…And God Created Woman [Et Dieu… Créa la Femme] *** (1956, Brigitte Bardot, Curd Jürgens, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Christian Marquand, Georges Poujouly ) – Classic Movie Review 8792

And the 21-year-old Brigitte Bardot stripped off at the French Riviera seaside at St Tropez and became an overnight sensation in director Roger Vadim’s otherwise only mildly interesting 1956 film …And God Created Woman [Et Dieu… Créa la Femme] about a teenage girl called Juliete Hardy, who is unable to resist the allure of sexually preoccupied men like Eric Carradine (Curt Jurgens), Michel Tardieu (Jean-Louis Trintignant), Antoine Tardieu (Christian Marquand) and Christian Tardieu (Georges Poujouly).

Bardot’s career highspot is generally well acted by the game performers and Vadim makes St Tropez look nearly as pretty as Bardot. Jean-Louis Trintignant made his critical and commercial breakthrough in the film as Michel Tardieu, in his second year in the movies.

Also in the cast are Jane Marken, Paul Faivre, Jean Tissier, Isabelle Corey, Jean Lefebvre, Marie Glory, Jany Mourey and Jacqueline Ventura.

…And God Created Woman [Et Dieu… Créa la Femme], is directed by Roger Vadim, runs 95 minutes, is made by Cocinor, Iéna Productions, Union Cinématographique Lyonnaise (UCIL) is released by Cocinor (1956) (France), Kingsley-International Pictures (1957) (US) (subtitled) and Miracle Films (1957) (UK) (subtitled), is written by Roger Vadim and Raoul Lévy, is shot in Eastmancolor by Armand Thirard, is produced by Raoul Lévy, is scored by Paul Misraki and is designed by Jean André.

Vadim remade it as And God Created Woman in 1988 with Rebecca De Mornay and a new story.

Georges Poujouly (1940-2000) was also known for playing Soudieu, one of the pupils, in Les Diaboliques (1955) and for Lift to the Scaffold [Elevator to the Gallows] (1958), as well as Roger Vadim’s Vice and Virtue (1963) and René Clément’s Is Paris Burning? [Paris brûle-t-il?] (1966). He won international acclaim as a child actor in René Clément’s award-winning 1952 film Jeux Interdits [Forbidden Games].

Jean-Louis Trintignant died at his home on 17 June 2022, at the age of 91.

Trintignant’s notable films include And God Created Woman (1956), The Sleeping Car Murders (1965), A Man and a Woman (1966), The Great Silence (1968), The Man Who Lies, Costa-Gavras’s Z, My Night at Maud’s (1969), The Conformist (1970), Three Colours: Red (1994), The City of Lost Children (1995), and Amour (2012).

Jean-Louis Trintignant won the Best Actor Award at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival for Costa-Gavras’s Z.  He won the 2013 César Award for Best Actor for Michael Haneke’s Amour.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8792

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