“Naughty Girl” (Cette sacrée gamine), Original First-Release Japanese Movie Poster 1958, Ultra Rare, STB / Tatekan Size (51 × 145 cm) - Gallery

“Naughty Girl” (Cette sacrée gamine), Original First-Release Japanese Movie Poster 1958, STB / Tatekan Size (51 × 145 cm)
Japanese title: 「この神聖なお転婆娘」 (Kono shinsei na otenba musume)
Original French title: Cette sacrée gamine
Alternative English titles: That Naughty Girl / Mam’zelle Pigalle
Size: STB / tatekan / approx. 20 × 57 in (51 × 145 cm)
Country / production: France / Les Films Lutétia
Japanese distribution: Republic Pictures Japan Branch and Nippon Cinema (NCC), joint distribution
Film: France, 1956; CinemaScope and Eastmancolor
First Japanese release: 9 May 1958
Condition: Excellent+ / close to Near Mint; unbacked, unrestored

Why this is a holy grail
Printed for the film’s original Japanese theatrical release, this monumental STB / tatekan belongs to an entirely different category of rarity from the already highly sought-after standard Japanese B2. The B2 for Naughty Girl is itself considered one of the great Japanese Brigitte Bardot posters, but the STB is not simply an enlargement of that design. It employs a completely separate, purpose-built composition, replacing the B2’s black-costumed portrait with an almost full-height image of Bardot in pale lavender lace.

At approximately 145 cm—almost five feet tall—Bardot appears at near life size, extending from her raised arm and cascading hair to the gold sandals at the bottom of the composition. It is difficult to imagine a poster format better suited to the scale of the B.B. phenomenon. The combination of an exceptionally desirable title, one of the finest Japanese Bardot designs, the extremely scarce STB format and this example’s apparently unused condition places it among the most important pieces of Brigitte Bardot film paper.

Japanese first-release Bardot posters have long been pursued for designs that often departed radically from their European and American counterparts, combining bold vertical typography, saturated colour, photographic montage and uniquely Japanese promotional copy. Against extremely stiff competition, this is one of the finest and most spectacular Brigitte Bardot film posters ever produced. To find it in the ultra-rare STB format, unbacked and preserved close to Near Mint, is extraordinary.

Design highlights
This is a definitive example of the imagination and visual confidence found in the finest post-war Japanese movie-poster design. Bardot dominates the entire composition in a pale lavender lace stage costume, one arm raised above her head while the other gathers her long hair beside her face. The pose creates a sweeping diagonal from the top of the poster to the lower Paris skyline, allowing the unusually tall format to function as an integral part of the design rather than simply additional space.

Her almost life-size figure is surrounded by clusters of blue, orange, yellow and pink balloons, introducing the playful energy of the film’s musical and screwball-comedy sequences. Two balloons at upper left carry the words “BRIGITTE” and “BARDOT”, turning her name into an ingenious decorative motif and making clear that, by the time of the Japanese release, B.B. herself had become the principal attraction.

The immense Japanese title, 「この神聖なお転婆娘」, descends the left side in alternating coral pink and deep aubergine characters. The title is not treated as conventional billing: it becomes an architectural element, balancing the vertical sweep of Bardot’s body and giving the poster its unmistakable Japanese graphic identity. Small phonetic characters placed beside the principal kanji add further rhythm and period detail.

At right, the black vertical copy proclaims the film “Brigitte Bardot’s greatest masterpiece,” while the exuberant red campaign text presents her as a vivacious, captivating B.B., carrying the fragrance and excitement of Paris in a whirlwind of charm. Smaller Japanese copy identifies Michel Boisrond through his subsequent Bardot success Une Parisienne and memorably promotes Jean Bretonnière as “France’s Danny Kaye,” revealing exactly how the film was positioned for contemporary Japanese audiences.

Across the lower portion, Bardot’s towering legs descend over a panoramic view of Paris, with the Eiffel Tower rising in the distance. Smaller narrative vignettes flank her feet: Jean Bretonnière and Bardot appear together at lower left, while a red-and-black nightclub scene occupies the opposite corner. The French title, CETTE SACRÉE GAMINE, curves elegantly across the skyline and Bardot’s legs, while the period CinemaScope / Eastmancolor, Republic Pictures and NCC marks complete the composition.

The result is simultaneously a film advertisement, a glamour image and an exceptionally accomplished work of commercial graphic art. The B2 design is celebrated in its own right, but only the STB provides this extraordinary head-to-toe, near-life-size presentation.

Cultural impact
Naughty Girl was one of Bardot’s earliest full-scale musical-comedy showcases and an important step in her transformation from promising young actress into the phenomenon soon known throughout the world simply as B.B. Directed by Michel Boisrond and co-written by Boisrond and Roger Vadim, the film combines romantic comedy, musical performance, dream-ballet sequences, American-influenced screwball pacing and broad slapstick.

Bardot plays Brigitte Latour, a mischievous finishing-school pupil whose father owns a Paris nightclub. When he is falsely implicated in a counterfeiting operation, he leaves Brigitte in the care of the club’s headline singer, Jean Cléry, played by Jean Bretonnière. Her arrival produces a succession of misunderstandings, romantic complications, fires, fights and comic disasters before the counterfeiters are exposed and the romantic plot resolves. Françoise Fabian co-stars, while the supporting cast includes Michel Serrault, Jean Poiret, Mischa Auer and Darry Cowl.

The film was Michel Boisrond’s feature-directing debut. A former assistant to René Clair, Boisrond immediately demonstrated the lightness, pace and polished visual style that would define much of his subsequent career. Its success also began an important recurring collaboration between Boisrond and Bardot, who would later work together on films including Une Parisienne and Come Dance with Me!.

The film attracted more than four million admissions in France and is recognised as the production that established Bardot as a major star in her home country. And God Created Woman would shortly transform that national success into international Bardomania, but Cette sacrée gamine had already demonstrated the combination of beauty, comedy, dance, fashion and uninhibited screen presence that made her unique.

That chronology is particularly important to the Japanese poster. Although the film was made in 1956, it did not reach Japanese cinemas until May 1958. By then, Bardot was already an international cultural phenomenon. The Japanese campaign consequently promotes not merely a romantic comedy but “B.B.” as an image and a brand in her own right. Her initials are isolated in the red vertical copy, her name floats inside the balloons, and her figure occupies almost the entire five-foot display. The poster records the precise moment at which Bardot had ceased to be simply the star of a film and had become one of the defining visual icons of post-war European cinema.

Condition
Excellent+ / close to Near Mint, and genuinely exceptional for an unbacked Japanese STB dating from the 1950s. This exact example presents with extraordinary freshness, retaining rich, beautifully balanced colour throughout. Bardot’s warm complexion, auburn hair, pale lavender lace costume, pastel balloons, deep aubergine title lettering and red campaign copy remain remarkably strong, with no noticeable fading. The pale background is unusually clean, and the photographic and typographic details remain sharp.

The two original sections have been neatly and correctly joined along their intended horizontal overlap, completing the full STB composition. This is inherent to the format: STBs were manufactured as two separate panels and were designed to be joined vertically when prepared for display. The image and typography remain properly aligned across the join.

Most importantly, there are no visible pinholes, tape repairs, handwritten cinema markings, applied screening information, linen backing or restoration. No board-mounting adhesive or residue is evident beyond the adhesive required for the original two-panel join. The remarkably clean edges and reverse, together with the absence of normal theatrical mounting damage, are consistent with an example that was never commercially displayed.

Several clean period storage soft folds are visible, including light/soft horizontal folds and a very faint vertical centre line. These are unobtrusive and produce little meaningful colour loss. 

The reverse is exceptionally clean and unmarked, showing only gentle age toning, faint image show-through, light storage impressions and a few isolated minor marks. There are no significant tears, areas of paper loss, heavy staining or intrusive repairs visible. The poster remains unbacked and unrestored, preserving its original paper and surface.

Overall, this is an astonishing, museum-grade survivor of a format that was normally pasted to a standing board, heavily used and discarded after the theatrical engagement. Once conservation framed, its enormous scale, remarkable colour and near-life-size portrait would produce exceptional visual impact. Please review the photographs carefully, as they show the exact poster offered for sale.

Authentication
Guaranteed original; first-release Japanese STB / tatekan printed for the film’s 1958 Japanese theatrical release. Not a later reissue or reproduction.

About STB (Tatekan) posters
Japanese STB / tatekan posters were tall standing-board cinema advertisements, normally composed of two vertically arranged sections measuring approximately the equivalent of two B2 sheets. Once joined, the completed poster typically measured around 20 × 57–58 inches, creating a display almost five feet high.

They were intended for prominent use on standing boards in cinema entrances, foyers and exterior promotional areas. Because the sheets were ordinarily pasted directly to rigid supports, exposed to handling and discarded when the engagement ended, their survival rate is substantially lower than that of standard B2 posters. They were also required in far smaller quantities, as a cinema needed many conventional lobby posters but only a limited number of large standing displays.

Surviving STBs are therefore frequently encountered with substantial display wear, adhesive damage, trimming or later linen backing. An example remaining unbacked, unrestored, apparently unused and close to Near Mint condition is in a wholly different class of rarity.

An extraordinary museum-grade piece of Japanese graphic design, Brigitte Bardot history and 1950s international cinema.