Viva La France
Your Bastille Day Gift Has Arrived

France has given us a lot over the years.

The Statue of Liberty. Mimes. Brigitte Bardot.

And while Lady Liberty is plenty lovely in her own right, so is Brigitte. And actually, so are mimes.

But we digress.

Presenting The Women of French Film, a slideshow spectacular devoted to helping you make the most of this very important holiday, Bastille Day. Viva la France.

Among them, you’ll find some names you might already know: Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve... Amélie. (Technically, Audrey Tautou, but why get technical.) But among the ladies you might not know are a few you’ll be happy to meet: Ludivine Sagnier, who spent more than half of Swimming Pool wearing nothing but a one-piece bathing suit (the bottom piece); Jean Seberg, the pixie-haired wonder who smoked her way through Breathless (literally and figuratively), and later had an affair with Clint Eastwood. (Proof that your love of France’s starlets puts you in good company.)

You’ll also find a bevy of beauties from the French New Wave—sultry girls who sulked and purred, wearing black turtlenecks in movies by Godard and Truffaut. From more recent times, you’ll find Isabelle Adjani (ex to Daniel Day-Lewis), Vanessa Paradis (aka Mrs. Johnny Depp) and Marion Cotillard (who looks a lot better when not playing Edith Piaf). And of course, the timeless classics, like Charlotte Rampling and Jeanne Moreau, who was once touted as “The New Bardot.”

You can never have too many Bardots.