THE EPITOME OF COOL (REMEMBERING JEAN PAUL BELMONDO)
In the 1960s, if you were to looking for a cinematic hero who epitomised Gallic cool, it was Jean Paul Belmondo.
Very much an icon of the French New Wave, he collaborated with some of French cinema's finest directors - Claude Chabrol, Jean Pierre Melville, Marcel Ophuls and, especially, Jean Luc Godard.
And he was at his best when he was developing his screen persona as the cynical hero.
Belmondo came to acting fresh from the boxing ring.
And he was at his best when he was developing his screen persona as the cynical hero.
Belmondo came to acting fresh from the boxing ring.
Born in the Parisienne suburb of Neuilly sur Seine in 1933, his father was a celebrated sculptor, Paul Belmondo.
Belmondo was not an accomplished student at school but developed a passion for sport - mostly football and boxing.
In a brief amateur boxing career, he was undefeated but quit to study acting at the Conservatoire National Superieur d'Art Dramatique and cut his teeth in small roles in the theatre.
His first film part came in 1957 in Maurice Delbez's comedy 'A Pied, A Cheval eat En Voiture' ('On Foot, On Horseback and On Wheels').
But he would first encounter emerging Franco-Swiss director Jean Luc Godard in 1959 on the 13 minute short 'Charlotte and Her Boyfriend' which was shot in a hotel room.
In the same year, he landed a major part in Claude Chabrol's thriller 'A Double Tour' ('Web of Passion'.
However it was another
with Godard which was to land him his breakthrough role in 1960 as the Humphrey Bogart obsessed criminal Michel in the groundbreaking 'A Bout de Soufflé' ('Breathless').
With its innovative jump cuts and bold imagery, the film remains hugely influential to this day - not least because of Belmondo's charisma and his chemistry with his American girlfriend, Jean Seberg's Patricia.
With its innovative jump cuts and bold imagery, the film remains hugely influential to this day - not least because of Belmondo's charisma and his chemistry with his American girlfriend, Jean Seberg's Patricia.
The role established Belmondo as a cinematic icon and began a national obsession with this most Gallic of film stars.
In 1960, he also teamed up with English theatre and film director Peter Brook on the romantic thriller 'Seven Days and Seven Nights' which snared the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for his co-star Jeanne Moreau.
The great Italian director Vittorio De Sica cast Belmondo as a Communist opposite Sophia Loren in the Second World War drama about a mother protecting her children from the harsh realities of the Nazi occupation and the Allied invasion. Loren was rewarded with a Best Actress Oscar.
With his reputation growing among international film audiences, Belmondo would land a BAFTA nomination for his role as a priest in Jean Pierre Melville's Occupation drama, 'Leon Morrin, Pretre' ('Leon Morrin, Priest') in which he engages Emmanuelle Riva's cynical Communist in a discussion about the Catholic Church.
Godard cast him again in a lead role alongside Anna Karina in the 1961 romantic comedy 'Une Femme est Une Femme' ('A Woman Is A Woman').
Revelling in his lead man status, he was cast by writer-director Jean Becker in the prison drama thriller 'A Man Named Rocca'.
He would team up again with Melville in 1963 as a boxer turned bodyguard in 'L'Aine des Ferchaux' ('Magnet of Doom') and Becker a year later in 'Echappement Libre' ('Backfire') in which he played a diamond smuggler opposite Jean Seberg.
Around this time, he collaborated with Marcel Ophuls in the so-so comedy 'Peau de Banane' ('Banana Skin') alongside Jeanne Moreau.
However, he scored a huge domestic hit in 1964 with Philippe de Broca and Jean Paul Rappeneau's Gallic 007 spoof 'L'Homme de Rio'.
Belmondo returned to more challenging material in 1965 in Godard's daring 'Pierrot Le Fou' ('Pierrot, the Madman'), as an unhappily married advertising executive who runs away with his family's babysitter, played by Anna Karina, and embarks on a crime spree from Paris to the Mediterranean coast.
Originally, Godard toyed with the idea of casting Richard Burton but opted for Belmondo who was well versed with his postmodernist filmmaking style.
His performance would land him another BAFTA nomination but it would be their last collaboration, however.
Belmondo teamed up again with Phillippe de Broca in the adventure film, 'Les Tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine' (called 'Up to His Ears' in English speaking territories) which was based on a Jules Verne novel and starred Bond girl, Ursula Andress with whom he would have a romance off-set.
He would make a cameo appearance in 1967 in the spy comedy 'Casino Royale', which was loosely based on Ian Fleming's 007 James Bond novels but it was a rare appearance in an English language film.
The actor remained a favourite lead man for the French New Wave, with Francois Truffaut directing him in 1969 in 'La Sirene du Mississippi' ('Mississippi Mermaid') as a tobacco plantation owner who arranges a marriage through the personal columns of a newspaper and winds up with Catherine Deneuve's Julie, only to discover all may not be as it appeared.
Three years later, he delivered Claude Chabrol the biggest hit of his filmmaking career with the black comedy 'Doctuer Popaul' opposite Mia Farrow about a playboy doctor who becomes obsessed with his wife's sister after a car accident.
He would work in 1974 with Alain Resnais on 'Stavisky', a movie he was developing on as financier and embezzler Alexandre Stavisky whose mysterious death triggered a political scandal in 1930s France.
In 1995, he would eventually team up with Agnes Varda as an academic on the star studded comedy 'Les Cent et Une Nuits de Simon Cinema' ('One Hundred and One Nights') which also featured Michel Piccoli, Marcello Mastroianni, Robert de Niro, Harrison Ford, Gerard Depardieu, Anouk Aimee and Gina Lollabrigida.
He collaborated three times with Claude Lelouch - initially on the 1969 romantic drama 'Un Homme Qui Me Plait' (retitled 'Love Is A Funny Thing') which was filmed in the US and featured future Charlie's Angel, Farrah Fawcett.
It would be 19 years before they would team up again on 'Itineraire d'un Enfant Gate' in which he played a former trapeze artist turned businessman who becomes tired of his domestic life and plans an escape.
The role landed Belmondo at long last a Cesar for Best Actor but he refused to accept the award because its sculptor, Cesar Baldaccini had spoken disparagingly of his father's work.
In 2001, Belmondo suffered a stroke while in Corsica which paralysed the right side of his face and left him unable to speak. He announced his retirement from acting.
However, he resurfaced seven years later for one fact last hurrah as an elderly man turfed out on the streets of Paris by a rich widow in Francis Huster's 'Un Homme et Son Chien' ('A Man and His Dog').
Huster's melancholic movie, which was based on Vittorio De Sica's 'Umberto D', was a sad reminder of how the ageing process can take its toll on us all, as Belmondo's character shuffles through the streets of Paris with the help of a cane.
But it was also a reminder of his charismatic screen presence and of Belmondo's tendency during his distinguished career to bravely step out of his comfort zone.
"Being afraid is the worst sin there is," Belmondo once opined.
And this final role would underscore his willingness throughout his career to overcome fear - even carrying out his own stunts in many of his action roles.
If you want to see how that bravery mesmerised future generations of film buffs, look at the words of Quentin Tarantino in a fulsome tribute to the actor at Lyon's Lumiere Festival in October 2013.
“In the opening of Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless,’ you see a young actor, in his first film, looking an at poster of a movie star," the director of 'Reservoir Dogs' and 'Pulp Fiction' enthused.
"The movie star is Humphrey Bogart. This young actor is looking at the poster and wishing he were him. That young man was Jean-Paul Belmondo.
“But, for the next 20 years, whenever college kids or cinetists put up the poster of a movie star on their wall, the poster was of Jean-Paul Belmondo. Like he did in ‘Breathless,’ we all stare at the poster and wish we were him.
“Before there was Jackie Chan doing his own stunts, there was Belmondo. Even his name, Belmondo, it not just the name of a movie star, it’s not just the name of a man, it’s a verb, it’s a verb which represents vitality, charisma, a force of will. It represents super-coolness. That is what the name Belmondo means. All hail him!”
Ends
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