Douglas Kirkland – Brigitte Bardot, Surprise, Mexico 1965

“I got a call from United Artists in 1965 to meet with senior vice president of advertising and publicity Freddie Goldberg, to discuss a new project. “We are making a film in Mexico with Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau, directed by Louis Malle, and we have a problem. There has been so much press crowding the set that it has been impossible for Louis to get any work done. So we have decided to close the set, and we want you to be our only photographer there.” I virtually skipped out of the office in anticipation of being with Bardot and Moreau, two of the biggest French stars of the day. When I arrived on the set in Mexico City, I realized that everybody was French but me, and my half-dozen classes at Berlitz didn’t carry me very far. Jeanne and Louis spoke perfect English; Bri, as we called her, spoke it haltingly, so that got me by. Bri was playful and childish, she needed to be constantly entertained by her “petits copains” and liked to dance late into the night. She would run around the hotel hallways in a panic if left alone too long, yelling for someone to play with.”

Douglas Kirkland was born in Toronto Canada. He joined Look Magazine in his early twenties, and later Life Magazine during the golden age of 60’s/70’s photojournalism. Among his assignments were essays on Greece, Lebanon and Japan as well as fashion and celebrity work, photographing Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlene Dietrich among others.

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