Simone Simon : La féline

by Pierre Barillet

Dans le cœur des cinéphiles, elle reste Irena Dubrovna, inquiétante séductrice au regard de chat, l'héroïne de Cat People (La Féline), le chef-d'oeuvre de Jacques Tourneur. Mais le parcours de Simone Simon, piquante jeune première d'opérette devenue vedette de cinéma avec Lac aux dames (1934) de Marc Allégret, est celui d'une star française qui conquit aussi Hollywood, travaillant avec Guitry, Renoir (La Bête humaine), King, Dieterle, Ophuls (La Ronde, Le Plaisir), jouant avec Raimu, Tyrone Power, James Stewart et Jean Gabin.

Cette femme-enfant fut un vrai bourreau des cœurs : Marc Allégret, George Gershwin, Jean Gabin, Garson Kanin, et bien d’autres succombèrent à son charme irrésistible, avant qu’elle ne rencontre le grand amour auprès du séduisant Alec Weisweiller. La vie mouvementée et romanesque de Simone Simon, contée par Pierre Barillet qui fut de ses amis, est un vrai scénario de cinéma !

L’auteur : Pierre Barillet a enchanté les soirées des amateurs de théâtre, avec ses nombreuses comédies écrites en collaboration avec Jean-Pierre Grédy (Théâtre de Barillet et Grédy, Omnibus), adaptées à Broadway et Hollywood, comme Fleur de Cactus et Quarante carats. Également chroniqueur vif et spirituel de l’univers du spectacle, il est l’auteur des Seigneurs du rire, Quatre années sans relâche, À la ville comme à la scène.

Genres: Biography

248 pages, Paperback

First published October 11, 2013

Reviews

[Denis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have always been moved by the evanescent images of actors of bygone eras who, after having met with great fame but not with everlasting stardom, have faded into some kind of nostalgic limbo that only a few movie buffs love to explore. Simone Simon is such a figure. One of the major sex-symbols of pre-WWII French cinema, Simon brought to the screen a different, fresh, troubling new sensuality, that a director like Jean Renoir wonderfully captured in a classic like La bête humaine. Her Hollywood career never fulfilled the promises it held, but she appeared in at least one cult masterpiece: Cat People. Back in France, she illuminated two of the greatest films of the fifties, La ronde and Le plaisir, both directed by Max Ophüls, before giving up her career for the love of a billionaire with whom she’d have a long, tormented love affair. Her bittersweet life was filled with a succession of lovers (including George Gershwin), destructive scandals, travels, houses, jewels, illnesses, and sometimes unfortunate career choices: it is as colorful as her temperament and vagaries were… and as sad as the life of a movie star who slowly falls into a difficult to accept obscurity can be. There is real sadness to such destinies, and writer Pierre Barillet (a good friend of Simon, and a very successful play-writer who conquered Broadway), knows how to distil it through the pages, with melancholy touches. His book is a delightful and touching read, brisk, lovingly written, and filled with anecdotes. The actress, who passed away, blind, in 2005 never became the superstar she could have been, but she led quite a life, and knew extraordinary people, such as the wonderful French theater master Sacha Guitry, the composer Reynaldo Hahn, who had been Marcel Proust’s lover, or some Hollywood’s biggest names, like Tyrone Power or Darryl F.Zanuck. Charmingly written, here’s a delicious book to remember a forgotten, and yet unforgettable, star.

[Lulu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging tone, reads well and quickly, but no notes so not sure how/if it was researched.