Vadim, Roger

▪ 2001

Roger Vadim [or Vladimir] Plemiannikov 

      French filmmaker (b. Jan. 26, 1928, Paris, France—d. Feb. 11, 2000, Paris), showcased the appreciation of beautiful women that defined his personal life by featuring them in his professional life—about 25 motion pictures over his 40-year career. He was perhaps best known for discovering Brigitte Bardot, who became the first of his five wives, and starring her in his first film, Et Dieu créa la femme (1956; And God Created Woman; U.K. title, And Woman Was Created). That film broke new ground for “acceptable” eroticism in film, made Bardot a sex symbol, and set the stage for the French New Wave of the late 1950s and '60s. Vadim at first intended to become an actor, then tried journalism, and finally became an assistant movie director and television director. He met Bardot when she was in her mid-teens, and they were married in 1952, when she was 18. Vadim wrote a few screenplays for her, but her films had little impact until he made her a star with his film directorial debut. He made another motion picture for her, Les Bijoutiers du clair de lune (1957; The Night Heaven Fell; U.K. title, Heaven Fell That Night), but by that time their marriage had ended. Vadim's next marriage was to Annette Stroyberg, whom he starred in a modern-dress version of Les Liaisons dangereuses (1959; Dangerous Love Affairs) and in Et mourir de plaisir (1960; Blood and Roses; also released as To Die with Pleasure), and he then entered a relationship with Catherine Deneuve, who starred in his Le Vice et la vertu (1962; Vice and Virtue). Vadim starred his third wife, Jane Fonda, in another of his most famous films, the cult classic Barbarella (1968), which was his last commercial success. He thereafter worked mostly in television. Vadim's last two marriages were to heiress Catherine Schneider and actress Marie-Christine Barrault. Vadim was also the author of a number of books in which he revealed details of his life, including Memoires du diable (1975; Memoirs of the Devil, 1976), L'Ange affame (1982; The Hungry Angel, 1983), and D'une étoile à l'autre (1986; Bardot Deneuve Fonda: My Life with the Three Most Beautiful Women in the World, 1986).

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