MIchèle Mercier and Robert Hossein in the film Indomitable Angélique.
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MARY EVANS / SIPA
If we had to keep only one role of Robert Hossein who died on Thursday, it would be the one that made him famous.
Either the role of Count Joffrey de Peyrac in the cinematographic saga
Angélique, Marquise des Anges
, which marked an entire generation.
Alongside Michèle Mercier who played the title role, the actor formed a fictional couple who made the hearts of the public beat faster for five films released throughout the 1960s.
The plot takes place under Louis XIV.
Angélique married the rich Count de Peyrac at the age of 17, scarred, lame but also older than herself.
An age gap with which the actor is familiar in his life.
When he first slips into the character's costume, Robert Hossein is 37 years old and he married Caroline Eliacheff, just 15 years old two years earlier.
"Casanova for midinettes"
The “Angelique” saga elevates Robert Hossein to the rank of sex symbol, which will earn him the later carted by Marguerite Duras who will qualify him as “Don Juan de bazaar” or “Casanova pour midinettes”.
The actor will not find a more prominent role in the French collective imagination thereafter.
The multiple reruns of films on television have made him inseparable from Joffrey de Peyrac.
Far from denying
Angelique, Marquise des Anges
, he adapted the script into a musical in 1995 at the Palais des Sports.
We almost forget that at the beginning, the films are adapted from the literary saga in thirteen volumes by Anne Golon.
The novels have been translated into around 30 languages and sold around 100 million copies worldwide.
The author did not appreciate the way her work was brought to the screen.
She considered these adaptations "misogynistic", making Angelique a "little whore" or a "stupid" woman.
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