Images of the screen diva were splashed across media outlets around the globe following the announcement of her death on Sunday. Many also analysed her role as a catalyst for changes in France.
Bardot’s libertine attitude in her breakthrough 1956 movie And God Created Woman outraged censors at the time. And the French Catholic daily La Croix said she had a “career without much success” that she cut short to devote herself to animals.
The left-leaning Liberation newspaper said, however, that Bardot had a “meteoric career”.
“She was probably the last of that handful of new and free figures in which France liked to recognise itself at the turn of the 60s,” noted Liberation, which called her the “greatest sex symbol of French cinema”.
The conservative Le Figaro said “this blonde whirlwind burst onto the screens” in a France still suffering from post-World War II fallout. “She shook things up, danced the mambo on the tables of Saint-Tropez,” it added, recalling her iconic scene in And God Created Woman.
Bardot: the screen goddess who gave it all up
Diva rebel
International media highlighted the screen sensation and the controversy after Bardot gave up acting to defend animal rights, as well as become a far-right supporter. Bardot was convicted five times for comments that incited racial hatred.
“She was a French cocktail of kittenish charm and continental sensuality,” said Britain’s BBC.
Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper called her “a diva rebel” who “chose liberty until the very end”.
In Spain, El Pais called Bardot a “controversial activist”.
“In her own way, she hid nothing. Neither the wrinkles, nor her increasingly radical character or her ideological convictions, which she evoked with crude euphemisms,” it said.
The New York Times said that Bardot “redefined mid-20th century movie sex symbolism”, highlighting her “unapologetic carnal appetite” on screen.
But, it added, “At best, Ms Bardot was considered eccentric in her later years, prompting observations that this former sex kitten, as she was often called, had turned into a ‘crazy cat lady’.”
Bardot was repeatedly convicted for hate speech – mostly against members of the Islamic faith after migration from France’s former colonies.
French screen legend Brigitte Bardot fined for racial slurs against Reunion islanders
She actively backed far-right presidential contender Marine Le Pen when she ran in 2012 and 2017.
Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said it would be better to “forget, even if it may be difficult, the political Bardot of recent years for the duration of this obituary” and “remember THE Bardot” instead.
Bardot “will be buried in her garden near the sea,” said her long-time friend and journalist Wendy Bouchard on Monday.
“It was her wish and it will be respected,” said Bouchard, referring to the icon’s last wish to “be buried near those she cherished, her animals.”
(with newswires)