Twist and shout!: Jeans, Beatniks and cigarettes ... What was the spirit of the late 50's and the early 60's ?

Brigitte Bardot

James Dean

Rock'n'roll, Elvis Presley, James Dean, Jack Kerouac, Brigitte Bardot, Marlon Brando... those were the greatest icons of this decade. The teenagers read The Catcher in the rye by J.D.Salinger and books of the Beat Generations whose representatives were Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Neal Cassady, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, William Seward Burroughs, Ken Kesey, etc.. They admired beauty of Brigitte Bardot and Marilyn Monroe and their heros were James Dean and Marlon Brando. James Dean was young actor who played in only three films- Rebel without a cause, East of Eden and The Giant, but he became the teen idol and legend in a very short time. He was a symbol of young cool rebelling people. Unfortunately, in 1955, he died at 24 in a car accident. Marlon Brando became an icon, when he presented himself as a wild guy on a motorbike in the movie The wild one. The french way: The existencialistic youth dressed in denim smoked and listened to Jean-Paul Sartre or Serge Gainsbourg in Paris Café de Flore in St.Germain.

Elvis Presley

Anna Karina- danish born actress living in Paris... most played in Jean Luc Godard films

Jane Birkin- english born actress living in France, also famous for her relationship with the singer Serge Gainsbourg, with whom she sang the famous love song Je t'aime...moi non plus