{"id":6778,"date":"2012-08-10T08:01:48","date_gmt":"2012-08-10T06:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olivierpere.wordpress.com\/?p=6778"},"modified":"2020-04-12T10:47:43","modified_gmt":"2020-04-12T09:47:43","slug":"locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Locarno 2012 Day 10: Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lire en fran\u00e7ais<\/a><\/p>\n

This evening Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot will be with us on the Piazza Grande to introduce Bonjour tristesse<\/em>, in a brand new 35mm print showing on the biggest and finest screen in the world: an absolutely unmissable event. Yesterday she met festivalgoers to discuss her books of memoirs, and her experience with Otto Preminger.<\/p>\n

Actress Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot is famous for her performances in numerous popular French films, notably Marc All\u00e9gret\u2019s Sois belle et tais-toi<\/em>, Michel Boisrond\u2019s Faibles Femmes<\/em>, Les Trois Mousquetaires<\/em> (the Bernard Borderie version), the Fantomas\u201d series alongside Jean Marais and Louis de Fun\u00e8s and the \u201cCamping\u201d movies with Franck Dubosc. It was Raymond Rouleau\u2019s Les Sorci\u00e8res de Salem<\/em> (The Crucible<\/em>), an adaptation of the Arthur Miller play starring Yves Montand and Simone Signoret) that revealed her talents as an actress in 1957 following small roles in Futures Vedettes<\/em> and Papa, maman, ma femme et moi\u2026<\/em> But over the course of her international career she was also praised in numerous auteur films by Mauro Bolognini (La Notte Brava<\/em>\/The Big Night<\/em>), Dino Risi (Un amore a Roma\/Love in Rome<\/em>), Michel Deville (A cause, \u00e0 cause d\u2019une femme\/Because of a Woman<\/em>), Bertrand Blier (Tenue<\/em> de soir\u00e9e\/M\u00e9nage<\/em>) and Jacques Fieschi (La Californie\/French California<\/em>). Her admirers also remember her in cult films such as The Singer Not the Song<\/em> – a strange British western shot in Spain by Roy Ward Baker starring Dirk Bogarde and John Mills – or the Jacques Tourneur and Mario Bava peplum La Bataille de Marathon<\/em> with Steve Reeves. For cinephiles, her name remains linked to a little-known masterpiece of Italian cinema, Dino Risi\u2019s Un amore a Roma<\/em> (1960) and above all Otto Preminger\u2019s masterly adaptation of Fran\u00e7oise Sagan\u2019s Bonjour tristesse<\/em> in 1958, in which she played Elsa, David Niven\u2019s \u00a0young French mistress, alongside Jean Seberg and Deborah Kerr. Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot has been to the Festival del film Locarno before, in 2007, accompanying Hiner Saleem\u2019s Sous les toits de Paris<\/em> in the international competition, in which she co-starred with Michel Piccoli. We are delighted to welcome her back to introduce Bonjour tristesse<\/em> as part of the complete Otto Preminger retrospective. To prepare for her visit, we met her in her Paris apartment to discuss that significant experience that happened on the threshold of her career. Here are some edited highlights:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Preminger arrived in Paris looking for a young actress to play Elsa he saw Les Sorci\u00e8res de Salem<\/em> in the cinema and asked to meet me. My agent rang me to explain that Preminger was working on an adaptation of Bonjour tristesse<\/em>. And I was indignant that after playing a major dramatic role in Raymond Rouleau\u2019s film \u201cthis guy\u201d dared offer me a small part in a film based on a trendy little novel by Fran\u00e7oise Sagan. Just to show how naive I was back then\u2026<\/p>\n

My agent told me to shut up and to meet Preminger. I reluctantly went along to the meeting, without doing my hair or my make-up, wearing a shapeless jumper. I arrived and said to Preminger \u201cMy dear Sir, I can\u2019t see why you had me come here, it seems to be a light role and I am a dramatic actress and I don\u2019t speak English; I don\u2019t want to waste your time since I have seen your films and you are a formidable director.\u201d He laughed, and replied, \u201cFine, we\u2019ll talk again.\u201d I left. Two days later, my agent called me to say he wanted to have lunch with me. I was flattered to be lunching with such a great director. He told me it was me he wanted. He sent an English teacher to the La Victorine studio in Nice where I was making Une manche et la belle<\/em> with Henri Verneuil. This man who had come from Hollywood was extraordinary: in a month and a half, using his method of total immersion, he had me speaking well enough to do the film.<\/p>\n

While I was in Nice, where I\u2019d rented an apartment, Preminger sent Jean Seberg to me so she could learn French. Jean and I became good friends. I did not return to Paris and went directly from the one film to the other. Most of Bonjour tristesse<\/em> was shot in Pierre Lazareff\u2019s house which was called \u201cLa Fossette\u201d, a really wonderful place near Lavandou. In the beginning, I was lodging in Saint-Tropez but I didn\u2019t like the place much so I found a little cottage on the beach in Cavali\u00e8re where I lived for the rest of the shoot. It was fabulous. At that time, you were employed for the duration of the whole shoot, whatever part you were playing. So I spent eight or ten weeks in the Midi, happy as a sandboy.<\/p>\n

An American production in France<\/p>\n

Before filming started, there were absolutely no cast rehearsals. No read-throughs. Each actor was given their own script. American directors choose you because they consider you are the character. From that moment on, the work is up to you. In France, for example on Les Sorci\u00e8res de Salem<\/em>, we were more used to directors who came from the theatre, like Raymond Rouleau, who were extremely directive. We\u2019d rehearse for a month before we started shooting.<\/p>\n

The opposite of an American director, who dresses you the way he wants you, has your hair done the way he wants it, and then asks you to be happy or petulant. The first major scene we shot for Bonjour tristesse<\/em> was the one in bed where David Niven has just waken me up in the morning and I am sunburned all over. We filmed for a whole day. When Preminger saw the rushes, he wasn\u2019t happy with them and so we started again, eight days later, and he got what he wanted.<\/p>\n

In France when you film a shot of ten or fifteen seconds you feel like you\u2019ve travelled to the end of the world. With Preminger, that bedroom scene was about eight or ten minutes. I was incredibly nervous and I wanted to give of my best.<\/p>\n

My character, Elsa, is a sympathetic and rather na\u00efve little whore who will never encounter any problems in life, since she simply moves on from one rich man to another. She has a very happy and optimistic nature, like me. And I think that that\u2019s what appealed to Preminger and convinced him to give me the part.<\/p>\n

David Niven was absolutely wonderful with me, incredibly sweet to me. He knew that this legendary scene would be long and difficult to shoot. He rehearsed it with me. I asked him how he, such a great actor, could be so patient with a young novice like me. He replied: \u201cmy little darling, the better you are, the better I\u2019ll be.\u201d In his Memoirs he talks about how much Otto Preminger irritated him. His phlegmatic nature was incompatible with Preminger\u2019s character. But all that mattered was the result.<\/p>\n

Preminger, a tyrant?<\/p>\n

It all went very well. He only shouted at me once. In one scene I was supposed to be following a conversation with my eyes. Not so easy to do. Preminger wasn\u2019t satisfied. I said to him: \u201cMister Preminger, I think\u2026\u201d and he interrupted me, shouting: \u201cDon\u2019t think, act!\u201d<\/p>\n

I was distraught, and then I did what I had to do. He was right. He thought if an actor felt too comfortable, they wouldn\u2019t give of their best. He tended to stick the knife in to push you, and to create an atmosphere of distress and anxiety. That works with some actors, but with others it can completely paralyse them. Jean Seberg was in the latter category.<\/p>\n

In the famous scene at the end when she removes her make-up, looking at herself in the mirror \u2013 a magnificent shot, that she just couldn\u2019t get right for him. He wanted her face to remain impassive, but with tears rolling down her cheeks as if of their own volition. That is something that is very difficult to do. He never managed to get what he wanted and had to shoot the scene in a slightly different way. An entire day spent yelling. Jean Seberg was so tired and terrified she cried for real, tears were pouring down her cheeks, her face screwed up \u2026<\/p>\n

They tried using drops but that didn\u2019t work either in what was such a long shot. Jean Seberg couldn\u2019t find in herself that intense despair that Preminger was looking for. I\u2019m not sure I could have managed it either.<\/p>\n

When Preminger went to find that fresh and innocent young woman in the back of beyond in Iowa, and got her under contract, he thought that he\u2019d found the goose that would lay the golden egg. The failure of Saint Joan<\/em> was very hard to take, for both him and her. Preminger\u2019s pride was deeply wounded. And she was in despair at disappointing the man who had believed in her. Their relationship must have changed at that time. She had the feeling that he held it against her. Sometimes he was nice to her. But he was odious when he wasn\u2019t getting what he wanted. He was a hot-head, and had a virulent temper, he could be really scary.<\/p>\n

One day he did something really disgusting, deliberately shooting a bathing scene with Jean Seberg when she had her period. She fainted twice.<\/p>\n

The crew on the film was excellent. And every time we\u2019d emerge from a screening of the rushes, he would yell at absolutely everyone, telling them they were useless, incompetent – \u00a0the actors, the technicians, the great DoP Georges P\u00e9rinal, who was tearing his hair out because the Mediterranean sea was a different colour every day. Everyone would hang their heads, and everyone suffered. But it was a performance.<\/p>\n

Preminger was a calculating type. He told me: \u201cFor a film to be a success, people must feel stupid if they have to say they haven\u2019t seen it yet.\u201d That\u2019s why he always chose rather scandalous subjects.<\/p>\n

He chose to make an adaptation of Sagan because he loved France, the good restaurants, the lifestyle. Sagan\u2019s scandalous success appealed to him and so he wanted to make a movie of it.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s release<\/p>\n

I was lucky to get really amazing reviews in New York when the film was released in the USA. The film did not go down that well, but the critics said to go and see it for the wonderful French actress in it. I was in a trance when I arrived in America; I went to New York and Chicago. I hated arriving in New York because of the success of \u00a0Et Dieu cr\u00e9a la femme<\/em>, hence a French woman was automatically a whore, or who\u2019d take her clothes off at the drop of a hat. The only asked sleazy questions.<\/p>\n

In France, the film was attacked as a betrayal. Sagan\u2019s novel was considered extraordinary and the film a failure, and ridiculous because they\u2019d chosen two British actors to play French characters. When you see Bonjour tristesse<\/em> again today, you realise that the film is better than the book, it is harsher. I have great memories of this film in every respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interview with Olivier P\u00e8re on April 17, 2012 in Paris. Thanks to Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot and Emilie Imbert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lire en fran\u00e7ais This evening Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot will be with us on the Piazza Grande to introduce Bonjour tristesse, in\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,7],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nLocarno 2012 Day 10: Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot - Olivier P\u00e8re<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Locarno 2012 Day 10: Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot - Olivier P\u00e8re\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Lire en fran\u00e7ais This evening Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot will be with us on the Piazza Grande to introduce Bonjour tristesse, in\u2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Olivier P\u00e8re\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-08-10T06:01:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-04-12T09:47:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Olivier P\u00e8re\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"\u00c9crit par\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Olivier P\u00e8re\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/\",\"name\":\"Locarno 2012 Day 10: Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot - Olivier P\u00e8re\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-08-10T06:01:48+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-04-12T09:47:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/#\/schema\/person\/dc32cd6c79be95e52d43b97a74182558\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Locarno 2012 Day 10: Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/\",\"name\":\"Olivier P\u00e8re\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/#\/schema\/person\/dc32cd6c79be95e52d43b97a74182558\",\"name\":\"Olivier P\u00e8re\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bdea7b6a2c195e2c41772429a9694758?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bdea7b6a2c195e2c41772429a9694758?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Olivier P\u00e8re\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/author\/pereolivier\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Locarno 2012 Day 10: Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot - Olivier P\u00e8re","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/","og_locale":"fr_FR","og_type":"article","og_title":"Locarno 2012 Day 10: Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot - Olivier P\u00e8re","og_description":"Lire en fran\u00e7ais This evening Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot will be with us on the Piazza Grande to introduce Bonjour tristesse, in\u2026","og_url":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/","og_site_name":"Olivier P\u00e8re","article_published_time":"2012-08-10T06:01:48+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-04-12T09:47:43+00:00","author":"Olivier P\u00e8re","twitter_misc":{"\u00c9crit par":"Olivier P\u00e8re","Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/","name":"Locarno 2012 Day 10: Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot - Olivier P\u00e8re","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-08-10T06:01:48+00:00","dateModified":"2020-04-12T09:47:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/#\/schema\/person\/dc32cd6c79be95e52d43b97a74182558"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"fr-FR","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/2012\/08\/10\/locarno-2012-day-10-mylene-demongeot-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Locarno 2012 Day 10: Myl\u00e8ne Demongeot"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/","name":"Olivier P\u00e8re","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"fr-FR"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/#\/schema\/person\/dc32cd6c79be95e52d43b97a74182558","name":"Olivier P\u00e8re","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"fr-FR","@id":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bdea7b6a2c195e2c41772429a9694758?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bdea7b6a2c195e2c41772429a9694758?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Olivier P\u00e8re"},"url":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/author\/pereolivier\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6778"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6778"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6778\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25365,"href":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6778\/revisions\/25365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arte.tv\/sites\/olivierpere\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}