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November 03, 2019The French actress and singer Marie Laforêt, known as "the girl with the golden eyes", an icon of the alluring beauty of the 60s, interpreter of 35 films and 13 records sold in 35 million copies, died yesterday at his home in Genolier, Switzerland. He was 80 years old. In 1978 she had settled in Geneva where she had opened an art gallery and later took Swiss citizenship.It was the first husband, the director Jean-Gabriel Albicocco, just married in 1961, to launch Marie Laforêt as an actress with the film "The Girl with the Golden Eyes", taken from a story by Honoré de Balzac. The appellation remained as a label to the young actress who in the meantime also attempted a career as a singer recording a 45 rpm in 1964 entitled "The singer with the golden eyes" which immediately gained enormous success, both in France and in Europe. And for a while with his charm he seemed to rival Brigitte Bardot.
With "The grape harvest of love", written by Daniel Gérard, author of dozens of lucky successes of the yéyé period, Laforêt also entered the Italian charts. Between 1964 and 1968 among his successes there are the songs "Che male c'è", "And if someone will fall in love with me (La playa)", "A blue silk scarf", "Country wedding" and "Manchester and Liverpool". "Look where you go" and "Calda la vita" were the last successes in Italian.
She was born as Maïténa Doumenach in Soulac-sur-Mer on 5 October 1939. At the age of 58 she confessed: "I was raped by a neighbor when I was three years old. That fact marked my whole life".
Marie Laforêt debuted by chance competing to replace her sister, who had given up at the last moment, to a competition for young talents organized in 1959 by the Europe 1 radio station. Director Louis Malle hired her for "Liberté", a film that did not come then realized and so his first cinematographic appearance was in the movie "Delitto in pieno sole", directed in 1960 by René Clément.
Her film career saw her star in several films in "The Night of Sin" (1962), "The Devil under the Vestments" (1963), "Sciarada alla francese" (1964), "Caccia alla maschio" ( 1964), "Colpo grosso in Parigi" (1965), "Le soldatesse" (1965), directed by Valerio Zurlini, "The gang of diamonds" (1967), "C'era una volta Pollicino" (1972), "Poliziotto o canaglia" (1979).
After a long period of absence from the screens, the actress dedicated herself again to acting (in Italy she appeared in the television series "La Piovra 3") and in particular at the theater. At the cinema he acted in the films "L'avaro" (1990), directed by Tonino Cervi with Alberto Sordi, "Presunto violento" (1990), directed by Georges Lautner, "Una freddougal del maggio" (1990) , directed by Vittorio Sindoni (1990), "Tutti gli uomini di Sara", directed by Gianpaolo Tescari (1992). He also starred in "A che punto e la notte", TV miniseries directed by Nanni Loy (1994).
She has been married five times. After her divorce from director Jean-Gabriel Albicocco, she married in marriage with Judas Azuelos, then with Alain Kahn-Sriber, later with Pierre Meyer and finally in 1990 with Eric De Lavandeyra. He had three children, including actress Lisa Azuelos.