LES RIP
French cinema's 'national treasure' Belmondo dies at 88Issued on: 06/09/2021 -
Known in France as 'Bebel', Belmondo was also often called 'Le Magnifique'
- AFP/File
Paris (AFP)
Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, one of postwar French cinema's biggest stars whose charismatic smile lit up the screen for half a century, has died aged 88 at his Paris home, his family announced Monday.
Belmondo, who first came to fame as part of the French New Wave cinema movement with films like "Breathless" by Jean-Luc Godard, went on to become a household name, acting in 80 films covering a multitude of genres, including comedies and thrillers.
"He had been very tired for some time. He died peacefully," the family said in a statement sent to AFP by Belmondo's lawyer, Michel Godest.
Belmondo, who was born on April 9, 1933 in the wealthy Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, grew up in a family of artists. His father was a well-known sculptor.
Belmondo, who was bad at school but good at boxing, started his acting career in theatre before embarking on a film career that was to span half a century, with 130 million cinema tickets to his films sold.
Known in France as "Bebel", Belmondo was also often called "Le Magnifique" (The Magnificent), after a 1970s secret agent satire in which he starred.
"He will always be The Magnificent," President Emmanuel Macron tweeted. Calling Belmondo "a national treasure", Macron added: "We all recognised ourselves in him".
Paris (AFP)
Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, one of postwar French cinema's biggest stars whose charismatic smile lit up the screen for half a century, has died aged 88 at his Paris home, his family announced Monday.
Belmondo, who first came to fame as part of the French New Wave cinema movement with films like "Breathless" by Jean-Luc Godard, went on to become a household name, acting in 80 films covering a multitude of genres, including comedies and thrillers.
"He had been very tired for some time. He died peacefully," the family said in a statement sent to AFP by Belmondo's lawyer, Michel Godest.
Belmondo, who was born on April 9, 1933 in the wealthy Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, grew up in a family of artists. His father was a well-known sculptor.
Belmondo, who was bad at school but good at boxing, started his acting career in theatre before embarking on a film career that was to span half a century, with 130 million cinema tickets to his films sold.
Known in France as "Bebel", Belmondo was also often called "Le Magnifique" (The Magnificent), after a 1970s secret agent satire in which he starred.
"He will always be The Magnificent," President Emmanuel Macron tweeted. Calling Belmondo "a national treasure", Macron added: "We all recognised ourselves in him".
- 'Solar, talented... and so French' -
Former president Francois Hollande said that "everybody would have loved to be friends with him", while ex-premier Manuel Valls called Belmondo "magnificent, solar, talented ... and so French".
Many others, including politicians, the French Foreign Legion and film fans the world over also paid homage to Belmondo on social media.
"It's impossible not to feel that this is the end of an era," tweeted Uruguay's national film library. "The world is mourning a monument of film," wrote a fan in Italy, Peter Patti, also on Twitter.
Apart from Godard, Belmondo went on to work with other famous French directors including Francois Truffaut, Alain Resnais, Louis Malle and Jean-Pierre Melville.
He later turned to film production, and returned to his first love, theatre.
Belmondo's acting career was cut short in 2001 when a stroke he suffered while on set left him handicapped.
He won France's highest film prize, the Cesar, in 1988 for his role in "Itinerary of a Spoiled Child" -- which he didn't accept -- and an honorary Cesar in 2017.
Many of his films became international hits, and Time magazine in 1964 declared Belmondo the face of modern France.
He won several lifetime achievement awards, in 2010 from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, in 2011 at the Cannes film festival, in 2016 at the Venice festival.
burs/jh/cb/jm
© 2021 AFP
Belmondo, French film's handsome devil, dies at 88
Issued on: 06/09/2021 -
Former president Francois Hollande said that "everybody would have loved to be friends with him", while ex-premier Manuel Valls called Belmondo "magnificent, solar, talented ... and so French".
Many others, including politicians, the French Foreign Legion and film fans the world over also paid homage to Belmondo on social media.
"It's impossible not to feel that this is the end of an era," tweeted Uruguay's national film library. "The world is mourning a monument of film," wrote a fan in Italy, Peter Patti, also on Twitter.
Apart from Godard, Belmondo went on to work with other famous French directors including Francois Truffaut, Alain Resnais, Louis Malle and Jean-Pierre Melville.
He later turned to film production, and returned to his first love, theatre.
Belmondo's acting career was cut short in 2001 when a stroke he suffered while on set left him handicapped.
He won France's highest film prize, the Cesar, in 1988 for his role in "Itinerary of a Spoiled Child" -- which he didn't accept -- and an honorary Cesar in 2017.
Many of his films became international hits, and Time magazine in 1964 declared Belmondo the face of modern France.
He won several lifetime achievement awards, in 2010 from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, in 2011 at the Cannes film festival, in 2016 at the Venice festival.
burs/jh/cb/jm
© 2021 AFP
Belmondo, French film's handsome devil, dies at 88
Issued on: 06/09/2021 -
Jean-Paul Belmondo, pictured at a film festival in the French city of Lyon in 2013
PHILIPPE MERLE AFP/File
Paris (AFP)
With his devil-may-care charm, Jean-Paul Belmondo, who has died aged 88, was the poster boy of the New Wave, France's James Dean and Humphrey Bogart rolled into one irresistible man.
With his boxer's physique and broken nose, his restless insouciance chimed with the mould-breaking French cinema of the 1960s.
Director Jean-Luc Godard, the New Wave's brilliant enfant terrible, cast Belmondo in his break-out role as a doomed thug who falls in love with the Jean Seberg's pixie-like American in Paris in "Breathless" (1961).
The film floored critics and audiences worldwide and, with Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows", changed the history of cinema.
Time magazine in 1964 declared Belmondo the face of modern France.
"The Tricolour, a snifter of cognac, a flaring hem -– these have been demoted to secondary symbols of France," it said.
Paris (AFP)
With his devil-may-care charm, Jean-Paul Belmondo, who has died aged 88, was the poster boy of the New Wave, France's James Dean and Humphrey Bogart rolled into one irresistible man.
With his boxer's physique and broken nose, his restless insouciance chimed with the mould-breaking French cinema of the 1960s.
Director Jean-Luc Godard, the New Wave's brilliant enfant terrible, cast Belmondo in his break-out role as a doomed thug who falls in love with the Jean Seberg's pixie-like American in Paris in "Breathless" (1961).
The film floored critics and audiences worldwide and, with Francois Truffaut's "The 400 Blows", changed the history of cinema.
Time magazine in 1964 declared Belmondo the face of modern France.
"The Tricolour, a snifter of cognac, a flaring hem -– these have been demoted to secondary symbols of France," it said.
Come to bed eyes: Belmondo starred in Jean Becker's "A Man Named Rocca" in 1961 with Beatrice Altariba
STAFF OFF/AFP/File
"The primary symbol is an image of a young man slouching in a cafe chair... he is Jean-Paul Belmondo -– the natural son of the Existentialist conception, standing for everything and nothing at 738 mph."
- A boxer's charm -
Yet Belmondo was far from a sauve intellectual and spent most of his career in he-man roles that played on his raw sex appeal.
Despite making his name as a charming gangster, the actor was brought up in the bourgeois Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the son of a renowned sculptor, Paul Belmondo.
Born in 1933, he performed poorly at school during the war but was a talented boxer, winning three straight round-one knockouts in a brief amateur career.
"The primary symbol is an image of a young man slouching in a cafe chair... he is Jean-Paul Belmondo -– the natural son of the Existentialist conception, standing for everything and nothing at 738 mph."
- A boxer's charm -
Yet Belmondo was far from a sauve intellectual and spent most of his career in he-man roles that played on his raw sex appeal.
Despite making his name as a charming gangster, the actor was brought up in the bourgeois Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, the son of a renowned sculptor, Paul Belmondo.
Born in 1933, he performed poorly at school during the war but was a talented boxer, winning three straight round-one knockouts in a brief amateur career.
Tough cookie: Belmondo (left) won three straight round-one knockouts in a brief amateur boxing career - AFP
He then trained at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art.
His first foray into cinema in 1957 in the forgettable comedy "On Foot, On Horse and On Wheels", ended up on the cutting-room floor.
But undeterred Belmondo went on to work with some of the most talented directors of his generation, making a trio of films with Godard, and then with Truffaut, Alain Resnais, Louis Malle and Jean-Pierre Melville.
Truffaut described him as "the most complete European actor" of his generation.
- Action hero -
The charmer was often cast opposite glamorous women, from Catherine Deneuve and Sophia Loren to Claudia Cardinale in the period romp "Cartouche", and he constantly reworked his persona in diverse roles.
But from the 1970s he took on more bankable action movies in which he performed his own stunts.
He then trained at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art.
His first foray into cinema in 1957 in the forgettable comedy "On Foot, On Horse and On Wheels", ended up on the cutting-room floor.
But undeterred Belmondo went on to work with some of the most talented directors of his generation, making a trio of films with Godard, and then with Truffaut, Alain Resnais, Louis Malle and Jean-Pierre Melville.
Truffaut described him as "the most complete European actor" of his generation.
- Action hero -
The charmer was often cast opposite glamorous women, from Catherine Deneuve and Sophia Loren to Claudia Cardinale in the period romp "Cartouche", and he constantly reworked his persona in diverse roles.
But from the 1970s he took on more bankable action movies in which he performed his own stunts.
Jean-Paul Belmondo in 1963 in Paris with French actress Jeanne Moreau
AFP/File
Swashbuckling comic adventure films and farces such as "Swords of Blood" (1962) and the Oscar-nominated "That Man from Rio" (1964) introduced Belmondo to legions of new fans across the globe.
His enjoyed the mix of arthouse and more box office-friendly fare, saying, "It is like life. One day you laugh, the next you cry."
Belmondo also briefly -- and forgettably -- ventured across the Atlantic for two English-language films, "Is Paris Burning?" in 1966 and the spoof James Bond "Casino Royale" a year later.
- Cesar snub -
In the 1980s Belmondo experimented with more mature dramatic roles, earning a French Oscar, a Cesar, for Claude Lelouch's "Itinerary of a Spoiled Child" in 1988 about a foundling raised in a circus.
But he rejected the prize because the artist who sculpted the statuette, Cesar Baldaccini, had once disparaged the works of his father.
Twice married and twice divorced he also lived with the ex-Bond actress Ursula Andress for seven years. Belmondo had four children including the racing driver, Paul Belmondo, with his youngest born in 2003 when he was 70.
His eldest daughter, Patricia, died in a fire in 1994.
Swashbuckling comic adventure films and farces such as "Swords of Blood" (1962) and the Oscar-nominated "That Man from Rio" (1964) introduced Belmondo to legions of new fans across the globe.
His enjoyed the mix of arthouse and more box office-friendly fare, saying, "It is like life. One day you laugh, the next you cry."
Belmondo also briefly -- and forgettably -- ventured across the Atlantic for two English-language films, "Is Paris Burning?" in 1966 and the spoof James Bond "Casino Royale" a year later.
- Cesar snub -
In the 1980s Belmondo experimented with more mature dramatic roles, earning a French Oscar, a Cesar, for Claude Lelouch's "Itinerary of a Spoiled Child" in 1988 about a foundling raised in a circus.
But he rejected the prize because the artist who sculpted the statuette, Cesar Baldaccini, had once disparaged the works of his father.
Twice married and twice divorced he also lived with the ex-Bond actress Ursula Andress for seven years. Belmondo had four children including the racing driver, Paul Belmondo, with his youngest born in 2003 when he was 70.
His eldest daughter, Patricia, died in a fire in 1994.
Heartbreaker: Belmondo in 1964 alongside US actress Jean Seberg
AFP/File
He suffered a stroke in 2001 while on holiday in Corsica, which affected his speech, sparking a huge outpouring of love for the actor.
It effectively put an end to Belmondo's career, though he did make one last touching movie as old man whose only consolation was his dog.
Worse was to follow.
His final relationship with ex-Playboy model Barbara Gandolfi, who was 42 years his junior, ended in scandal in 2012 with her convicted of swindling the actor out of 200,000 euros.
But in 2016 the Venice film festival awarded him a Golden Lion for lifetime's achievement.
"I never think about my past," he told reporters there. "Forward, forward, forward."
© 2021 AFP
He suffered a stroke in 2001 while on holiday in Corsica, which affected his speech, sparking a huge outpouring of love for the actor.
It effectively put an end to Belmondo's career, though he did make one last touching movie as old man whose only consolation was his dog.
Worse was to follow.
His final relationship with ex-Playboy model Barbara Gandolfi, who was 42 years his junior, ended in scandal in 2012 with her convicted of swindling the actor out of 200,000 euros.
But in 2016 the Venice film festival awarded him a Golden Lion for lifetime's achievement.
"I never think about my past," he told reporters there. "Forward, forward, forward."
© 2021 AFP
With his devil-may-care charm, Jean-Paul Belmondo, who has died aged 88, was the poster boy of the New Wave, France's James Dean and Humphrey Bogart rolled into one irresistible man. With his boxer's physique and broken nose, his restless insouciance chimed with the mould-breaking French cinema of the 1960s.
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