Bruno Ricard, the man who had Brigitte Bardot under his skin
Bruno Ricard, at his home in Boulogne-Billancourt on February 11, 2022. © Anne Bernas/RFI
Text by: Anne Bernas Follow
7 mins
There are characters that you just have to meet once to remember them forever.
Bruno Ricard is one of them.
For several decades, he has devoted a large part of his life to the famous Brigitte Bardot, planetary artist and unconditional defender of the animal cause.
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“
Everything brings me back to Brigitte.
I devote at least three or four hours a day to it.
There is only one woman like her.
Here is the character, 56 years old;
but “
I don't do them
”, he likes to say.
Some would take him for a crank.
However, Bruno Ricard, good-natured face, has his head firmly on his shoulders and his feet on the ground.
He does not define himself as a fan in the “fanatic” sense, rather as an enthusiast, an admirer of “
the most exceptional woman
”.
But the word is weak, and for good reason.
Difficult to climb the stairs which have become too narrow, difficult also to find a place to sit down in this house which is not lacking in any.
BB takes up all the space.
A three-storey house nestled in the heart of the museum of the sculptor Paul Belmondo in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the Hauts-de-Seine.
Functional accommodation for Bruno Ricard who is the caretaker.
Three floors where everything, absolutely everything concerning the sex symbol of French cinema is piled up;
a museum in its own right.
And God... created the fan.
No less than 250,000 pieces on “Brigitte”, as he calls her.
Either the largest collection in the world of objects on the star.
From the gigantic original tarp that covered the Lancel store on the Champs-Élysées when the "Bardot" handbag was launched, to the actress's bras and her lipsticks ("
on which her DNA is found
" ), by the jacket she wore when she met Pope John Paul II (and whom the latter touched), or even old Lux soaps bearing her effigy, unpublished photos where she is a child and plays with animals , his first passion... He has everything, absolutely everything.
And this passionate about sneaking between boxes of records, thousands of magazines (all devoted to BB, of course), and opening one of its many windows.
“
That is a mythical object.
It's the original eagle that was on the Harley Davidson with Gainsbourg, during the eponymous music video.
So Gainsbourg touched him, and Bardot too.
»
Bruno Ricard is unstoppable.
It would take days and days to discover his treasures bought at flea markets, auctions or on specialized sites.
"
The heart has its reasons that reason does not know
", as Blaise Pascal said.
Moreover, due to globalization, Bruno Ricard references everything that has been done on the emblem of women's emancipation and sexual freedom throughout the world.
He also participated in the first comic strip made on the sex symbol, wrote a book on his approach to her, he is also the initiator of Bardot exhibitions around the world, as far as Brazil.
He created a
blog
and opened a Facebook page dedicated to the French icon.
Artist in his spare time, he also makes small plaster busts of the star, he paints them and exchanges them for other BB objects.
Last project in progress: digitizing an entire palette of film reels, unpublished rushes, “
a cinematographic treasure
”.
Since “
passion has a cost
”, this collector devotes on average between 20% and 30% of his monthly budget, a huge sum for someone who earns just over 2,000 euros per month.
“
Sometimes,
he likes to say between two puffs of a cigarette,
I call on wealthy friends to give me a hand!
I pay them back afterwards, of course.
»
The animal cause as a starting point
It was at the end of the 1960s that the former municipal gardener had the “
click
”, while watching television.
But not by discovering the films in which the planetary star played.
“
I see a lady who defended animals, and since I was little, I have paid particular attention and affection to animals.
The years go by and I learn that this "lady" is setting up an association for the defense of animals.
»
We are in 1986, the date of the creation of the
Brigitte Bardot
Foundation, a French foundation dedicated to the protection of animals and recognized as being of public utility since February 21, 1992. Bruno Ricard joined it immediately, because the Foundation is "
a work of public health
”.
“
Unfortunately, the politicians have nothing to do with it
,” he says with somewhat flowery words and while talking to his dog at the same time.
“
I'm a big mouth, but when you touch an animal, I have tears in my eye.
»
"
And it was one day, going to a flea market, more than thirty-five years ago, so much later than my joining the Foundation, that I came across a record with a cover that left me speechless: a real "cannon".
I discover that in fact it is Brigitte Bardot.
He bought the vinyl for 150 francs, a high sum for the time (about 22 euros).
This will be the first piece in his collection.
"
I had seen Brigitte in the demonstrations, but I had not realized that she was so beautiful
," he says, rolling his eyes.
As in a love story, he remembers the first sentence he said to her.
“
Hello Brigitte, quite simply
,” he confides with emotion in his voice.
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Sincere and solid ties
Quickly, on the occasion of yet another demonstration in favor of the animal cause, Bruno Ricard was spotted by one of the bodyguards of the one he nicknamed "
the Madonna of the animals
".
There followed the beginning of a real friendship between the one who “
only has a diploma from HEC, Hautes Études communales
”, as he likes to say, and Brigitte Bardot.
But is BB aware of the existence of the extraordinary collection owned by Bruno Ricard?
“
Of course!
I have had a whole correspondence for several years with her, I go from time to time to her place in Saint-Tropez.
“And not a little proud to add:”
One day, she told me that even the Louvre would not have enough space to expose everything I have on her.
Brigitte Bardot even gave her an old red telephone, "
a piece I've wanted for over 25 years...
"
Bruno Ricard is aware of the fortune he could make if he sold just a few pieces from his collection, but that's out of the question.
“
I'm not doing this for the money, I won't sell anything, never in my life!
“And what will happen when Brigitte Bardot, 87, is no longer in this world?
“
I don't know.
My life will end.
“But thanks to his collection, the admirer dreams of creating a “real” museum in homage to the “
woman of his life
”, in Saint-Tropez.
Brigitte Bardot is in Bruno Ricard's skin more than anyone else, but also on his skin.
And the collector to remove his shirt and expose his three tattoos on BB.
"
Soon I'm going to get a tattoo all over my back as a tribute to her.
“
My passion is my fight for animals.
One does not go without the other.
I have a specific line: Brigitte Bardot.
»
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