The French cultural and political world has said goodbye to actor Alain Delon, who died on Sunday 18 August at the age of 88 at his residence in Douchy, according to his children. “A French monument,” is how the President of the French Republic, Emmanuel Macron, paid tribute to and described Delon on his X account.
“Monsieur Klein or Rocco, ‘The Leopard’ or ‘The Silence of a Man’, Alain Delon has played legendary roles and made the world dream. Lending his unforgettable face to turn our lives upside down. Melancholic, popular, secret, he was more than a star: a French monument,” Macron wrote in the message collected by Europa Press.
His colleague and friend, actress Brigitte Bardot, also mourned his loss. In a handwritten letter published in X, she explained that his death left her with “an abysmal void that nothing and no one can fill.” “Alain, in dying, puts an end to the magnificent chapter of a bygone era of which he was a sovereign monument. He represented the best of prestigious French cinema, an ambassador of elegance, talent and beauty (…) I have lost a friend, an alter ego, an accomplice, we shared the same values, the same disappointments, the same love for animals,” the actress continued.
Bardot and Delon met in 1958 but it was not until 1961 that they acted together for the first time, in ‘Amores célébres’, directed by Michel Boisrond. “I think of a phrase by Alfred de Vigny in ‘La mort du loupe’: ‘To see what we were on earth and what we left behind, only silence is great, everything else is weakness’. August 18, 2024, Brigitte Bardot,” says the letter, photographed on the social network.
Also from the world of politics, National Assembly member Marine Le Pen has remembered the actor, whom she described as a “legend” who belongs to the “small part of France” that she loves. Delon has never denied his conservative ideas.
Among the first reactions to the actor’s death was that of former French Culture Minister and friend of the actor, Jack Lang, who praised a figure who was “extremely modest, reserved, sober, shy,” who at the same time expressed himself in a “brutal, brilliant” way.
“Alain has known happy moments and rejections throughout his life,” even in the world of cinema, “which was sometimes hard for him,” Lang explained in his dedication to a man with political “convictions” very far from the socialist politician, which did not prevent a close friendship.
A LEGACY OF 122 FILMS
Delon leaves behind a legacy of 122 films, 88 of them as an actor, two as a director and 32 as a producer, in a career linked to transcendental directors such as Jean-Pierre Melville (‘The Red Circle’, ‘The Silence of a Man’), Luchino Visconti (‘Rocco and His Brothers’, ‘The Leopard’), René Clément (‘In Full Sunlight’) or Louis Malle, during which he expressed the elusive figure of a stoic and vulnerable leading man.
In terms of awards, since his first appearance on the big screen in 1957, Delon has been awarded a César for Best Actor in 1985 for Bertrand Blier’s Notre-Dame; the Honorary Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 1995 and the Berlin International Film Festival award. In May 2019, his most notable recognition came with receiving the Honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes, and the festival mourned his death in X.
“It is with the same sadness that film buffs around the world feel that we learn of the passing of Alain Delon. He embodied French cinema beyond its borders (…) We have extraordinary memories of the tribute paid to him by the Cannes Film Festival in 2019, of his emotion, which he touched the hearts of the entire audience, and of his moving words (…) He was incredibly respectful towards his directors and attentive to his partners. If today we are sad for him and his children, Alain Delon, the artist, will remain: he leaves behind a dazzling filmography and an indelible mark,” said the official Cannes Film Festival account.
Among his works, his eight collaborations with another important name in French cinema stand out, Jean-Paul Belmondo, who died in 2021 and whose son also said goodbye to Delon through a photo on Instagram. “Alain, one day you told me that you missed my father. Today it is you who will be missed. May he rest in peace,” lamented Paul Belmondo.