A Very Private Affair

A Very Private Affair follows Jill, a young woman who leaves Geneva for Paris to become a dancer. A photographer spots her, and she rises quickly from fashion model to film star. Fame brings constant attention: fans imitate her look, photographers follow her everywhere, and the press attacks her films as immoral. With no privacy left, she turns increasingly to sleeping pills and slides toward physical and emotional collapse.

Louis Malle directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Jean-Paul Rappeneau and Jean Ferry. It was his third film as director, coming after Zazie dans le Métro in 1960 and before Viva Maria! in 1965, and it was shot in Italy and France. Brigitte Bardot plays Jill, with Marcello Mastroianni as Fabio Rinaldi, a director she becomes involved with, alongside Dirk Sanders, Jacqueline Doyen, Eléonore Hirt and Gloria France.

The film was released in January 1962 and runs 103 minutes. On TMDB it holds a rating of 5.2 out of 10 from 41 votes, a modest response for a drama that had a well-known star at its center.