Dear Brigitte is a 1965 American comedy film directed by Henry Koster.
Philosophy professor Robert Leaf (James Stewart) is appalled at his university's growing preference for funding scientific endeavors at the expense of the arts. He lives in a houseboat with his wife Vina (Glynis Johns) and their children Pandora (Cindy Carol) and Erasmus (Bill Mumy); Erasmus adds to Robert's troubles, as he lacks talent for the arts, but is a mathematical genius. While the Leaf family ponders what to make of all this, Erasmus himself could care less, being more focused on writing letters to his crush, Brigitte Bardot.
Tropes:
- Affection-Hating Kid: Erasmus pushes Pandora away when she tries to hug him for helping her solve a math problem.
- All Psychology Is Freudian: Erasmus' psychologist Dr. Volker is German, has a Freudian Couch and guesses Erasmus hates his father because he's married to his mother (Erasmus calmly denies that).
- As Herself: Brigitte Bardot, whom Erasmus and Robert visit at her invitation.
- Celeb Crush: Erasmus wants to marry actress and sex symbol Brigitte Bardot.
- Freudian Couch: Erasmus' psychologist Dr. Volker says he never has his child patients sit on the couch, but when Erasmus reveals his interest in Brigitte Bardot, the psychologist is taken aback and asks him to sit on the couch.
- Funny Photo Phrase: Brigitte asks Robert to say, "Cheese!" when taking a photo of her and Erasmus. A confused Robert says "Fromage" instead.
- Gold Digger: Pandora declared from a very early age that her goal in life was to marry a millionaire. In the meantime, she has a poor working student boyfriend, although she tries a bunch of get-rich-quick schemes.
- Good with Numbers: Erasmus is a math prodigy capable of outpacing supercomputers. His talent makes the hard sciences-hating Robert despair, but it's also what allows Robert to start the Leaf Foundation to fund liberal arts scholarships, as Erasmus can calculate horse racing results and make a killing off it.
- Hard on Soft Science: Inverted. Robert is a philosophy professor who has published poetry and dabbles in music, and loathes the hard sciences and the extra focus that his university is putting on them.
- Houseboat Hero: The Leaf family lives on a boat. It makes sense for such an artistic family and they have other bohemian neighbors with the same type of lodging, but it's also because Robert is too strapped for cash to afford a real house, as Pandora bemoans in one scene.
- Luminescent Blush: Erasmus' cheeks glow pink (through the special effects of the time) after Brigitte Bardot kisses them.
- Parental Favoritism: Vina notes that Robert makes much more of an effort at finding something Erasmus is good at than he did for Pandora.
- Precocious Crush: Erasmus claims he loves Brigitte Bardot "more than anybody else in the whole world". He's 8 and she was around 30 at the time.
- Public Exposure: The Leaf family's houseboat-dwelling neighbors include a man who likes to paint his wife naked.
