Arletty

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Arletty

Arletty , actually Léonie Bathiat (born May 15, 1898 in Courbevoie , Seine department , today Hauts-de-Seine department , † July 24, 1992 in Paris ), was a French actress .

life and career

Arletty was a factory worker, typist , mannequin and revue dancer. She made her film debut in 1930 and soon became a star. She preferred to play vamps , prostitutes, or the femme fatale . She starred in classics of French-language cinema such as Marcel Carné's Hôtel du Nord and the drama The Night with the Devil . Her most famous role was that of Garance in Children of Olympus. Her German biographer, Klaus Harpprecht, wrote in a newspaper article: “Les Enfants du Paradis, seen in the cinemas of our ruined cities in 1947, was also felt by the Germans as an overwhelming event that was accompanied by the love of the neighbors' culture, which was never completely buried the works of Camus and Sartre, the plays by Anouilh - brought an enthusiastic renaissance. "

At the height of her popularity, Arletty was a model for famous painters of her time such as Georges Braque , Moise Kisling and Henri Matisse and was considered a muse and source of inspiration for poets such as Jacques Prévert and Céline, as well as fashion designers such as Azzedine Alaïa . From 1937 to 1939 Arletty had a love affair with "Prince" David Mdivani , whom she met in Venice in 1937. She is said to have become pregnant by him in 1939, but decided not to have the child.

After World War II , its star began to decline. Since she had a love affair and long-term friendship with the German Air Force officer and later writer and diplomat Hans-Jürgen Soehring , she spent two months in prison as an alleged collaborator and was not offered any roles until 1949. She justified her attitude in her unmistakably popular way, which has remained proverbial to this day: "Mon cœur est français, mais mon cul est international." She commented on the reaction of those around her: “I was the most invited woman, now I am the most invited.” She later starred in films again, but could no longer build on her earlier success. Nevertheless, especially because of the films mentioned above, she is one of the great, unforgettable actresses in French cinema. She once triumphed on the stage in the role of Blanche in Tennessee Williams ' Endstation Sehnsucht .

After an accident, she became completely blind at the age of 68. She lived for twenty years, most recently on the edge of poverty, in a small council flat in Paris. However, according to friends' testimony, she retained her cheerful, ironic serenity. In 1971 Arletty published her memoir under the ambiguous title La Défense , which on the one hand can be interpreted as a reference to her folk origins from Courbevoie, a dreary suburb that later became part of the Paris high-rise Défense district, and on the other hand as the title of a defensive pamphlet alluding to her controversial lifestyle during the occupation.

Arletty died in Paris on July 24, 1992 at the age of 94. She was cremated and buried in the Nouveau Cimetière in Courbevoie.

Authors and biographers praised her as "la Madone du canal Saint-Martin", the Madonna of the Canal Saint-Martin, on which the Hôtel du Nord is located, the setting of the famous film, and as "muse des faubourgs" (muse from the suburbs) who, born in the third rear building of a tenement, has never denied her proletarian origins and, according to one of her biographers, gave nobility to the accent and manners of the Parisian suburbs ("... rendait aristocratiques l'accent et les manières des faubourgs").

Filmography (selection)

  • 1931: Un chien qui rapporte
  • 1932: Enlevez-moi
  • 1935: Game in Monte Carlo (Pension Mimosas)
  • 1937: Les perles de la couronne
  • 1938: Hôtel du Nord (Hôtel du Nord)
  • 1939: Fric-Frac
  • 1939: Circonstances atténuantes
  • 1939: The day is dawning (Le jour se lève)
  • 1942: The night with the devil (Le visiteur du soir)
  • 1942: My greatest love (La femme que j'ai le plus aimé)
  • 1945: Children of Olympus (Les enfants du paradis)
  • 1949: Portrait d'un assassin
  • 1951: The Witch of Montmartre (Gibier de potence)
  • 1951: L'amour, Madame
  • 1953: The last stage (Le grand jeu)
  • 1954: The Air of Paris (L'air de Paris)
  • 1955: Closed society (Huis clos)
  • 1957: Nights in Tahiti (Passager clandestin)
  • 1958: The affairs of Madame M. (Maxime)
  • 1958: Live and let love (Un drôle de dimanche)
  • 1961: The great scam (La gamberge)
  • 1962: We ask for bed (Les petits matins)
  • 1962: The Longest Day (The Longest Day)
  • 1962: Tempo di Roma

literature

  • James Lord : Mademoiselle Atmosphère. Arletty in: Extraordinary Women. Six portraits. Pp. 53-100. Matthes, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-88221-803-7 (also: Fischer TB)
  • Klaus Harpprecht : A love in times of war. The story of the French film star A., ​​..., and her German officer Hans Jürgen Soehring ... , Die Zeit No. 32 of July 30, 2009, p. 78, online
  • Klaus Harpprecht: Arletty and her German officer: A love in times of war , S. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011. ISBN 978-3-10-030062-1

Web links

Commons : Arletty  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from Harpprecht: A love in times of war. In: Die Zeit from July 30, 2009, online
  2. ↑ Denis Demonpion: Arletty . Paris 1996, ISBN 2-08-066940-0 , pp. 241 .
  3. ↑ “My heart is French, but my ass is international.” The words are not from Arletty, but from Henri Jeanson, who is responsible for the dialogues at the film Hôtel du Nord .
  4. ↑ “J'étais la femme la plus invitée, je suis la plus évitée.” Quoted from Harpprecht: A love in times of war. In: Die Zeit from July 30, 2009, online
  5. ↑ Arletty-Leonie Bathiat on findagrave.com
  6. ^ François Bott, Femmes de plaisir, Paris 2012
  7. ↑ Madame rightly said that the men in her bed were only her own concern in: FAZ of June 14, 2011, p. 32
  8. ↑ Helmut Böttiger: A love story between the fronts , review of: Klaus Harpprecht: “Arletty and her German officer. A love in times of war ”, S. Fischer Verlag, in: Büchermarkt , Deutschlandfunk, May 8, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Arletty
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bathiat, Léonie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION french actress
DATE OF BIRTH May 15, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Courbevoie , Seine department
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 1992
Place of death Paris