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The film ...And God Created Woman (1956) is a study in destructive passion and social rebellion, meaning most characters end the film morally scarred, but some achieve a greater degree of stability or self-awareness.
Here is a breakdown of who ends up better and who ends up worse, with specific details:
1. Juliette Hardy (Brigitte Bardot)
At the start of the film, Juliette is an uncontrollable, passionate orphan facing potential scandal, deportation, and an arranged, loveless marriage (or two). She is driven by a chaotic and nearly suicidal obsession with Antoine.
2. Éric Carradine
The wealthy, older financier who initially attempts to buy Juliette's affection by marrying her guardian and offering her security.
1. Antoine Tardieu
The cynical, handsome elder brother and patriarch who believes he is above emotional entanglement but is secretly obsessed with Juliette.
2. Michel Tardieu
The sensitive, kind, and initially naive middle brother who marries Juliette primarily to save her from scandal, hoping to tame her.
3. Madame Tardieu
<span class='error-major' data-annotation='14' data-tooltip='[Critical Error: Madame Tardieu is Michel's mother, not Juliette's guardian]'>The moralistic, bourgeois matriarch of the family (Juliette's guardian).
The AI Summary presents a neat resolution where Juliette 'commits' and 'finds an anchor,' completely missing that the film's power comes from its refusal to provide such closure. The French Wikipedia's explicit statement that she 'promises nothing' is central to understanding the film's themes about female sexuality and autonomy.
The AI claims Juliette 'ends up better' by finding stability and security. This misses the film's core point: Juliette remains the same wild, untamable character. The 'smile' she gives after Michel slaps her suggests manipulation or recognition of power dynamics, not genuine transformation or commitment.
The AI confuses Madame Tardieu with Madame Morin, missing an entire character. Madame Morin is Juliette's foster mother who threatens to send her to the orphanage—a key plot catalyst.
Sources note the film's 'paternalistic' perspective and one critic describes it as showing 'the ways that a woman's allure can fuel, destroy, and build the dreams of men.' The AI's framing focuses on Juliette's destructive nature rather than examining how male characters attempt to control and possess her.
This key line of dialogue reveals how the male characters view Juliette as an inhuman force rather than a person. It's thematically important but the AI Summary doesn't reference it despite discussing Carradine's character arc.
IMDB reviewer notes that Carradine 'blows town with Christian Marquand who plays Antoine' at the end—the two men departing together while the woman remains trapped in an uncertain marriage. This has thematic significance the AI doesn't explore.
Based on careful analysis of the film's ending, the question of who ends up 'better' or 'worse' is more complex than a simple categorization:
ARGUABLY BETTER (or unchanged):
Éric Carradine - The wealthy businessman is the only character who escapes relatively unscathed. Though wounded in the hand, he retains his wealth, dignity, and philosophical detachment. He successfully completes his business deal (30% stake for the Tardieus in his casino development) and leaves town with Antoine, having learned that Juliette cannot be controlled or possessed. He gains wisdom without catastrophic loss.
WORSE OFF:
Michel Tardieu - The youngest brother suffers the most complete transformation from innocence to trauma. Though he 'wins' Juliette in the sense that she remains his wife, he has been betrayed, cuckolded, publicly humiliated, and driven to attempted murder. His simple life as a boat-builder is replaced by a volatile marriage with a woman who makes him no promises. The film's ending shows him slapping Juliette four times—a violent assertion of control that reveals his complete loss of innocence and descent into the same possessive masculine rage he initially seemed to avoid.
Antoine Tardieu - The elder brother is utterly defeated. His attempt to possess Juliette fails, he damages his family's business relations with Carradine, nearly gets shot by his own brother, and is forced to leave St. Tropez permanently on Carradine's orders. His cynical worldview that he could have Juliette without emotional consequences proves catastrophically wrong.
Madame Tardieu - Michel's mother witnesses the complete collapse of her family's respectability. Her sons fight violently, the business is threatened, and her hope for propriety is shattered.
AMBIGUOUS (neither clearly better nor worse):
Juliette Hardy - This is the most contested interpretation. The AI Summary claims she ends up 'better' by finding stability and commitment, but this fundamentally misreads the ending. The French script explicitly states 'Elle ne lui promet rien, mais un avenir possible entre eux se dessine' (She promises him nothing, but a possible future between them is suggested).
Juliette remains in essentially the same situation: married to a man she doesn't fully love, still wild and untamed. The 'smile' she gives after Michel slaps her suggests she recognizes his violent assertion of masculinity rather than genuine transformation. She has avoided the orphanage but gained no real security—she's trapped in a marriage with an increasingly unstable and violent man. She has neither clearly won nor lost; she remains the same untamable force, now in a more dangerous domestic situation.
The film deliberately refuses neat closure, reflecting 1950s anxieties about female sexuality and autonomy.