French postcard by Editions d'art Yvon, Paris, no. 40-110-02. Photo: Parc Film / KIM. Jean Marais and Catherine Deneuve in Peau d'âne/Donkey Skin (Jacques Demy, 1970). Caption: Peau d'âne (Donkey Skin), a tale by Charles Perrault, a film by Jacques Demy. The Princess asks the King, her father, for a moon-coloured dress.

With his heroic physique, Jean Marais (1913-1998) was France’s answer to Errol Flynn, the epitome of the swashbuckling romantic hero of French cinema. The blonde and incredibly good-looking actor played over 100 roles in film and on television and was also known as a director, writer, painter and sculptor. His mentor was the legendary poet and director Jean Cocteau, who was also his lover.

Elegant Catherine Deneuve (1943) is an icon of French cinema who has graced the screen for already more than six decades. She gained recognition in the 1960s for her portrayal of cool, mysterious beauties in classic films by directors like Luis Buñuel, Roman Polanski and François Truffaut. Apart from being a great actress, she is also an archetype for Gallic beauty. From 1985 to 1989, she succeeded Brigitte Bardot as the model for the national symbol Marianne, seen on French coins and stamps.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Tags:   Jean Marais Jean Marais French Actor European Film Star Acteur Catherine Deneuve Catherine Deneuve Actress Allure Beautiful Vintage Postcard Starlet Cinema Belle Cine Hollywood Movies Star Carte Postale Cartolina Postkarte Postkaart Briefkarte Briefkaart Ansichtskarte Ansichtkaart Peau d'âne Donkey Skin Yvon Park KIM Jacques Demy Demy 1970

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Romanian calendar card by Casa Filmui Acin, 1973. Catherine Deneuve in Peau d'âne/Donkey Skin (Jacques Demy, 1970). Collection: Alina Deaconu.

On 29 December 2022, EFSP will present a special La multi ani! post by Alina Deaconu.

Tags:   Catherine Deneuve Catherine Deneuve French Actress Actrice European Film Star Cine Cinema Film Kino Picture Screen Movie Movies Filmster Star Vintage Calendar Card Acin La multi ani! Alina Deaconu 1973

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Romanian calendar card by Casa Filmui Acin, 1973. Catherine Deneuve and Jacques Perrin in Peau d'âne/Donkey Skin (Jacques Demy, 1970). Collection: Alina Deaconu.

On 29 December 2022, EFSP will present a special La multi ani! post by Alina Deaconu.

Tags:   Catherine Deneuve Catherine Deneuve French Actress Actrice Jacques Perrin Jacques Perrin Actor Acteur European Film Star Cine Cinema Film Kino Picture Screen Movie Movies Filmster Star Vintage Calendar Card Acin La multi ani! Alina Deaconu 1973

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French postcard by La Cinémathèque française, no. CF 5004, 1998. Photo: Ciné Tamaris / Collection C.T. Catherine Deneuve and Nino Castelnuovo in Les parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964).

Elegant Catherine Deneuve (1943) is an icon of the French cinema who has graced the screen for more than five decades. She gained recognition in the 1960s for her portrayal of cool, mysterious beauties in classic films of directors like Luis Buñuel, Roman Polanski and François Truffaut. Apart from being a great actress, she is also an archetype for Gallic Beauty. From 1985 to 1989, she succeeded Brigitte Bardot as the model for the national symbol Marianne, seen on French coins and stamps.

Italian actor Nino Castelnovo's (1936-2021) most famous role was as Guy Foucher opposite Catherine Deneuve in Les parapluies de Cherbourg (1964).

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

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French postcard by CartCom & Com for the DVD release pf 'Integrale Jacques Demy' by Ciné-Tamaris and Arte Video, 1996. Photo: H. Jeanbrau. Jacques Perrin and Gene Kelly in Les demoiselles de Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967).

On Thursday 21 April 2022, French actor Jacques Perrin (1941-2022) passed away. Handsome and talented, Perrin started his career as the romantic hero in the films of Italian director Valerio Zurlini. Later he made powerful films with Costa-Gravas and played the adult Salvatore in the international hit Cinema Paradiso (1988). With his own studio, he produced successful political films as Z (1969) and nature documentaries as Microcosmos (1996).

Jacques Perrin was born Jacques André Simonet in Paris in 1941. Occasionally, he is credited as Jacques Simonet. Perrin was his mother's name. His father, Alexandre Simonet, was a theatre director. In 1946, the five years old made his uncredited film debut in Les Portes de la nuit/Gates of the Night (1946, Marcel Carné), starring Serge Reggiani and Yves Montand. Perrin was trained as an actor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique. On stage, he gave over 400 performances of L'Année du bac in a Paris theatre. In the cinema he played his first major juvenile parts in Italy for director Valerio Zurlini. He played Claudia Cardinale’s boyfriend in the romantic comedy La Ragazza con la valigia/Girl with a Suitcase (1961, Valerio Zurlini) and Marcello Mastroianni’s younger brother in Cronaca familiar/Family Diary (1962, Valerio Zurlini). In France he acted with Brigitte Bardot in La Vérité/The Truth (1960, Henri-Georges Clouzot), with Anna Karina in Le Soleil dans l'oeil/Sun in Your Eyes (1962, Jacques Bourdon), and with Bruno Cremer in the war film La 317ème section/317th Platoon (1965, Pierre Schoendoerffer). He also worked on the thriller film Compartiment tueurs/The Sleeping Car Murders (1965, Costa-Gravas). Hames Travers at Films de France: “Costa-Gavras made his directoral debut with this fast-moving, convoluted but magnificently assembled crime thriller. The film reflects the director’s interest for American film noir and, thanks largely to an impressive cast, is one of his most entertaining films.” It was the start of a long-time cooperation between actor and director. In 1966, Perrin won two Best Actor awards at the Venice Film Festival or the Italian film Un uomo a metà/Almost a Man (1966, Vittorio De Seta), and the Spanish film La busca/The Search (1966, Angelino Fons). The next year he co-starred in the musical Les demoiselles de Rochefort/The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967, Jacques Demy) with Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorleac. He would cooperate again with Demy and Deneuve on the fairytale Peau d'âne/Donkey Skin (1970, Jacques Demy) in which he played an appealing Prince Charming. Craig Butler at AllMovie: “Donkey Skin is a strange but utterly captivating little fantasy, and one that, despite its fairy tale origins, is really aimed more at adults than at children. Jacques Demy has directed with an eye toward whimsy, but whimsy mixed both with magic and subtle disorientation.”

At 27, Jacques Perrin created his own studio. He produced and acted in Z (1969), directed by Costa Gavras and starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Yves Montand, and Irene Papas. The film presents a thinly fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of democratic Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963. Dan Pavlides at AllMovie: “Z is one of the most politically insightful films ever made, exposing government hypocrisy and cover-up in the wake of a political assassination.” The production had nearly 4 million admissions in France and was the 4th highest grossing film of the year. It was also the 10th highest grossing film of 1969 in the United States. Z is also one of the few films to be nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture. Perrin worked with Costa-Gavras again on État de Siège/State of Siege (1972, Costa-Gavras) and Section special/Special Section (1975, Costa-Gavras). Both films had political themes, and Perrin continued this trend with La guerre d'Algérie (1975, Yves Courrière, Philippe Monnier), a documentary on the Algerian uprising, and La Spirale (1976, Armand Mattelart, Valérie Mayoux, Jacqueline Meppiel), a film on the Chilean presidency of Salvador Allende . In 1976, Perrin produced another Oscar-winning film in La Victoire en chantant/Black and White in Color (1976, Jean-Jacques Annaud). That year, he also embarked on Il deserto dei Tartari/Le Désert des Tartares/ The Desert of the Tartars (1976, Valerio Zurlini), with a cast filled with such big-name actors as Jean-Louis Trintignant, Vittorio Gassman, Max von Sydow, Francisco Rabal, Helmut Griem, Giuliano Gemma, Philippe Noiret, Fernando Rey, Laurent Terzieff and Jean-Louis Trintignant. The film, based on the Dino Buzzati's novel The Tartar Steppe, tells the story of a young officer, Giovanni Drogo (Jacques Perrin), and the time that he spent guarding the Bastiani Fortress, an old, unmaintained border fortress. Although the film won the Grand Prix du Cinéma Français and three David di Donatello Awards 1977, it was not very successful and left Perrin with debts.

Jacques Perrin had a huge success with the Italian drama Nuovo Cinema Paradiso/Cinema Paradiso (1988, Giuseppe Tornatore). He played a famous film director remembers his childhood at the Cinema Paradiso where Alfredo, the projectionist (Philippe Noiret), first brought about his love of films. Cinema Paradiso was a critical and box-office success and won many awards including the Golden Globe, the BAFTA and the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Two years later, he also appeared in Tornatore’s Stanno tutti bene/Everybody’s Fine (1990, Giuseppe Tornatore) starring Marcello Mastroianni. As a producer Perrin changed direction when he decided that the natural life around us could tell stories as fascinating and varied as anything dreamt up by a scriptwriter. He produced nature documentaries that transformed the scope of wildlife films, from Microcosmos (1996, Claude Nuridsany, Marie Pérennou), in which ants performed the starring role, to the austere travelogue Himalaya (1999, Eric Valli), nominated for an Oscar, and Le Peuple Migrateur/Winged Migration (2001, Jacques Cluzaud, Michel Debats, Jacques Perrin), which followed some 50 species of birds across 30 countries. All were filmed by Perrin’s studio Galatée Films. Another successful production was Les choristes/The Chorus (2004, Christophe Barratier). In this drama Perrin played the narrator, the old orchestra conductor Pierre Morhange, who reminisces about his childhood inspirations through the pages of a diary kept by his old music teacher. The young Pépinot was played by Perrin’s son Maxence. Other films in which he played were the historical horror film Le pacte des loups/Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001, Christophe Gans), and the crime drama Le petit lieutenant/The Young Lieutenant (2005, Xavier Beauvois) with Nathalie Baye. In 1985, Perrin was made Knight of the Ordre national du Mérite, in 1997 he was promoted to Officer and in 2003 to Commander. He was also made Knight of the Légion d'honneur in 1990 and promoted to Officer in 2007. Jacques Perrin has three sons, actor Mathieu Perrin (1975), actor Maxence Perrin (1995), and Lancelot Perrin (2000). His most recent film production is Océans/Oceans (2009, Jacques Perrin, Jacques Cluzaud). Tracie Cooper at AllMovie: “Narrated by Pierce Brosnan, Oceans is made up of a compilation of underwater photography from over 75 diving expeditions that took place over a period of four years, and captures an astoundingly intimate glimpse into the lives of a wide array of sea life”.

Sources: James Travers (Films de France), Craig Butler (AllMovie), Dan Pavlides (AllMovie), Tracie Cooper (AllMovie), John Whitley (The Telegraph), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

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