It has now been two weeks since French cinema mourned Anouk Aimée… Died on June 18, when she had just celebrated her 92nd birthday, the actress left her mark on French cinema. And he paid him back: this Tuesday, June 25, many celebrities from the industry came to pay tribute to him during his funeral at the Saint-Vincent cemetery in Paris.
Jack Lang, Orlando, Richard Berry, Charlotte Rampling and even his ex-companion Elie Chouraqui had indeed made the trip. And were able to meet a couple of very close friends: the author Valérie Perrin and her husband Claude Lelouch were also present. It must be said that for the director, the actress was extremely important.
The two of them also had a friendship that lasted for most of their lives: in the mid-1960s, Claude Lelouch contacted Anouk Aimée, an actress already particularly renowned for her roles in La Sweet life or Eight and a halfto film in his new film which will be called A man and a woman and will tell a love story between a racing driver and a widow.
The young woman, after certain doubts, ended up accepting and began filming alongside Jean-Louis Trintignant. A choice that she will not regret, since she will end up crowned with a Golden Globe for best actress, but which will earn Claude Lelouch a few sleepless nights. And in particular because of the reprimands he suffered… because of her!
As our colleagues at Paris Matchat the time of filming, the young woman, already divorced twice, is under the spell of a young Italian and has difficulty living apart from him.She falls asleep with a handset in her ear with, on the other end of the phone, an Italian with whom she has fallen madly in love.“, they say. Before explaining that the situation does not please the director of the establishment very much and that he attacks his director: “This will lead to Claude Lelouch being summoned by the hotel manager because Anouk’s bill is skyrocketing.” !
A fulfilling love life
A love story that will not last long, since shortly after, Anouk Aimée meets Pierre Barouh, actor and author of the lyrics of Chabad, the cult title of the film (with music by Francis Lai). And the two of them will end up getting married: “When she was in love with a man, she loved everything about him. It was also thanks to Pierre Barouh that she became a rugby fan, to the point of naming one of her cats Cardiff“, say our colleagues.
Married for three years, they ended up separating in 1969. More in fashion than ever, the woman who was 37 at the time, had romances with Warren Beatty and Omar Sharif before meeting her “fourth and last husband”, Albert Finney, for whom “she will leave Paris for London“. As a reminder, she also married Edouard Zimmermann, at 17, before marrying the director Nikos Papatakis for 7 years and welcoming with him her only daughter Manuella.
