The beauty of French cinema: heartthrob Alain Delon turns 85

Sunday 8 November 2020

Women play an important role in Alain Delon’s career and life. A double biography of Delon and Romy Schneider is now in publication for his 85th birthday. And makes one last wish.

Whether in “Nur die Sonne era Zeuge” with Marie Laforêt, “Il gattopardo” with Claudia Cardinale or “The swimming pool” with Romy Schneider. With his cold and dominant gaze, Alain Delon seduced the most beautiful women not only on the screen.

Romy Schneider was one of his great passions. He made his first French film with the cinema icon and the French heartthrob. He was already a star then; Delon was still early in his career. It was over 60 years ago. Today Delon, who celebrates his 85th birthday on November 8, can watch over 90 films.

He was considered one of the most beautiful men in French cinema. “As soon as he walked into a room, all the women and men, the dogs and cats, the tables and chairs fell in love with him immediately. Thanks to his beauty and his decidedly wild charm – and he knew how to use it”, quotes Thilo Wydra in the double biography “A love in Paris. Romy & Alain” the actor and friend of Delon, Jean-Claude Brialy.

Women “wanted him, created him and gave him everything”

Delon owes a lot to women – in his own words including his career. He started acting through women. They wanted it, they did it and they gave it everything, he said in an interview that appeared in the French newspaper “Le Monde”. When Delon shot “Christine” with Romy Schneider, he was 23 and she was three years younger. As author Wydra writes in his book, published in mid-October, the young Delon owes his role in the melodrama to Romy, so to speak. It is said that she was shown photos of several young actors and her choice fell on Delon.

“All I had to show was my looks and my lack of experience. When I found out they wanted me, I stopped spitting,” Wydra Delon said in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro. In the 1958 melodrama, Delon plays Dragon Lieutenant Fritz Lobheimer, who falls in love with the daughter of the musician Christine Weiring, played by Schneider. A bond that is overshadowed by a different relationship between the elegant lieutenant.

Womanizer with many business

The film was the beginning of a turbulent and endearing relationship. Alain and Romy formed one of the glamorous couples of the 60s. The womanizer also had numerous private affairs. He was married only once: to Nathalie Delon, for whom he left Romy.The actress struggled to overcome the separation. As Delon later explained in an interview with the newspaper “Le Parisien”, she was the great love of his life.

Luchino Visconti, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Luc Godard, Volker Schlöndorff: Delon shot with the best in his field and with each film he reinforced his image as a cheeky, handsome killer who seduces everyone and loves no one: like a gangster in “Silent as the night” (1963), as a boxer in “Rocco und seine Brüder” (1960), as an icy seducer in “Clan der Sizilianer” (1969) and as an unscrupulous murderer in “Nur die Sonne was Zeuge “(1960), which brought him international fame.

However, Delon laid the foundation for his image with “The Ice Cold Angel” (1967), directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. With the erotic thriller alongside Schneider in “The Swimming Pool” (1969) and “The Panther” (1985), he put the finishing touches on his image.

First film 1957

Delon shot his first film in 1957 with Yves Allégret in “Let Killer Ask”. Here too a woman played an important role. Actress Brigitte Auber – one of the few French actresses who stood in front of Alfred Hitchcock’s camera – had introduced the young enchantress to Frau von Allégret.

Delon, who previously held boxing matches and marketed perfumes, cognacs and champagne, initially refused. Eventually Allégret convinced him with a simple piece of advice: he didn’t want him to play, he wanted him to be himself. “Be yourself. See how you look, move how you move, talk how you talk.” This sentence marked his career and his life, he said in an interview with the newspaper “Le Monde”.

In his career, Delon, who grew up with adoptive parents after his mother and father separated, has made dozens of films. But never with a woman as a director, which he regrets in the interview with “Le Monde”. Before he dies, he would like to be in front of a woman’s camera.