In this original and illuminating study, Ginette Vincendeau explores Brigitte Bardot's complex and revolutionary image of femininity, her film career and her lasting and controversial celebrity. Analyzing all Bardot's output, encompassing popular comedies and melodramas, work with New Wave directors Louis Malle and Jean-Luc Godard, and international productions such as Dear Brigitte (1965) and Shalako (1968), Vincendeau shows how Bardot's enduring fame is based on her status as a sexual, lifestyle, musical, and fashion role model and even an icon of national identity. Finally, she considers the ageing Bardot's continued prominence in popular culture, arguing that, as well as a glamorous film star, Bardot was one of the inventors of modern celebrity.