A letter from France: Drama queens and kings are the new French aristocracy

 
p25 French film legend and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot Gerard Depardieu
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John Lichfield10 January 2013

The story so far... France’s largest movie star has defected to Belgium and accepted a Russian passport, enabling him to avoid a supertax. He failed to appear before a judge in Paris this week to face charges of drink driving (his 17th serious road traffic offence).

If two sick zoo elephants are destroyed, one of the country’s oldest and best known female stars plans to leave the Côte d’Azur in midwinter and move to Russia. In protest against her homeland’s alleged poor treatment of animals, she threatens to move to the nation of fur farms and feral, urban dog packs.

Both Gérard Depardieu and Brigitte Bardot are associated with the Right of French politics. Bardot has been associated in the past with the Far Right. Their anger and erratic behaviour may, in part, be politically-generated. To a much greater extent, it is ego-generated: motivated by a conviction that celebrity is a form of modern aristocracy which confers moral status and power. Both say that they have been insulted by France’s Socialist government. The prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, called Depardieu “minable” for wanting to escape the planned 75 per cent super-tax (which has since been declared unconstitutional).

Minable means “pathetic”, or “small” in the moral sense. Depardieu, 64, who comes from a poor, rural background in central France, hates any suggestion that he is “small”.

He regards himself as a colossus, not just in his Falstaffian girth but also in his capacity to defy simple characterisation. A workaholic wine-lover, making an endless string of arguably mediocre movies for large fees? Oui. A money-obsessed cynic who makes paid-for appearances for some of the nastiest dictators on the planet? Oui. But it is also true that Depardieu (when sober) can be a thoughtful, spiritual man, who acts in low-budget movies for the minimum union wage.

Another minister suggests that Bardot, 78, a tireless campaigner for animals, is “hysterical”. She complains that she is no longer “shown respect” by the French authorities. She probably suspects that, despite her iconic status, she is no longer respected by most of France.

She has not made a film for years. She has lost her once extraordinary looks. France, even more than other countries, is sensitive to looks, especially those of women.

The reaction in France to Depardieu’s threatened exile has been a mixture of mockery, anger and support. The reaction to Bardot’s threat to leave her beachfront villa in Saint-Tropez and emigrate to Russia in mid-January has been one of almost pure derision.

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