French cinema has lost its most iconic monster. After Michel Piccoli and Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon passed away on August 18. He leaves behind a filmography rich in unforgettable masterpieces (from Antonioni to Zurlini, via Visconti and Losey on the international scene, from René Clément to Melville, via Verneuil, Cavalier, Enrico, Malle, Deray, Jessua, Lautner, Molinaro, and Granier-Deferre in France) who have left their mark on the history of cinema, but also, like Belmondo, a period (the ’80s) when he became an almost demiurge, dominating French screens by constantly imposing the same cop character (in a distant Melville tradition) on his own productions. His beauty was described as perfect, and almost as devastating as that of his friend Brigitte Bardot. Tears must flow around the world, as they did on his face in Cannes in 2019, when the Cannes Film Festival awarded him an honorary Palme d’Or. His charisma was unrivalled, and he is still often cited as a model by directors for his ability to occupy space with a simple posture, free of overfluous gestures (Paul Schrader said again at this year’s Cannes festival that he had given Richard Gere only one instruction (which he carried out to perfection in oh Canada): to be there in the picture, just as Alain Delon was there in every one of his films, magnetic in every image. As a tribute, we’d like to revisit some of the articles we’ve written about him:
https://cinemareporters.com/actors/when-brigitte-bardot-wishes-happy-birthday-to-alain-delon
https://cinemareporters.com/interview-en/a-rare-interview-with-a-young-alain-delon
https://cinemareporters.com/actors/alain-delon-at-cannes-2013