With a film career that began in 1957 in Be beautiful and shut upalready alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo, whom he would meet again later, and closed in 2010 in the TV film One Husband Too ManyAlain Delon has since worked with Luchino Visconti, Jean-Pierre Melville, René Clément, Henri Verneuil, Joseph Losey and Terrence Young.
In addition to Belmondo, with whom the press invented an imaginary rivalry, Delon played alongside Jean Gabin, Lino Ventura, Maurice Ronet, Bourvil, Brigitte Bardot, Annie Girardot, Romy Schneider, Mireille Darc and Sophie Marceau. A look back at an exceptional star with an international dimension, in fourteen emblematic films.
Rocco and his brothers
It was Luchino Visconti who offered Alain Delon his first major role, in Rocco and his brothers in 1960. Franco-Italian production, as there would be many in the 60s, Rocco (Alain Delon) argues with his brother Simone (Renato Salvatori) for the love of Nadia a prostitute (Annie Girardot). Delon steals the show and is propelled to stardom. The actor will meet Visconti again in 1963 in The Cheetah.
Full sun
Also in 1960, Alain Delon exploded in Full sun by René Clément alongside Maurice Ronet and Romy Schneider (but it is the singer Marie Laforêt who steals the leading female role). Delon plays the role of an impostor who steals Maurice Ronet’s identity. A film noir under an azure sun, where the actor’s bare torso will imprint the retinas.
The Eclipse
It is once again Italy that calls on Alain Delon in The Eclipse by Michelangelo Antonioni in 1962. He plays the arrogant lover rejected by Monica Vitti, the director’s muse. She prefers Francisco Rabal, who ultimately disappoints her by sending her back to face her solitude. One of the great films of the Italian master, with The Adventure And The Night on the incommunicability between men and women. The film won the Special Prize at the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.
The Cheetah
Still in Italy, which largely contributed to the launch of the star, Alain Delon meets Luchino Visconti, who revealed him in Rocco and his brothers. It is The Cheetahwhere the actor gave the reply in 1963 to Burt Lancaster and Claudia Cardinal in one of the greatest films of the Italian master and of cinema in general. Immense fresco, with airs of Gone with the Wind Italian style, on the end of an era. Visconti would return to the theme in The Damned (1969), Death in Venice (1971) and Ludwig: Twilight of the Gods (1972), but without Delon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSlughJCPLc
Melody in the basement
After the major films of his debut, Alain Delon inaugurates a lighter filmography, even if the works remain of fine quality. In this more entertaining lineage, stands out Melody in the basement (1963) by Henri Verneuil, a concrete heist film with Jean Gabin at his side (which he would return to on several occasions), and the dialogues of Michel Audiard. Heavy stuff, based on a screenplay by Albert Simonin, screenwriter of Don’t touch the loot, The Cave rebels Or The Uncles Gunslingers.
Is Paris burning?
Delon does not play a leading role in Is Paris burning? by René Clément (whom he found again after Full sun), a prestigious reconstruction of the Liberation of Paris in 1966. But he is part of a five-star cast, with Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Claude Rich, Kirk Douglas, Orson Welles and Jean-Paul Belmondo, all in fleeting but historical roles. Delon has a choice role: that of Jacques Chaban-Delmas, which could only flatter General De Gaulle’s Prime Minister in office at the time of the film’s release.
The Adventurers
The actor returns to action in a French action film, as they were made in the 60s, with The Adventurers (1967) by Robert Enrico. After Gabin, Alain Delon plays alongside Lino Ventura, another heavyweight of French cinema who still holds his own against Hollywood in terms of entertainment. They are also joined by Serge Reggiani, who has a great acting career in parallel with that of a singer at the height of his fame. Action, exoticism, romance and testosterone are all there: a box-office hit.
The Samurai
After directing Jean-Paul Belmondo in The Doulos (1962) and Lino Ventura in The Second Wind (1966), Jean-Pierre Melville finally called on Alain Delon in 1967 in one of the best films of the filmmaker and actor: The Samurai. The swan song of a solitary and mute hitman, the actor is impressive in a minimalist interpretation, all in interiority and yet extremely touching. Masterpiece.
The Sicilian Clan
Alain Delon is one of the leading actors in French cinema starring in the Sicilian Clan signed Henri Verneuil in 1969. It reunites Jean Gabin and Lino Ventura, only Jean-Paul Belmondo is missing. A formidable thriller masterfully led by its director, around an improbable robbery whose highlight is the landing of a Boeing on a highway, The Sicilian Clan also remains famous for the excellent score by Ennio Morricone composed for the film. A must.
The Swimming Pool
The star returned the same year (1969) to a more intimate vein in The Swimming Pool by Jacques Deray. He meets Maurice Ronet and Romy Schneider, with whom he shared the bill in Full sun in 1960. The film also has some similarities with that of René Clément, in its azure light and the romantic intrigue that links the characters (including Jane Birkin who starts out in France). The scene between Alain Delon and Romy Schneider by the pool remains one of the most glamorous in French cinema, and the couple relives in fiction their passion that began in 1958 on the set of Christine by Pierre Gaspard-Huit. Note that it was Romy who imposed in “Christine” a beginner Delon chosen from a photo, and it was in turn the actor who suggested the actress to Deray to be his partner in The Swimming Poolthus relaunching his career which had been losing momentum. A nice return of favor.
The Red Circle
Alain Delon returns to action in a dark thriller, under the direction of specialist Jean-Pierre Melville, with The Red Circle in 1970. Sporting a moustache, he plays a repeat offender who organizes a hold-up with Gian Maria Volonte, as a Marseille thug, and Yves Montand as an alcoholic ex-cop, opposite Bourvil in a role against type, as a pugnacious commissioner, his last appearance on screen. Melville would meet Delon again two years later, in 1972, in A cop.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAWnRWlhhRA
Borsalino
The public dreamed of it, Jacques Deray did it in 1970: reuniting Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Moreover in a family thriller that recreates the Marseille milieu of the 1930s: perfect. It’s Borsalinoone of the most popular films by the shock duo of French cinema. They compete in pieces of bravery and repartee, having fun on screen with the rivalry that the press invented for them, surfing on a complicity that bursts on screen. Notably during a fatal confrontation that will remain in the annals. Alain Delon will reprise his role alone in a mediocre sequel, Borsalino & Co (1974) still signed Jacques Deray.
Mr. Klein
Alain Delon’s best role? Many have said so. At least it is probably his most moving interpretation, the adjective hardly being appropriate for the actor’s style, rather confined to calculating characters (Full sun) and cold, such as Jean-Pierre Melville offered him, The Samurai being the archetype. The great American director Joseph Losey (often wrongly identified as a Briton because he made most of his career in Great Britain), perhaps offered him the role of his life in Mr. Klein in 1976. For the only time in his career, Delon plays a victim who, during the Occupation, struggles to prove to the German authorities that he is not Jewish, while a namesake uses his identity to protect himself. Magnificent.
A Swann’s Love
In 1984, German director Volker Schlöndorff tackled a major piece of French literature by adapting A Swann’s Love by Marcel Proust, considered unadaptable. The film was generally panned, except for the performance of Alain Delon, remarkable in the fleeting but emblematic Proustian character of his work: Baron de Charlus. An aristocrat, sublime and elegant to the tips of his nails, a magnificent dandy, a tormented “invert”. The audacity to interpret such a role will earn Delon unanimous praise from critics, to which the actor was hardly accustomed.
Bonus: Alain Delon director
A French icon as an actor, Alain Delon has stepped behind the camera three times, directing The Burnt Barns in 1973 (co-signed with Jean Chapot) with Simone Signoret, For the skin of a cop in 1981, and The Fighter in 1983, with François Perrier, Pierre Mondy and Anne Parillaud. All are detective stories, the actor’s favorite genre. In his third and final film, The Fighterhe plays the rebound of a wrongly imprisoned ex-gangster, released from prison. His title could qualify the career of Alain Delon. An extraordinary star.