who is Julia de Nunez

Exactly sixty years ago Jean-Luc Godard was filming in Italy The contempt, based on the homonymous novel by Alberto Moravia. Protagonist, naked under the Capri sun, a dazzling woman Brigitte Bardotthe forerunner of every influencer when the Internet still wasn’t there, the impertinent who ten years later, in 1973, forever said goodbye to the scenes disgusted by celebrities and, perhaps, by humans.

To remember his life of scandal and erotic candor is about to arrive in Italy, on Canale 5, the french miniseries Bardotplayed by the 20-year-old Julia de Nunezwhich reconstructs the era of the beginnings and overwhelming success, from 15 to 26 years, between Paris and Saint Tropez, great loves, parties and infidelity with Roger Vadim, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Samy Frey, and finally the prison of popularity from which BB flees to isolate himself in the villa La Madrague, faithful companions those animals for whose rights he waged memorable battles.

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How is an icon born, that image that takes root in everyone’s dreams? Impossible to say, the series written by Danielle Thompson tries, but sometimes everything happens suddenly and that’s how it was God created womanas stated in the original title of the film that launched Bardot in 1956, after having been the reference model for Elle France.

First there were only wives, mothers and prostitutes, then there was her, simply BB, a slap in the face of morality and decency already elevated to philosophy in 1960 by a book by the mother of all feminism, Simone De Beauvoir (Brigitte Bardot, published in Italy from Lerici and then from Ghibli).

What does newcomer Julia de Nunez know about all this, chosen among eighty candidates? Same wild pout, same hair, the actress, interviewed at the Unifrance Rendez-vous in Paris, recounts the impossible feat with pride and fear: «I had seen a few films by Brigitte Bardot and many, since adolescence, underlined the resemblance, but I discovered everything by interpreting her: the unsuspected upper-class origin, the betrayals of her entourage, the choice of freedom so countercurrent as to leave an imprint on all women, and without too many declarations. I don’t know if BB has seen the series, maybe one day I will write to her, she has given her consent as long as she stays out of everything. It is a great responsibility not to betray her.”

The model is unattainable, the resemblance is powerful, helped by the costume designer Marylin Fitoussi, famous for having created the fashion world of Emily in Paris and what he dressed Julia de Nunez with the unmistakable BB style: capri pants, bare feet, the famous «Bardot neckline» showing off the shoulders, little pink checked Vichy cotton dresses, honeycomb hairdo, bikini, monokini and jeans, declared disinterest in jewels and high heels, at most Repetto ballet flats, Cendrillon model inspired by her. For the history of costume, it is the advent of a transgressive androgynous beauty at the antipodes of the baroque curves of Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren.

Witty Simone De Beauvoir in saying it: «The conventional idea of ​​good and evil does not even touch it. BB doesn’t seek scandal, he doesn’t claim anything, he doesn’t know about rights and duties, he follows her instinct. She eats when she is hungry, same simplicity in love: her desire and pleasure convince her more than customs and norms. Man feels uncomfortable if instead of a flesh doll he holds in his arms a conscious being who observes and sifts him; a free woman is the absolute opposite of an easy woman.’ Does Julia de Nunez agree? «Yes, she was a feminist without declaring it and without ideology, she had the courage to confess, at that time, that she didn’t feel like a mother and, at first, to reject her son Nicolas, she revealed an illegal abortion, she lived as wanted. She has broken many taboos in our society, she has been hated and criticized for it, but a woman can only be grateful to her.”

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In a scene from the series, a politician abuses her during an interview at the ministry, a true fact that Brigitte Bardot told even before MeToo, just as she never kept silent about how director Henri-Georges Clouzot took her for granted on the set of The Truth. slaps, humiliating her. “Arrogance unthinkable today,” says Julia de Nunez. «Everything has changed, I have never felt in danger, the anti-abuse control systems work on the set today. We owe it to the battle of women, of course, but also to the fact that the mentality of the younger generations is really changing. Scandalous Bardot, in her own way, has thrown open many doors.’

Dalla Diva, locked up in her world populated by animals “because they are better than men”, no comment. Who knows if a letter will ever arrive, just a line. Knowing her, even only from the chronicles, we doubt it. The Queen, at 89 years of age, reigns and does not deign, faithful to the surly, misanthropic legend of her.