Alain Delon turned 85



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Without a doubt: Alain Delon is perhaps the most popular French actor of the last half century, who forever wrote his name in the sacred canon of cinematography with a series of authorship, while the wider public locked him in the heart as the protagonist of the entertaining genres. It is not uncommon, but frankly natural, especially in the world of French cinema, for such a “fate of the actors” to parallel art and mass entertainment. In Delon’s case, in any case, it managed to provide memorable results in both areas; in fact, he often appeared in films that successfully reconciled the seeming opposites of art and mass entertainment.

Bright sunlightSource: Intercom

An instinctive talent, as he did not graduate from a theater academy, he learned the trade much more during practice, and in the films of prestigious directors he became a brilliant jewel of French cinema. This rating is by no means exaggerated, given that Delon’s critics constantly highlight the actor’s cold and tough, but brilliant, presence, like a diamond. And indeed, one of Delon’s main acting marks is his almost callous restraint, but with his subtle and intelligent facial play and penetrating gaze, he is capable of bringing deep and often unbearable emotions to the surface.

Rocco and his brothers (Annie Girardot and Alain Delon)Source: Astor Pictures

He entered the world of film by accident, but fatally, after vomiting childhood and adolescence. He was born on November 8, 1935 in Sceaux, near Paris, his parents divorced early and he became adoptive parents at the age of four, and his mother only remarried after marrying a butcher, and then the ill-mannered boy grew up in selected boarding schools. After being fired from a dozen schools, he dropped out of school at the age of 15, enlisted in the Navy two years later, served in Indochina, and then, after being fired for his disciplinary offenses, withdrew from a variety of jobs in Paris. He was working as a waiter when he met and befriended Jean-Claude Brialy, who was starting his acting career, who took him to the Cannes Film Festival in May 1957: an American talent scout (David O. Selznick’s man ) noticed the handsome young Delon here and offered him a seven-year overseas contract.

However, Delon did not take the opportunity to be the new James Dean because while taking English lessons in Paris, he met director Yves Allégret, who advised him to first pursue a career in France. Delon followed Allégret’s advice and immediately took on a (small) role as director. When the woman is ashamed (1957) and then directed by Yves’ brother, Marc Allégret Be beautiful and keep your mouth shut! (1958) (the meaning of the film lies mainly in the fact that it is the first work in which Delon and another great French film star, Jean-Paul Belmondo, appeared together).

He got his first lead role from Pierre Gaspard-Huit in 1958 in a Christine He had to wait two more years for a real success in 1960: in 1960 he made his acting signature in two classics, now in the history of cinema: directed by René Clément, in a romantic costume film entitled “He met Romy Schneider, with who was in a long girlfriend until 1963 “. By Patricia Highsmith The talented Mr. Ripley made from his novel Bright sunlight Tom Ripley-jeként is Luchino Visconti (Giovanni Testori A Ghisolfa-héd inspired by his novel Rocco and his brothers as the “main character” of his masterpiece.


Although his relationship with Clément did not start cloudless, he and Visconti were Delon’s first great teachers: the What a pleasure to live-ben (1961), The catsin (1964) and Is Paris burning?-ben (1966) Clemente, The Pantherin (Delon was nominated for a Golden Globe for his 1963 adaptation of Lampedusa) directed by Visconti. The Italian director also served as a kind of father-in-law whom Delon admired not only for his professional knowledge but also for his intelligence and elegance, and who had a lifelong impact on the actor in his collaboration on two films: Delon admits that he received Visconti’s most serious craft lessons. , I owe it to him “- so the director recalled later).

A Bright sunlight an internationally renowned star, the Rocco and his brothers he inaugurated Delon as an actor of undisputed talent, dissatisfied with his rapid success, and in the 1960s he proved himself in a wide variety of roles, both in impressive auteur works and in mass films of various genres.

Eclipse (Alain Delon and Monica Vitti)Source: Cineriz

Without pretending exhaustiveness: Michelangelo Antonioni in addition to the films of Visconti and Clément solar eclipse-a (1962), az Melody of the underworld (1963, r .: Henri Verneuil), The black tulip (1963, r .: Christian-Jaque), filmed in America Once a thief (1965, r: Ralph Nelson) or a Adventurers (1967, r: Robert Enrico) indicate not only the diversity of the actor, but also a stage of artistic self-search.

The characteristic, restrained but powerful, ominously tense presence of Delon’s image in Jean-Pierre Melville’s two momentous criminal films, Samuraiin j (1967) and The red circlein (1970) and directed by Jacques Deray The poolin (1969) and in Henri Verneuil’s mafia cinema, a A clan of Sicilians(1969) crystallized – and it was definitely clear that Delon’s performance found its home more in the crime movie.

SamuraiSource: Criterion

Melville, the greatest teacher of French detective cinema, had at least as much influence on Delon’s career as Clément and Visconti. Samurai He wrote his script directly for the French actor he considered the most intelligent, as early as 1963, but it was at this point that Delon made his first detour from Hollywood. Although Melville did not create Delon with almost empty eyes and unwavering face, whose resigned calm is disturbed by the deepest feelings, and on whose faces viewers can project their own emotions and interpretations under the influence of events and other characters. but it perfectly refines the tension of moderation. The portrayal of Delon’s character, but helped Delon find the ideal actor image for him, the attractive criminal, a role that had been a feature of the actor’s career before, but for the first time. Samuraialong with metaphysics.

The result of this peculiar philosophical style of play that enhances the power of presence in inefficiency. The pool too, but one of the best and most personal Delon movies, Small watch (1976, right: Joseph Losey). They both have something to do with sin, crime in a way, but both have many more layers, a deep hole in the human psyche.


Of course SamuraiHe also started a commercially successful criminal film career: in 1968, Delon founded his own production company called Adel Productions, with which he began to produce mainly crime films: Jeff (1969, r .: Jean Herman), p. Ex. Borsalino(directed by Deray, who for a time became something of an easy-going housekeeper) starring his biggest rival, Jean-Paul Belmondo (they lost well and even sued Belmondo for failing to fulfill some of the contractual wishes of his partner from Delon).

Borsalino (Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo)Source: Adel Productions

He also loved solitary hounds, which is partly due to Melville. In the director’s last film, who died tragically early, Policein (1972) Delon plays a tough and persistent cop, and this movie made the role appeal to him in one go.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Delon’s “cops” were quite different: Police next to Police history (1975, r .: Jacques Deray), made by Delon as director For the skin of a policeman (1981), The word of the cop (1985, r .: José Pinheiro) you are the Don’t wake up the sleeping cop (1988, r .: José Pinheiro).

For the skin of a policemanSource: Adel Productions

Although he has tried several times to break into Hollywood, he has also achieved international success, mainly with European films. In 1985 Our history(1984, r .: Bertrand Blier) won the César Prize, also known as the French Oscar. He plays an exhausted alcoholic man who meets a young woman on the train, engages in a casual affair, becomes obsessed with the woman, finds a way out, and sees a new opportunity in life, but she is not who he thinks or He is always who he wants to be. The delusional satire of love dreams opened a new subchapter in Delon’s career: it was the first notable attempt to deliberately destroy, or at least quote, the image of a lone, attractive warrior that had been built (and fed in parallel).

That same year, he played an equally self-destructive role in Volker Schlöndorff’s adaptation of Proust, Swann’s loveinside, merry and merry Baron Charlus. But at least in his autoironic masterpiece of the allegory of film history, Jean-Luc Godard, New wave-ban (1990) is.

Casanova returnsSource: AFP

And there is a Casanova returns (1992, r .: Édouard Niermans), in which an adventurous polyhistorian, exiled for 17 years, hopes to return to Venice in exchange for espionage. A deep moral flight that is made even more depressing by a love failure, but the torments mostly become unbearable with aging.

Neither of them dared to look away from the other. Casanova was angry and ashamed, his daughter was ashamed and terrified. And Casanova knew that he could see her, because he could see himself in the mirror of the air, in this mirror, like yesterday, that hung on the wall of the tower room: yellow, evil image, deep wrinkles, thin lips, thorny eyes … and furthermore, shattered three times by last night’s outburst, the dream haunted in the morning and the dreadful awakening. And as he could read in Marcolina’s eyes, it was not what he had preferred to read a hundred times: a thief, a rogue, a chicken coop, no, he read about him what had crushed him more than any reproach, the word that was the most horrible, which meant his final judgment: old man – writes Arthur Schnitzler in his short novel as the starting point of the film (Casanova comes home). While the film lacks other virtues, Delon perfectly shapes the cynical, vain, depraved, and aging-feared adventurer. Seven years later, based on the aging stars game, also orchestrated with irony Actors (r .: Bertrand Blier) – Delon announced his retirement.

Asterix at the OlympicsSource: SPI International

He mostly failed to keep his promise to himself not to be in front of the camera anymore. In the 2000s, he appeared mainly in television productions (Frank Riva, An ordinary day) or Asterix at the Olympics in (2008, r .: Frédéric Forestier and Thomas Langmann). We could deal with the latter with a shrug of the shoulders, but he could shape Julius Caesar in a more recent comic adaptation, if not old Delon, simultaneously shining as the eternal star of French cinema and winking at viewers, discovering his own image.



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