A Very Private Affair

This early directorial effort by Louis Malle offers an inside look at the life of a glamorous movie queen supposedly patterned after that of its star, Brigitte Bardot. Bardot, an 18-year-old who lives with her mother on a huge estate overlooking Lake Geneva, is infatuated with Mastroianni, an Italian magazine publisher and stage director who is married to Bardot's friend, Kubler. When Mastroianni takes little notice of Bardot, she goes to Paris to become a ballerina. A switch to modeling makes her the talk of town, bringing her to the attention of a movie producer. After three short years of jet-setting, she becomes an international star. Dissatisfied with the down...