In the preface to the book “Alain Delon, loves and memories” which recounts his career, accompanied by unpublished photos, the actor confides that love has “always led him to (himself) surpass”
Alain Delon says he wanted “to be the best, the most beautiful, the strongest” for the women of his life, in the preface to a book dedicated to him, to be published on May 5 by Editions de La Martinière and consulted in preview on Monday April 17 by AFP. Illustrated with personal photos never before published, Alain Delon, loves and memories reviews the actor’s childhood and career, film by film.
“Love has always led me to surpass myself”writes Delon in this panegyric book by Denitza Bantcheva, author of a reference work on Jean-Pierre Melville, and Liliana Rosca, a close collaborator of the actor who has collected unpublished testimonies.
“Proud of my career”
“I had never dreamed of being an actor. I entered the profession and I continued to play by women and for women”, says Delon, 87, citing actresses Brigitte Auber, Michèle Cordoue, Romy Schneider, Nathalie Delon and Mireille Darc, as well as the mother of his last two children, Rosalie van Breemen. “If there’s one thing I’m proud of, it’s my career” Who “would not have existed without the meetings with the great filmmakers who formed and sublimated me”, believes the one who was directed in particular by René Clément, Luchino Visconti, Jean-Pierre Melville and Joseph Losey.
Jean-François Delon, brother of the actor and assistant director on Borsalino Or The Widow Couderc, recounts their childhood and delivers memories of shootings. Costa-Gravas, for whom Delon is “the beast of French cinema, irreplaceable and inimitable”Sofia Loren, Claudia Cardinale, Jane Birkin and Nathalie Baye also testify.
A posthumous letter to Romy Schneider
Delon, whose personal positions have sparked controversy, dedicates this book in particular “to young people and moviegoers of the future”. He also reveals a posthumous letter addressed to Romy Schneider.
It also ensures “that nothing ever happened, as surprising as it may seem”, between Brigitte Bardot and him: “For 65 years, we have had the best friendly relations ever.” In a handwritten testimony, Bardot says of him that he is “a dominant, hiding his vulnerability by taking refuge in solitude”.
“If I have to die tomorrow, concludes the actor, God grant it to be of love, and paraphrasing Musset, I would like people to say of me: He often suffered, he was sometimes wrong, but he loved. It is he who lived and not a factitious being created by his pride and his boredom.”