Journalist Philippe Durant recounts the journey of the late actor in this work of more than 800 pages, a mine of information on Alain Delon.
Nearly 900 pages devoted to Alain Delon. In Alain Delon, a French destiny (éditions du Nouveau monde), published Monday September 2, the journalist Philippe Durant retraces the career of one of the most emblematic actors of French cinema, who died on August 18 at the age of 88.
In it, he tells how this world-famous actor, renowned among other things for his extraordinary beauty, intelligently maneuvered in the world of cinema to become the sacred monster he is today.
“He makes films by accident, through encounters,” the author sums up on BFM Radio Soir.
“He realizes on the one hand that he’s not too bad, that he loves doing it, that he enjoys it a lot, and on the other hand that the people on a film set are rather nice, that the actresses are rather beautiful and that, in addition, we are well paid.”
“(But) he understood very quickly that to really make a career, it was not just about being handsome like Alain Delon but that you had to work, study, prepare for your roles and above all, meet the right people.”
“Chosen by the best from the start”
Among them, the director Luchino Visconti, who chose him to play in Rocco and his brothers Then The Cheetahin 1963, which remains to this day one of his most iconic roles:
“He was chosen by the best from the beginning, these directors saw in him the Delon that he himself did not know at that time, and that he discovered and developed later.”
Because “the more his career progresses, the more he knows that to progress he has to hang out with the best. He sticks close to them, he wants to learn with them and progress thanks to them. (…) he understood that to build a career, he first had to think about his career. That’s what he did.”
The specialist puts forward another example, that of the film Mr. Klein by Joseph Losey (which earned him the César for best actor in 1977).
“When he makes Monsieur Klein, it’s not a given that it will be a great film. But he wants to do it, he goes all the way, it’s a difficult role directed by Joseph Losey who is not an easy director either (…) He could have taken the easy route but he didn’t want to. He wanted, each time, to go up another notch.”
Alain Delon, a French destinyNew World editions, 884 pages, 27.90 euros
Benjamin Pierret and Zacharie Legros
