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Very few Icons have at once embodied the Myths of their own country while revealing its contradictions: heiress of the Hollywood star system and muse of the French auteur Cinema, Academy Award winning actress and committed producer, feminist and aerobic queen, activist and fearless businesswoman… 

In a lifetime, Jane Fonda may have reconciled all the facets of America without renouncing her own integrity. Through her portrait, the film tells a social and political story while drawing the picture of a typically American phenomenon.

Anthony Perkin’s face and name remain familiar to a younger 21st century audience, fond of Giallo and slashers. But he has long struggled in the shadow of his most famous character, Norman Bates – the serial killer in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, “Psycho”.

Officially presented as the most exciting new star since James Dean on the poster of “Friendly Persuasion”, Anthony Perkins has attracted the attention of such prestigious filmmakers as George Cukor, William Wyler, Stanley Kramer, Anthony Mann, Robert Mulligan, Jules Dassin, René Clément, Claude Chabrol, John Huston, Ken Russell, Sidney Lumet and Orson Welles. And the list of his co-stars does not pale in comparison, with names such as Gary Cooper, Brigitte Bardot, Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Sophia Loren, Gregory Peck, Jane Fonda, Marlene Jobert, Paul Newman and Roger Moore. His filmography ended up being rather impressive for an actor who was so abusively reduced to his only role for Alfred Hitchcock. We also discover that he was an amazing crooner.
His greatest success, “Moonlight Swim”, will be taken up by Elvis Presley. He even directed “Psycho III” – proof of his reconciliation with his favorite bogeyman.

The global success of his 1956 film AND GOD CREATED WOMAN turned Roger Vadim into the acme of cool. He embodied the thirst for unbridled hedonism of a generation that had been through the horrors of war. His attitude earned him the title of “Mister Cool”.

Now that he had got his start, Vadim made a string of films in quick succession. He had the pick of great French actors such as Jeanne Moreau and Gérard Philipe. He went through a string of relationships too, famously with Brigitte Bardot, Annette Stroyberg, Catherine Deneuve and Jane Fonda. He used all of them in his films, fostering the legend of himself as a Svengali figure. But they all came to detest his casual womanizing.
Vadim might have become a great film director, but his playboy lifestyle got in the way of his career.