This Friday, May 31, 2024 at 9:10 p.m., France 5 broadcasts Long live Maria! by Louis Malle. A film which brings together two actresses in full glory: Jeanne Moreau and Brigitte Bardot.
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Two French stars in one and the same film. This is what France 5 is offering you, this Friday May 31, 2024 at 9:10 p.m., with the broadcast of Long live Maria! by Louis Malle. Which brings together on screen Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau, then in full glory. The pitch for this great French entertainment? In 1907, in the Republic of San Miguel, the daughter of an Irish anarchist, Maria, was wanted by the police for planting bombs. She hides in the trailer of a traveling music hall artist, also named Maria. The latter offers to replace his partner, who has just succumbed to heartbreak. They meet Florès, a Mexican revolutionary with whom they fall in love.
Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau in Long live Maria! : a star cast
“I thought it would be funny to put Bardot and Moreau together in the same film. I wanted the alchemy to work between the professional actress and the star, between the sophisticated woman and the instinctive child.“, declared director Louis Malle at the time. Comments relayed by Telerama. When such a project is announced, the press goes wild and the spectators salivate in anticipation. Because in 1965, Jeanne Moreau and Brigitte Bardot were certainly the two greatest French actresses of their time. From then on, the media made Jeanne and Brigitte two rival actresses. And yet, in reality, this is not the case! “We were accomplices. I insist, accomplices as two sisters can be. Both of us luckily experienced an exceptional time, specific to our professions.“, said Brigitte Bardot of Jeanne Moreau upon her death in 2017, in the columns of Paris Match.
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Where was the film filmed?Viva Maria ?
In this parody-like western, Louis Malle places his cameras in Mexico, in Tepoztlan, according to information from the INA. However, the filming turned out to be more difficult than expected for Jeanne Moreau and Brigitte Bardot, who suffered from the climate and altitude. The two actresses fall thus “sick in turn for several days in a row”, remind us Telerama. An experience that remained engraved in the memories of the two actresses. “Viva Maria will remain in the annals and in both of our lives” confides Brigitte in particular to Paris Match. When it was released in theaters, the film was a great success, attracting nearly 3.5 million spectators.
