The Parisian

Brigitte Bardot and her Prince

What is the connection between the young, scandalous blonde starlet Brigitte Bardot and Snow White? At first glance, the link is not obvious. It is ironic and fleeting. In the film The Parisian, Brigitte, the daughter of the council president, pursues Michel Legrand, the government’s chief of staff, with her attentions.

The two end up getting married, and to make her husband jealous, Brigitte flirts with a Prince on an official visit. Returning from the ball where she met him, she sings the first few bars of the French version of the song “Some Day my Prince will come” twice, to which her husband replies with an energetic rendition of “Il était un petit navire” (There was a little ship), a French nursery rhyme about a ship that never sailed.

It is revealing that, after the first verse, Bardot stops singing and starts whistling a tune unrelated to the song. She thus reveals the ambiguous relationship that the audience has with this song, which everyone knows exists, but few people know the lyrics to, let alone the complete tune.