This beautiful and unusually designed poster was made for a 2008 Brigitte Bardot film retrospective in Japan. The event focused on her romantic movies and the slate consisted of Et Dieu... créa la femme, aka ...And God Created Woman, En effeuillant la marguerite, aka Plucking the Daisy, Une Parisienne, Les bijoutiers du claire de lune, aka The Night Heaven Fell, and Doctor at Sea. This is a frame-worthy piece of modern graphic design. Note how all the lines of text are set at slight angles, just a little something to dazzle the eye. Top work. 

Continuing the process of cleaning off our French shelf, we have an issue of the pin-up magazine Stop. This one, issue #18 from 1962, is devoted entirely to Brigitte Bardot, and inside you get studio and outdoor photography of the legendary sex symbol, plus production stills from several of her films. The cover image of her in front of the Eiffel Tower is iconic, but the image in panel sixteen, just above, is one of the most famous ever made of her. It was shot by Willy Rizzo in Saint-Tropez during the 1956 production of Roger Vadim’s Et Dieu… crea la femme, aka And God Created Woman, and it pretty much sums up the quality of Bardot’s sex appeal. Saint-Tropez was just a sleepy seaside village back then, so you can imagine what all those crusty fishermen in the cafés thought the first time they saw this woman walking barefoot along their waterfront. Mermaid? Tramp? Angel? Waif? Bardot had all those elements and more, which is a large part of why—in addition to her copious talent—she became such a transcendent star. Today she remains in the public eye, if controversially, and it’s ironic that someone who once united people in their appreciation of her beauty, acting and singing is now such a polarizing figure. The above photo isn’t the only image that survives from that famed Rizzo session, so just for the fun of it, we’ve posted a few more below to help you dream about springtime. 

Brigitte Bardot started as a dancer and model, but soon moved into film, debuting in 1952’s Le trou normand. But it wasn’t until today in 1955 that she exploded onto the international scene in Roger Vadim’s Et Dieu… créa la femme, aka ...And God Created Woman. As Bardot’s career blossomed she embraced the role of luscious sex symbol, and was eventually voted honorary sex goddess of the 1960s—though by whom we aren’t sure. Anyway, if she’s a sex goddess, she’s pulp, so here she is on a collection of vintage posters.

Later in her career Bardot released several albums, charting hits in collaboration with French musical legend Serge Gainsbourg. As Bardot aged she became reclusive, but still speaks out on political issues. Recently she slammed U.S. vice-presidential candidate and fellow sexpot Sarah Palin for, among other transgressions, downplaying the environmental harm caused by humans. There’s much more to Bardot’s life than we can describe here. We recommend checking out her Wikipedia entry and renting her movies.