It's Friday, January 16, 2006.

I'm Albert Moller, and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

I'm going to deal mostly today with your questions, but I do want to start by looking at two obituaries,

indeed the obituaries of two women who lived

very significant lives in the 20th century and lives laden with all kinds of worldview

importance. The first of them is Bridget Bardot. Bridget Bardot died basically over the Christmas

holidays. At least her death was acknowledged at that point. Her foundation said that she died at age 91,

but her life is one of the symbolic lives of the 20th century. Bridget Bardot was what in the

French is referred to as a femme fatale. That is to say, she was a woman of tremendous male fascination. She was also a deadly woman in a very specific sense.

She was one of the most important, the most well-known sex symbols, female sex symbols of the 20th century.

In some sense, you're really looking at the sexuality that emerged in the post-war period in the United States, especially in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

It was earlier in France than in the United States. As a matter of fact, France prided itself during this period for its open-mindedness by its own definition on sex.

As a matter of fact, the French looked down on the

British and the Americans, but in particular the Americans, as being repressed and immature. And

French cinema of that time, wow, it just took the world by storm. And in particular, it became a

model for what American Hollywood figures thought American film might one day do.

A lot of it's very dark.

That's the noir film category.

A lot of it was based in realism, which makes a lot of sense just in terms of the aftermath of World War II.

And France's experience, a devastating experience

in that war. But it also reflects a French cultural understanding in which the French unabashedly

claimed cultural superiority and sophistication. And Bridget Bardot was very much a symbol of that.

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