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Ecstasy and Me, la folle autobiographie d'Hedy Lamarr (réédition 2025)
À l'occasion des 25 ans de la disparition d'Hedy Lamarr, la réédition de son autobiographie culte, Ecstasy and Me. La confession sulfureuse d'une icône d'Hollywood qui s'épuisa à être libre.
" Je me suis toujours sentie plus proche de la Bête que de la Belle du vieux conte pour enfants. Pauvre Bête : son visage effrayant masque à tous la vérité de son âme. Je suis comme elle, [...] mon visage est un masque que je ne peux ôter ; je dois vivre avec. Je le maudis. "
Qui se souvenait d'Hedy Lamarr il y a encore quelques années, au moment de la première parution française d'Ecstasy and Me, son autobiographie explosive ? Pénélope Bagieu venait de lui consacrer un portrait dans ses Culottées, tandis que s'apprêtait à sortir en salles The Hedy Lamarr Story, un documentaire produit par Susan Sarandon retraçant son incroyable destin. Depuis, l'ancienne star déchue s'est vue propulsée au rang d'icône féministe et toute une nouvelle génération s'en est emparée.
À l'occasion des vingt-cinq ans de sa disparition, cette réédition de ses souvenirs de cinéma entend poursuivre ce travail de résurrection. D'une plume féroce, elle y révèle les détails de son ascension fulgurante et nous plonge dans les coulisses d'un Hollywood décadent où rôdent dangers, excès et plaisirs défendus...
" Je me suis toujours sentie plus proche de la Bête que de la Belle du vieux conte pour enfants. Pauvre Bête : son visage effrayant masque à tous la vérité de son âme. Je suis comme elle, [...] mon visage est un masque que je ne peux ôter ; je dois vivre avec. Je le maudis. "
Qui se souvenait d'Hedy Lamarr il y a encore quelques années, au moment de la première parution française d'Ecstasy and Me, son autobiographie explosive ? Pénélope Bagieu venait de lui consacrer un portrait dans ses Culottées, tandis que s'apprêtait à sortir en salles The Hedy Lamarr Story, un documentaire produit par Susan Sarandon retraçant son incroyable destin. Depuis, l'ancienne star déchue s'est vue propulsée au rang d'icône féministe et toute une nouvelle génération s'en est emparée.
À l'occasion des vingt-cinq ans de sa disparition, cette réédition de ses souvenirs de cinéma entend poursuivre ce travail de résurrection. D'une plume féroce, elle y révèle les détails de son ascension fulgurante et nous plonge dans les coulisses d'un Hollywood décadent où rôdent dangers, excès et plaisirs défendus...
405 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 16, 2025
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About the author
Hedy Lamarr
11 books45 followersHedy Lamarr (November 9, 1913 – January 19, 2000) was an Austrian-born American actress and scientist. Though known primarily for her acting (she was a major MGM contract star), she also co-invented an early form of spread spectrum communications technology, a key to modern wireless communication.
Lamarr was born as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, the daughter of Jewish parents Gertrud (née Lichtwitz), a pianist and Budapest native who came from the "Jewish haute bourgeoisie", and Lemberg-born Emil Kiesler, a successful bank director. She studied ballet and piano. When working with Max Reinhardt in Berlin, he called her the "most beautiful woman in Europe". Soon, the teenage girl played major roles in German movies, alongside stars like Heinz Rühmann and Hans Moser.
In early 1933, she starred in Gustav Machatý's notorious film Ecstasy, a Czechoslovak film made in Prague, in which she played a love-hungry young wife of an indifferent old husband. Closeups of her face in orgasm, and long shots of her running nude through the woods, gave the film notoriety.
On 10 August 1933 she married Friedrich Mandl, a Vienna-based arms manufacturer, 13 years her senior. In her autobiography Ecstacy and Me, Lamarr described Mandl as an extremely controlling man who sometimes tried to keep her shut up in their mansion. The Austrian fascist bought up as many copies of the film as he could possibly find, as he objected to her nudity and "the expression on her face". (Lamarr later claimed the looks of passion were the result of the director poking her in the bottom with a safety pin.)
Mandl prevented her from pursuing her acting career, and instead took her to meetings with technicians and business partners. In these meetings, the mathematically-talented Lamarr learned about military technology. Otherwise, she had to stay at castle Schwarzenau. She later related that even though Mandl was part Jewish, he was consorting with Nazi industrialists, which infuriated her. In Ecstacy and Me, Lamarr wrote that fascist dictators Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler both attended Mandl's grand parties. In her autobiography, Lamarr related that in 1937, she disguised herself as one of her maids and fled to Paris, where she obtained a divorce, and then moved on to London. According to another version of the episode, she persuaded Mandl to allow her to attend a party wearing all her expensive jewelry, later drugged him with the help of her maid, and made her escape out of the country with the jewelry.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr
Lamarr was born as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, the daughter of Jewish parents Gertrud (née Lichtwitz), a pianist and Budapest native who came from the "Jewish haute bourgeoisie", and Lemberg-born Emil Kiesler, a successful bank director. She studied ballet and piano. When working with Max Reinhardt in Berlin, he called her the "most beautiful woman in Europe". Soon, the teenage girl played major roles in German movies, alongside stars like Heinz Rühmann and Hans Moser.
In early 1933, she starred in Gustav Machatý's notorious film Ecstasy, a Czechoslovak film made in Prague, in which she played a love-hungry young wife of an indifferent old husband. Closeups of her face in orgasm, and long shots of her running nude through the woods, gave the film notoriety.
On 10 August 1933 she married Friedrich Mandl, a Vienna-based arms manufacturer, 13 years her senior. In her autobiography Ecstacy and Me, Lamarr described Mandl as an extremely controlling man who sometimes tried to keep her shut up in their mansion. The Austrian fascist bought up as many copies of the film as he could possibly find, as he objected to her nudity and "the expression on her face". (Lamarr later claimed the looks of passion were the result of the director poking her in the bottom with a safety pin.)
Mandl prevented her from pursuing her acting career, and instead took her to meetings with technicians and business partners. In these meetings, the mathematically-talented Lamarr learned about military technology. Otherwise, she had to stay at castle Schwarzenau. She later related that even though Mandl was part Jewish, he was consorting with Nazi industrialists, which infuriated her. In Ecstacy and Me, Lamarr wrote that fascist dictators Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler both attended Mandl's grand parties. In her autobiography, Lamarr related that in 1937, she disguised herself as one of her maids and fled to Paris, where she obtained a divorce, and then moved on to London. According to another version of the episode, she persuaded Mandl to allow her to attend a party wearing all her expensive jewelry, later drugged him with the help of her maid, and made her escape out of the country with the jewelry.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr
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August 4, 2025
This woman is SO iconic. I've read Alice Guy's autobiography before this and it's sad to see their futures being pretty similar, both pioneers/important figures ending up broke and their careers being over without them wanting to
Displaying 1 of 1 review