track?
«Well, there were many celebrities, I remember Miguel Bosé, Raquel Welch. I was shooting a film there with Romy Schneider, The important thing is to love of Zulawski. In Paris I was with my partner, Ursula Andress, a friend of Bardot who must have been around thirty years old.”
Brigitte first manner, free, symbol of sin.
“She was accompanied by an Italian, but he wasn’t her boyfriend otherwise she wouldn’t have said certain strong things about males, who according to her, don’t understand anything about women.”
«Yes, it was the time of Barry White, with his deep voice. Chez Régine was a place with low ceilings, all made of mirrors.”
Was she, as beautiful as the sun, also tempted to seduce Brigitte?
«No, Ursula is more Neapolitan than Swiss German, very jealous, she was always close to me, she wouldn’t let go of me for a second. But…”.
«Brigitte had a way of speaking that seemed to want to seduce everyone. It was his way of doing things, with his small, feminine voice, with his involuntary pout, he seduced even if he was talking to you about a plate of tagliatelle.”
«Everything, holidays, actors and directors, to whom he would say goodbye in a few years. We made fun of each other. There was a desire to have fun, I won’t deny it.”
«Joyful, cheerful, uninhibited, she had an animalistic instinct, she lived her body with a brazen naturalness, a pioneer of many things, a feminist in spite of herself».
His future rejection of plastic surgery?
«It was a smart thing. And she still loved cinema, while Ursula never had the sacred fire within her.”
It was the symbol of sin.
«But many women do not accept being identified only with beauty. And then it’s difficult when you have examples at home.”
«I remember Raquel Welch’s daughter, her name is Tahnee, with whom I shot a television miniseries, film, Desperately Giuliawhere I’m a doctor and she had to have a mammogram but she was as anorexic as her mother was Junoesque, that they had to hire a body double.”
It was said that Brigitte had rejected Hollywood.
«Well, I don’t know that. Hollywood only rewards American actors and actresses. Name a European who has turned a corner. Jean Gabin, Alain Delon, one film, two, and then off.”
«Okay, he made some films there, but the ones we remember were made in Italy. Hollywood is a machine that tells you what to say, how to dress and behave. She wouldn’t have accepted it.”
Was she a phenomenon or was she also a good actress?
«I say it was. Films are based on three or four scenes. And there she was, think of the mambo of Too many like it. He crushed everything with his presence. I still remember the posters that said: God created woman…And the devil created Brigitte Bardot.”
«I met Gigi Rizzo, his fling, brief but we still talk about it today and there must be a reason. I stopped at two wives. And two divorces.”
The animal rights passion…
«It surprised me. He said that carnivores are like the cannibals of the past. At first I thought it was an attitude. Then she became a farmer, she said so.”
The stars who retire early and close themselves off to the world Mina, Battisti, Brigitte Bardot…
«She was a woman of character. When he retired, he took away the satisfaction of having had everything, and we should have been in his shoes, then certain decisions that appear incredible on the outside are not so radical.”
“Frankly, there isn’t.”
December 29, 2025
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