La Parisienne

Brigitte Bardot sparkles in this lighthearted romp with Charles Boyer and looks great as always. Although I prefer her dramas and melodramas her romantic comedies are a filling dessert. She seems comfortable, relaxed, and appears to be having a fine old time. Boyer is always charming and an undervalued actor for many years.

A 6 out of 10. Best performance = BB. The music is annoying, especially the opening, but the color is great. All Bardot fans should seek this out (just for fun). I think Bardot is under-rated because few of her films are GREAT ART, but she holds her own with anybody and was always a treat for the eyes as well.

A sparkling movie. BB is a marvel. She's sultry. She is a feminist. She is still very much in love.

The movie features Paris in the 50's. It is wonderful to look at the sites, the cars (DS!) and Orly.

A simple but very enjoyable romantic comedy. The music is horrendous. It almost dissonates. On the other hand it is hilarious. But it is probably the only thing amiss, at least looking at it with 21st century eyes.

The movie comments on the French manner of treating infidelity. It is that sense modern. A movie like un elephant se trompe enormenent did it in an 80's way. But the basic premise stays the the same.

Thanks to makers for providing BB with this opportunity.

Two years before their joint appearance in COME DANCE WITH ME (1959), Brigitte BARDOT and Henri VIDAL (1919-1959) had already appeared on screen as lovers and married couples.

In UNE PARISIENNE, BARDOT plays the daughter of the French Prime Minister (Andre LUGUET), who falls madly in love with her father's chief diplomat. Although he's a confirmed bachelor, he doesn't let anyone get away with it, Brigitte wouldn't be Brigitte if she couldn't win him over. A lingering jealousy remains, however, as there are simply too many admirers from the past queuing up for the handsome Michel. It's a good thing that the state visit of Queen Greta (Nadia GRAY) is just around the corner. Her frivolous Prince Consort Charles (Charles Boyer) is extremely smitten with the charming Brigitte and flies with her to Nice for a swim...

A slightly frivolous comedy starring Brigitte Bardot, who became an important export for the French economy in those days. In the US and Canada alone, the film grossed $3 million at the box office. It certainly didn't hurt that Bardot was allowed to admire her bare bottom from afar. In the 1950s, only French films featuring the fearless Brigitte had something like that to offer, and she also got to cruise through Paris in a bright red sports car. Add to that Charles Boyer, also hardened in Hollywood by four Oscar nominations (in 1945, for example, he was nominated for his role in Gaslight with Ingrid Bergman), in a charming guest role as the Prince Consort! What more could you want?

In her memoirs Brigitte Bardot mentions she is proud of this movie. I can imagine so, because here she fully utilizes her talent for light comedy. 'Une Parisienne' certainly ranks among Bardot's best.

What makes this movie, is its slapstick - from beginning to end. 'Parisienne's' story only serves to get these effects right. Your special attention for its ending, when Brigitte irresistably invites her viewers to keep her secret a secret.

When you settle on your sofa in the weekend, weary and tired after a week's hard work, 'Une Parisienne' is the right movie to make you feel better.

I have to agree with all the previous commenter's--this is simply the best of all frothy comedies, with Bardot as sexy as Marilyn Monroe ever was, and definitely with a prettier face (maybe there's less mystique, but look how Marilyn paid for that.) I don't think I've ever seen such a succulent-looking female on screen, so perfect that even a gay man like me got excited by it--and not just for purely aesthetic reasons (if the idiot evangelicals really want to do their 'convert-a-queer' number, they are really going to need to up their standards, as no church mice need apply here...)Her breasts, the rest of her figure, her adorable voice, the hilarious way she shakes as she walks across a room...only to arrive in front of a man, breasts literally pointed as if in exquisite confrontation...

I think Boyer is one of the greatest leading men in all of film history. No one played opposite more great female stars than did he: Garbo, Dietrich, K. Hepburn, Colbert, and here Bardot, among many others. And he was also in 'Fanny' with Leslie Caron, and had small parts in 'How to Steal a Million' with A. Hepburn, as well as being in the Deneuve movie 'The April Fools' (although not opposite her.) The only thing I could disagree with in remarks is that even the loud, obnoxious music over the opening credits is appropriate--I mean, Bardot is not meant to be subtle on top of everything else, and her essential loudness (I don't mean her voice) is part of her irresistible and, one might even say, exemplary charm.

Vidal is thoroughly handsome, even if pouty Brigitte says toward the beginning 'I don't know why I am in love with you, you're not even handsome.'

Dear, dear Bardot! Truly one of the wonders of the 20th century, not to mention the joy that she is still with us, when so many of the truly characterful are passing away so fast, in all her eccentric glory.