And God Created Woman (1956 film)

And God Created Woman
Theatrical release poster
FrenchEt Dieu... créa la femme
Directed byRoger Vadim
Written by
Produced byRaoul Lévy
Starring
CinematographyArmand Thirard
Edited byVictoria Mercanton
Music byPaul Misraki
Production
companies
  • Iéna Productions
  • Union Cinématographique Lyonnaise
Distributed byCocinor
Release date
  • 28 November 1956 (1956-11-28) (France)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
Budget$300,000 (est.)[1]
Box office
  • $12 million (U.S.)[2]
  • $21 million (foreign)[3]
  • 3,919,059 admissions (France)[4]

And God Created Woman (French: Et Dieu... créa la femme) is a 1956 French romantic drama film directed by Roger Vadim in his directorial debut and starring Brigitte Bardot. Though not her first film, it is widely recognized as the vehicle that launched Bardot into the public spotlight and immediately created her "sex kitten" persona, making her an overnight sensation.

When the film was released in the United States by Kingsley-International Pictures in 1957, it pushed the boundaries of the representation of sexuality in American cinema, and most available prints of the film were heavily edited to conform with the Hays Code censorial standards.[5] Filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich credited it for "breaking French cinema out of U.S. art houses and into the mainstream and thereby inadvertently also paving the way for the takeover in France of the New Wave filmmakers."[6]

A poorly-received English-language remake, also titled And God Created Woman, was directed by Vadim and released in 1988.

  1. ^ Scheuer, Philip K. (20 July 1965). "Vadim Is Frank On, Off Screen". Los Angeles Times. p. C8.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference EW.com was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Empire was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ "Box office information for Et Dieu… crea la femme in France". Box Office Story.
  5. ^ And God Created Woman at AllMovie.
  6. ^ Bogdanovich, Peter (11 January 1999). "Peter Bogdanovich's Movie of the Week". The New York Observer.