He is our last sacred monster, a figure who has marked popular cinema as works of art and essay that have become cult. Alain Delon wrote one of the most beautiful pages in the history of French cinema. "The general public associates him with film noir and action film, but his career is an example of eclecticism. He has an American career, without chapel or snobbery," says Denitza Bantcheva, author of Alain Delon, amours et mémoires. Prefaced by the actor and expanded with unpublished testimonies (Brigitte Bardot, Nathalie Baye, Jane Birkin, Sophia Loren ...), this panorama was built thanks to the personal archives of the star to tell his artistic choices, his children and the women of his life. In a word, his legend.
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Alain Delon, amours et mémoires", by Denitza Bantcheva with Liliana Rosca, Éd. de La Martinière. Press credit
"If he remains an icon of beauty and cinema, it is also for his modernity: his physique and his game are in no way dated. And then, it is often forgotten, but it was also a precursor, adds the writer. He will be one of the first headliners to produce and go behind the camera, with Le Battant and Pour la peau d'un cop. He did nothing like the others. Many feared having top stars in front of them. He, on the contrary, sought them, adoring emulation with Jean Gabin, his friend Belmondo, Simone Signoret or Romy Schneider." So many faces that invite themselves into the photo-novel of her life and career, of which Denitza Bantcheva comments on us a few unforgettable moments.
In video, Alain Delon in 10 films
The Pool
Alain Delon and Romy Schneider on the set of La Piscine, a film by Jacques Deray released in 1969. Photo Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
"This shot, taken during the filming of La Piscine, testifies to the complicity between Alain Delon and Romy Schneider. Costa-Gavras met them during their romance and wrote: "It was not yet a mythical couple, but it was already a magical couple." This sums up what gifted actors they were, and the strength of their beauty and love. When Alain left Romy, he caused her immense pain, but they never cut ties. In a 1977 interview, she cited him as the most important man in her life, the one she had always been able to count on. It was Delon himself who, for example, insisted that she get the role in The Pool while the producers, considering her the finished actress of Sissi, preferred Monica Vitti or Angie Dickinson. But Delon threatened to withdraw from the project and thus allowed Romy to give a new impetus to her career: it is thanks to this film by Jacques Deray that she played with Claude Sautet or Joseph Losey, that she too became an icon.
With Catherine Deneuve
Catherine Deneuve and Alain Delon in Le Choc, a 1982 film by Robin Davis. Photo Collection Christophel
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Le Choc is his second film with Catherine Deneuve, ten years after Melville's Un flic. They have in common their great professionalism and the fact of having dared all genres, from auteur films to thrillers and comedy. Without having an intimate connection, they respected each other very much. Today, they remain the only living legends of French cinema, two French stars that the whole world knows and envies us."
The Samurai
Alain Delon in The Samurai, a film by Jean-Pierre Melville released in 1967 and back in theaters on June 28, 2023 in a restored version. Photo Alamy Stock Photo
"An absolute masterpiece from 1967 that hits theaters on June 28 in a restored version, The Samurai changed the history of film noir. With the portrait of this hitman, Jean-Pierre Melville influenced entire generations of filmmakers. It is an essential reference for its purity, its stylization and the creation of a new mythology embodied by Alain Delon. Behind the apparent impassibility of the hero hidden under his uniform (hat and raincoat), the film tells the story of loneliness, suffering and lack of reference points of modern man. Melville and Delon will reunite for The Red Circle and A Cop, the other two films in what film historians call the Delon trilogy.
With Simone Signoret
Alain Delon and Simone Signoret in La Veuve Couderc, a 1971 film by Pierre Granier-Deferre. Photo Collection Christophel/RnB
"In the early 1960s, the Delon-Schneider and Montant-Signoret couples were friends. In La Veuve Couderc, Delon's first film with Signoret, they play lovers. Two years later, in 1973, Simone asked him to play the antagonist in Les Granges brûlées. Together, they dared everything on screen. If Edwige Feuillère was his godmother of cinema, Simone was Delon's favorite partner, men and women alike. He admired her, artistically and humanly."
Full Sun
Alain Delon in Plein Soleil, a 1960 film by René Clément. Photo Alamy Stock Photo
"This image of Plein Soleil is one of Alain Delon's most iconic. The criminal aspect aside, we can draw a parallel between Delon and the character of Ripley who seeks to get out of his condition. Delon was also from a modest background, his parents divorced when he was 4 years old, he was placed in a nanny for several years. He may have been sensitive to the humiliations suffered by Ripley, at the hands of the Greenleaf heir, in this founding film by René Clément.
With Jean Gabin
Alain Delon and Jean Gabin in Two Men in the City, a 1973 film by José Giovanni. Photo Archives via Getty Images
"Delon has told a lot that Touchez pas au Grisbi, which he discovered while he was a sailor in Indochina, was one of the films that marked him the most. Jean Gabin was his absolute model, his reference actor: he called him "The Boss". They met in 1962 for Melody in the Basement and met again for The Clan of the Sicilians, in 1969, and Two Men in the City, in 1973. At this time, Gabin's career was in decline, but Delon insisted that he be his partner, that he be valued on the poster and during the promotion. Each of them was sensitive to the charisma and talent of the other."
" READ ALSO The very first meeting charged with emotion between the daughter of Alain Delon and that of Romy Schneider
The Gypsy
Alain Delon in The Gypsy, a 1975 film by José Giovanni. Photo Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
"This film by José Giovanni is not the best Delon, but it has something atypical for that time: it put the Roma at the center of the action and presented them as persecuted, dignified and courageous beings. It was an unprecedented approach in French cinema, even European, to the point that Alain Delon became a kind of idol for the Roma community. He was the only star who decided to commit to them, morally and artistically."
Monsieur Klein
Alain Delon and Juliet Berto in Monsieur Klein, a 1976 film by Joseph Losey. Photo Collection Christophel
"Since he wasn't writing and still wanted to create in a different way, he decided to produce. Being at the initiative of projects allowed him to choose Jean-Claude Carrière or Pascal Jardin to the script, or to impose directors, as was the case for Mr. Klein. With this film about collaboration under the Occupation, it was audacious to tackle a subject still considered off-putting in 1976, but it was even more so to choose Joseph Losey, an American who speaks poor French. But Delon loved The Assassination of Trotsky, he fought for it, and history proved him right: it is one of the masterpieces of his filmography. He really had flair: for Borsalino, for example, he had bought the rights to the book and had convinced Jean-Paul Belmondo himself to participate. At that time, no other actor had such an influence on the projects. His approach was avant-garde, inspiring for his peers, starting with his friend Bebel, who will produce in turn."
He is the only European actor to be an international star
Denitza Bancheva
Climb the steps, Cannes 2019
On May 19, 2019, the Cannes Film Festival awarded Alain Delon an honorary Palme d'Or for his entire career. Photo Mike Marsland/WireImage
"On May 19, 2019, Alain Delon received an honorary Palme d'Or. It was not lacking in awards (Golden Bear of Honor, Caesar ...), but Cannes is the biggest festival in the world, it is a symbol. This prize reserved for legends, he deserved it: he is the only European actor to be an international star, since Plein Soleil, in 1960, despite his absence on the screen in recent years. "
Rocco and his brothers
Alain Delon in Rocco et ses frères, a 1960 film by Luchino Visconti. Photo Bridgeman Images
"Rocco and his brothers is one of the turning points of his career, the film that, with Plein Soleil the same year, designates him as a major actor. After René Clément, world famous at the time, he worked with Luchino Visconti, his spiritual father. It is one of the filmmakers who transformed him, sublimated him, by offering him this complex character, who evolves from total candor to sacrifice. Two years later, Visconti gave him a radically different supporting role, that of a young nobleman who joins Garibaldi's red shirts, in The Cheetah, one of the classics of the seventh art, in which he utters this line: "Everything must change so that nothing changes." His collaboration with Visconti will be all the more foundational as the maestro also directed him in Dommage qu'elle être une putain, his first play, alongside Romy Schneider.
With Nathalie Delon
Alain and Nathalie Delon, in January 1967. Photo Jean-Pierre Bonnotte
"Alain Delon met Nathalie in 1963, through a mutual friend, in a nightclub. There is a form of physical symmetry between them, a common strength of character and energy, which will make Pascal Jardin write: "He had just found another himself. " When they met, she did not think of being an actress, until Jean-Pierre Melville offered her to play in The Samurai... They were married for five years, and after their divorce they remained on good terms, especially for their son, Anthony. Delon's seductive and unfaithful side is often highlighted, but his loyalty to the women who mattered in his life is omitted."
" READ ALSO "If you knew": the tender and passionate tribute of Alain to Nathalie Delon, two years after his death
With Mireille Darc
Alain Delon and Mireille Darc on the set of Jeff, a film by Jean Herman released in 1969. Photo Corbis via Getty Images
"They shared their lives from 1968 to 1983, toured together in Jeff or Death of a Rotten and shared theater scenes. He even produced The Breasts of Ice, to offer her the dramatic role she dreamed of and that no one wanted to give her, giving himself a supporting role to finance the film without drawing attention to him. At the theater, they performed On the Road to Madison together. According to Mireille Darc, the words of love they said to each other on stage were all the more beautiful because they had already said them to each other in life. Their complicity has never dried up, even after their separation."