Long-time readers of this blog will know I’ve a soft spot for rogues as long as they stay at a safe distance and the subject of this post, born on the 26th January 1928, was certainly a rogue, and also a cinematic phenomenon.
Here’s a threesome of his films:-
The most endearing thing about Vadim was that he nearly always ended up getting dumped.
By women like her (Brigitte Bardot, the first Mrs Vadim)
And her (Annette Stroyberg, the second Mrs Vadim)
And her (Catherine Deneuve, mother of his son and nearly the third Mrs Vadim)
And her (Jane Fonda, the actual third Mrs Vadim)
Well, he certainly had a type lol. Interesting how none of them were blonde to begin with.
Vadim’s autobiography ‘Bardot, Deneuve and Fonda‘ is a great read but if you can’t grab hold of it, there’s a nice obituary of him here.
In honour of Vadim’s birthday, I’m delighted to announce that the entirety of the films shown in the first two trailers above: ‘And God Created Woman’ (the film that introduced Bardot to the world) and ‘Blood and Roses‘ (his pioneering lesbian vampire flick) are both available to watch on you-tube. For those suffering from seasonal affective disorder, the sunlit St Tropez shown in the first movie is the best possible antidote to the depressing Irish winter weather. Just click on the links in the previous sentence.
Happy Belated Birthday, Monsieur Vadim!
just saw and god created woman – great film for gamers btw
andi forgot just WHAT a goddam succulent piece Jane Fonda was
fine
i’ll just be the ONLY POSTER all day
BY MYSELF
good BYE bitches
sorry Firepower
It is remarkable how his character shows in his photograph – and his women’s characters do not.
I conjecture that his modus operandi was to find a beautiful woman, film her in ways that showed the whole world what he appreciated about her. The woman becomes a star, her status goes through the roof, she feels herself maltreated by this wicked fellow, so he selects another beautiful woman.
Barbarella was a fun movie and I liked it. Roger Vadim made a very un-PC movie in 1971 : Pretty maids all in a row about a high-school teacher that have sex with his students and kill them.
@James A Donald:
It was exactly his modus operandi, he did this with many of the women that loved him and all his ex-wives attended his funeral.
“..a type..” Keep going.You know want to. As do we.
‘..Annette Stroyberg..’ Who is she? I’ve never heard of her.
Catherine Deneuve has held up amazingly well due to her femininity and her inability to achieve fame/cater-to English-language audiences.
Also,I admire you for defying The European Union(and their henchmen,Dublin division) for implying ANYTHING positive/normal about Bardot.
hey, she likes animals… that has to be a positive, no? I may not agree with all of Brigitte’s views but she certainly brightened up quite a few people’s lives in the grey, grey fifties.
dealing with your comments in reverse order
Deneuve has held up amazingly well, if you read Vadim’s book it becomes very clear why – underneath the delicate exterior there was iron self-discipline and determination, not an easy person to live with, though, I’d say.
In many ways it was a shame Vadim and Bardot didn’t stay together, even in some kind of open relationship – they really did get on well. Here’s a lovely photo of them together shortly before his death.
http://s11.allstarpics.net/images/orig/5/j/5jklaakzuh0khuka.jpg
Annette Stroyberg was a Danish starlet and model who became Vadim’s second wife. ‘Blood and Roses’ above was the vehicle intended to make her a star, but it didn’t work. Good obituary of Annette here:-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2005/dec/22/guardianobituaries.film
A type? well, the facial features – eye shape, eyebrow shape, forehead, chin, particularly the mouth, are all quite similar, they also all had hourglass figures – boob size, height etc. varied.
Deneuve was a brunette when he went out with her and he said he preferred her that way, though whether he was telling the truth is another question. Photo of Deneuve as she was when they got together here (with her sister – she’s the darker one on the right)
http://www.leninimports.com/francoise_dorleac_gallery_2.jpg
Bardot of course was also a brunette when they met (photo of her wedding to Vadim below)
http://img2.timeinc.net/instyle/images/2011/gallery/081011-brigette-bardot-400.jpg
Barbarella is a delicious high camp sexy romp.
Jane Fonda plays this semi-Puritanical in forebrain theory, ingénue, always dressed in a very vampy futuristic skin tight cat suit getup, who gets herself into all sorts of sexy trouble and can’t resist her impulses. It’s quite delicious.
Or so I recall from watching it a couple of times eons ago.
Catherine Deneuve was NOT “almost the third Mrs. Vadim”. She was underage (17 years old) and he was twice her age when they started going out. She got pregnant at 18, but refused to marry him because she knew it wouldn’t work out (and it didn’t; they split 1 month after their son was born).
Just months after that, he moved onto Fonda — who was 6 years older than her predecessor Deneuve.
After divorcing Fonda, he married heiress Catherine Schneider and had a son with her.
Yes, but they nearly got married – only Annette threatened not to let him see their daughter Natalie, or he got cold feet or something – they had it all arranged, it’s in his book. Deneuve I think got annoyed about the postponement of the wedding – or as you say, maybe realised it would never work out – and he got annoyed because of long family discussions with her parents about dowries, ownership of cutlery and so forth. So I still maintain she was nearly the third Mrs Vadim – unless his book is inaccurate.
this Jane Fonda bio says ‘pressured by Deneuve’s mother to marry, they signed a pre-nuptial contract and arranged a wedding in Tahiti”, scroll down until you come to it. That’s my memory of Vadim’s autobiography too. Deneuve sued him over the book so I assume anything left in is correct. I’d reckon a pre-nup and planned wedding means they ‘almost’ got married, wouldn’t you?
http://www.google.ie/#hl=en&q=vadim%20deneuve%20wedding&psj=1&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=896l4934l0l5134l21l13l0l1l1l0l1024l3357l0.8.1.6-1.1l11l0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbm=bks&source=og&sa=N&tab=wp&psj=1&ei=0hk6T5O4L5K4hAfOuM3sCQ&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=2e2c6fe6af1fe05c&biw=1280&bih=584
That contradicts what Deneuve has said about the relationship. There’s a CD fansite with a bunch of archived articles and interviews. One is from 1969 where she says people ask her why she didn’t marry Vadim. On having a child out of wedlock, she said she just had to “face it” and was not going to marry a man she didn’t want to. I’d say her own words are more reliable that some biographer of Jane Fonda. I also thought it was strange why Vadim had a pattern of going after teenager starlets like Bardot and Deneuve, then switch over to a very established American actress in her late 20s.
Here’s Catherine herself in Life Magazine
“Vadim and I were about to get married when, on the eve of the ceremony….”
http://books.google.ie/books?id=qlIEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA34&dq=deneuve+vadim+engaged&hl=en&ei=do5DT9GIAo-LhQfk9OncBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=deneuve%20vadim%20engaged&f=false
So I guess it wasn’t just Fonda’s biographer’s imagination (or mine!) after all.
I think the answer, from reading the article, is that he asked her when she was pregnant, and she accepted, but the wedding didn’t go ahead, then he asked her again after their son was born and she turned him down. The two different wedding proposals might be the source of the confusion.