Rendez-vous with Alain Delon © Gaetan Soerensen /FDC
Rendez-vous with… Alain Delon
Il gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963), La Piscine (The Swimming Pool, 1968), Le Clan des Siciliens (The Sicilian Clan, 1969), Borsalino (1970)… Journalist Samuel Blumenfeld sets out to meet the man behind the legend. Speaking to a jam-packed Buñuel Theatre, Alain Delon treated crowds to his insight over the course of a Masterclass. Having shied away from the limelight for the past few years, the legendary actor poured heart and soul into the experience, in a tribute to the "talent of the muses who inspired me along the way, masters of their art, René Clément, Luchino Visconti and Jean-Pierre Melville".
The women in his life: how it all began.
When Alain Delon's military service in Indochina drew to an end, he was at a loss as to what to do next. At the time, a career in acting hadn't even occurred to him, and so he first arrived in Cannes in 1956 as an unknown, hand in hand with Brigitte Auber, an actor in To Catch A Thief (1955), who, like many women after her, pushed him towards his new career.
“It was the women in my life who fought for me to become an actor. I owe them my career.”
His first film.
His first silver-screen appearance was in Yves Allégret's Quand la femme s’en mêle (Send a Woman When the Devil Fails) alongside Edwige Feuillère in 1957. The director gave him a piece of advice he followed over the course of his lifetime:
"Alain, don't act, just be yourself. Look how you would look, talk as you would talk, listen the way you listen."
Finding his calling.
From that moment on, Alain Delon inhabited his various roles, admitting that the women in his life could sometimes be thrown off by his all-embracing approach: "When I play a cop, I become a cop. When I play a thug, I become a thug, and so on". He was immediately at ease in front of the camera.
“There are people who become actors. They study, they go to stage school. Others, like Lino Ventura or Bernard Tapie, are strong personalities who give their lives to film.
I am one of them.”
Instant acclaim.
In 1959, his performance in Plein Soleil (Purple Noon) by René Clément catapulted him to international fame.
His relationship with Visconti.
Luchino Visconti discovered the actor in Plein Soleil (Purple Noon) and decided that Alain Delon should play Rocco in Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers,1960), telling him: "You will be Rocco". The director was adamant that it should be him and nobody else. Il gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963) came next, revealing another of the actor's many facets. Visconti was responsible for pushing the actor into theatre for the first time, too, urging him to star alongside Romy Schneider in his stage adaptation of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore in 1961.
His relationship with Jean-Pierre Melville.
Le Samouraï led to Alain Delon meeting Melville in 1967, and the actor and director enjoyed an extremely close life-long friendship.
From actor to producer.
Alain Delon is less well known as a producer.
“I didn’t go to school. I’m not an author, I’m not a writer. My only strength is as a patron of film.”
He has produced around 25 films, including the risqué Monsieur Klein (Mr. Klein), screened in Cannes in 1976. The film wasn't as successful as hoped at the Festival, but is being honoured once again on 19 May, with a hotly anticipated screening in Cannes Classics.
