(Paris) “Thank you, genius!” From Tokyo to New York, the international press paid tribute Monday to French actor Alain Delon, without hiding the sometimes controversial nature of the opinions of the man who was “the most handsome man in the history of cinema.”
“Great actor and great reactionary,” sums up the Italian daily the republic about an ambivalent character, hailed for his on-screen prowess as much as for his physique, but also criticized for his positions on women or homosexuality.
The Italian press – where Alain Delon toured extensively at the start of his career –, likeThe Corriere della Serahowever, does not fail to praise the “handsome and cursed” star actor, elevated to the rank of “legend”.
“His smile in Tancred in The Cheetahno one has forgotten it,” says The Corriere.
“Handsome and hypnotic, Alain Delon was one of cinema’s most mysterious stars,” wrote the critic of Guardian British Peter Bradshaw.
The German press, for its part, is splitting tributes in French in the text: “Thank you, genius!”, headlines the regional daily of Munich. Mercury“Fatal Man”, still offers the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
“The aura of the handsome angel of death made him a cinema legend. He formed a dream couple with Romy Schneider, and not just on screen,” recalls the South German newspaper.
“If we had to sum up the history of cinema in a few moments, what would remain? Chaplin’s tramp, James Dean’s coolness, Marilyn Monroe’s high-waisted dress, Hitchcock’s shower scene and of course Alain Delon in The Samurai “, estimated Deutsche Welle.
PHOTO CHRISTOPHE SIMON, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Alain Delon in Cannes, in 2019.
In Japan, where Alain Delon was also extremely popular, broadcaster NHK News recalls that the actor was “idolatrated for his charm and his gestures in his films.”
“His idol image and James Dean-like personality have made him one of the most acclaimed actors in his country,” according to the Japan Times.
Across the Atlantic, the New York Times describes a man who is “intense and intensely handsome,” an “international star” courted by the greatest filmmakers of his time. “The most beautiful man in the history of cinema,” sums up the New Yorker.
Interestingly, even in Iran, which is generally critical of Western culture, his portrait made headlines in many newspapers.
“The world has lost its samurai,” headlines the reformist daily Hammihanunder a large photo of the actor.
The newspaper Shargh speaks of an “actor who achieved worldwide popularity long before Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney” and who was “the symbol of the handsome gentleman in Iran.”
For half a century, Alain Delon has been one of the most popular foreign actors in the country, so much so that his name is used in everyday language to refer to a well-dressed young man.
Mourning the death of a “legend of French cinema,” state television announced that it would broadcast the film on Monday and Tuesday. The Sicilian Clan.
“Last Tragic Act”
In Switzerland, the Time deplores the death of the “last great myth of French cinema”: “A real tough guy with an angelic face, the actor radiated his magnetism in the 1960s before cultivating his glory through a host of ugly thrillers.”
The Spanish daily The Country speaks of an actor with an “incomparable aura”, “an icon of European cinema known for his talent and his power of seduction”. While highlighting, like other media, the controversies that surrounded him: his macho comments, but also his declared friendship with the figure of the French extreme right Jean-Marie Le Pen.
For its part, the BBC, while paying tribute to an actor who “made fans’ hearts beat faster in any role, from that of an assassin to that of a charismatic crook”, dwells on the heartbreak of the Delon family, “the last tragic act” in the life of the Franco-Swiss.
Alain Delon made headlines in the summer of 2023 when his children filed a complaint against his companion, Hiromi Rollin, sometimes described as his partner, suspecting abuse of weakness. They then fought over the medical care of the actor, who had been very weak since a stroke in 2019.