Pro Bono Pubico
Now then, what have we here? Well, to begin with we have something most jolly and accePl; able, proper to go in the Christmas stocking 0,1 all very big boys, to wit, thirty-four pictures al the head of Mlle Brigitte Bardot and lifty-00e pictures of other bits of her. The bits in questioa range over most of Mlle Bardot, with particular emphasis on that bit and those bits. One of the; pictures, for instance, shows the former cover° by the corner of a sheet, while the latter are covered by the head and shoulders of a young, man. Several show her in a low-cut dress al bathing costume, leaning forward the better la display what she has got, which is a good deal; Several more show her sinking back on to a h° with an inviting look on her face, and very litt on the rest of her. Others show her alreaa/ arrived on the bed, sometimes with a friend' sometimes not. Some show her lying on beaches' in one of which she is absolutely starkers. 0, she is being kissed, now hugged, now nuzzlel Many show her from the back, and ea.1, irresistibly to mind the story of the Englir, Moral ReArmer, invited to confess at a Freof rally of the faithful, who began his speee! 'Quand je regarde ma derriere, je vois qu'eltg est divi.sOe en deux parties.' One of thein—al favourite—shows her in a shortie nightdress' supporting herself by clutching the door of $ gentleman's wardrobe with one hand, while re. moving her panties with the other. (She maY ht, putting them on. But I don't think so.) And Ye° nice too, and well worth half a guinea of an!, body's money, and nothing for Messrs. MP Deutsch and Weidenfeld and Nicolson to be ashamed of.
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So, then, that is what we have here. But it i5 not all we have here. We also have here an essaYd on Mlle Bardot by Mlle Simone de Beauvoir, arl, not since the death of Amanda Ros can ther,' have been on earth a woman as awe-inspiringi devoid of any suspicion that she is making a of herself. We begin with simple ignorance. 411, Audrey Hepburn, Francoise Arnoul, MOO' Vlady, Leslie Caron and Brigitte Bardot thee invented the erotic hoyden.' Poor Mlle di• Beauvoir, to take such an unlucky boss-shot 11, at the start! For anybody who imagines that tll'e eminently bedworthy Bardot provides the saal sort of screen image as the elfin, bush-lOe charm of Miss Hepburn or the piquant-10o attraction of Miss Caron ought to ask the opini°0 of the nearest man. Worse is to follow. See, from behind, her slender, muscular, dancer,; body is almost androgynous.' This means, means anything at all, which I doubt, that 1011$ Bardot, from the back, could be mistaken for man. Well, she couldn't. Mlle de Beauvoir is a great hand, too, with Oct pompous, windy statement that wraps up eithe a plonking truism or a simple misunderstandillge' 'It has often been said that her face has only Or' expression. It is true that the outer world hardly reflected in it at all and that it does net reveal great inner disturbance. But that air er`l indifference becomes her. BB has not heel marked by experience.' But could it not he Mlle Bardot's face has only one express:on be' THE SPECTATOR. SEPTEMBER 16 cause she is in-fact a rather dim little girl who ends it difficult to register any more? 'She fol- lows her inclinations. She eats when she is hungry and makes love with the same uncere- monious simplicity.' So, if the hideous truth must come out, do I. I also drink when I am thirsty, "iron up warmly when it snows, gargle when I have a sore throat, and fall about when I am drunk. So, as a matter of fact, does everyone else I know. What makes 1313 so different'? Only, I suggest, the fact that she is being written about b. Y one who seems to think that gibberish oopresses according to the square of its incom- prehensibility. The very subtitle of the book—'the Lolita syndrome'—exposes the hollowness of Mile de Beauvoir's claim to know what she is talking about, for Lolita was riot beautiful except to the warped Humbert, and she was emphati- cally not innocent—whereas Mlle de Beauvoir Insists repeatedly on the innocence of Mlle Bardot, and androgynous from the back or not, she is certai.1
attractive.
After a time, Mlle de Beauvoir's high-minded maunderings cease to mean anything at all. 'Her eroticism is not magical. but aggressive.' 'In a s°eieeY with spiritualistic pretensions, BB appears as
something deplorably materialistic and prosaic. 'Vadim 'Iv "de-situates" sexual-
•• And there arc over 5,000 words of WhY? What Mlle de Beauvoir is trying to ..-"$ seems to me, is to convince herself -for I cannot imagine that anybody else needs convinc- ing—that the appeal of Mlle Bardot is a healthy one, and that we need extend no moral disappro- val towards her or her audiences. Her defence a.i°es not impress, and qui s'excuse ?accuse. There Itn . nothing complicated, profound, subtle about ° appeal of Mlle Bardot. Her films are popular w men who like looking at very pretty girls With practically no clothes on. If I wanted to be `tts ?wlishly pompous as Mlle de Beauvoir. I 2°'d mutter about a society which can't even want to get into bed with a bit of hot stuff with*- oti t k "aving its motives analysed in public. But h stead I had better just say that I can whole- secartedlY recommend pages thirty-nine to eighty- vett of this book, and shut up:
BERNARD LEVIN
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