French Cinema Gossip: The Sequel

Any gossip on Arnaud Valois, who played Nathan in 120 BPM a few years ago?

Thank you for not being the 2010 troll.

I like this idea, would like to see a Spanish, Italian, and German version of these threads as well. Big fan of world cinema.

I wish I had anything to contribute! Can't think of any recent gossip, but maybe something will come up.

Right now I am binge-watching the collected works of Louis Garrel. In the last day, I have seen him jerk off 3 times, in 2 different films.

Louis Garrel’s bush is an international sensation.

I'm convinced that all the Gay men I know who adore skinny Alain Delon have issues.

They think he's pretty and fantasize about him behaving like a slut like all those starving Romanian heterosexual farm boys behaving like sluts in all those Bel Ami movies.

If anyone is looking for gossip on some of the older French stars, then Roger Vadim's "Bardot, Deneuve and Fonda" is a good read. Vadim was a film director who was married first to Brigitte Bardot, and later had a relationship and a son with Catherine Deneuve (as well as a later marriage to Jane Fonda). In the 1980s he wrote a memoir about his relationships with them all, which Bardot and Deneuve were both very angry about (although he and Fonda were still on good terms at the time and he allowed her to read the manuscript before it was published). One of the things he says in the book is that Bardot began an affair with Jean-Louis Trintignant during the making of a film Vadim was directing, and Vadim and Bardot ended up splitting midway through the shoot as a result (although he admits the marriage was basically over before Bardot met Trintignant anyway). There's a lot of interesting stories and anecdotes in the book, I'll try and recap a few of them in due course.

What is Jean-Pierre Léaud up to these days? I remember reading about his loud parties upsetting his neighbors and tales of rent boys. What's the latest (I know he's getting up there)?

R9 He's only 76, but looks much older. I remember watching an interview of him where he complained about a dentist ruining his teeth... Seems to me he probably did that himself...

I think the juiciest bit of current French Cinema Gossip involves Marie-France Pisier, who died under mysterious circumstances years ago but who has been talked about a lot recently in the wake of the Olivier Duhamel scandal. Duhamel is the politologue who is accused of having sex with his stepson when the boy was 13 or 14. Marie-France Pisier (who was a big movie star but is probably best known to Americans for her role as Madame Tessier in French Postcards) was the sister of the boy's mother, Evelyne Pisier (also a well-known politologue). When Marie-France found out what Duhamel had done she denounced him to anyone and everyone.

Does anybody ever see Alain Delon out and about in Switzerland? I’m curious how his health is now since his stroke a couple of years ago.

R9 I didn’t know he was rumoured to be gay. I always liked him as Antoine, he grew up to be cute too. Stolen Kisses is my favourite of his.

Something I’ve never understood. What was this debacle?

Of course, one of the biggest scandals of French cinema was the 2003 death of actress Marie Trintignant, daughter of Jean-Louis Trintignant and Nadine Marquand, at the hands of her boyfriend, Bertrand Cantat, of the French rock group, Noir Désir. He had punched her multiple times in the head, leading to her death of cerebral edema. Cantat was convicted of her murder and served 4 years in prison.

4 years for murdering a woman! Unbelievable. What a POS.

We remember the beautiful Marie France-Pisier in The Other Side of Midnight, which I wish was available somewhere, with the 1970s handsome John Beck.

Pisier made a splash stateside with her serio-comic supporting performance in 1975’s Cousin Cousine, winning raves from critics and a few critics awards (plus a Cesar) But when the Oscar nominations were announced it was her co-star Marie Christine-Barrault who’d been nominated for Best Actress for a performance that no one had previously noted. It was very much thought that Academy voters had confused the two Maries and had meant to nominate France-Pisier. Oscar campaigns matter.

Wow r17 I never heard that bit of info before. Tragic if true. I rather liked her in The Other Side of Midnight, I think Sarandon has spoken about how both she and Marie felt exploited on that film, having to wear skimpy clothes or something.

Oh no, my bad. Sarandon was complaining about the gratuitous nudity in the love scenes.

r16, to make things worse, Cantat was on the cover of a French magazine in 2017, the poor guy. Btw, Trintignant was not the only woman he has abused, there were others like his wife.

But as usual, French society is very forgiving when it comes to violence again women.

And his wife, Krisztina Rády, eventually died by hanging, in 2010.

That old thread was is a classic. Why don't we start with a list of rumored gay/bi French celebrities? Cinema is in decline so let's not limit it to that. Some of the most popular celebrities in France today are reality show stars like Les Marseilles.

R5 wow that’s like Brad Pitt always eating in his films. I guess Garrel’s go-to actor move is jerking off. Which films btw? Asking for a friend...

The actor Richard Barry was recently accused of incest by his daughter Coline Barry. Coline's aunt, the comedienne Josiane Balasko (who was married to Richard Barry's brother Philippe), has publicly offered her support to Coline. Carla Bruni (the ex-President's wife) publicly denounced Balasko for taking sides before Richard Barry's guilt has been determined.

R24

It's Berry.

Born "Benguigui" (North African Jew)

r25, Merci pour cette correction! J'ai honte.

I think I was wrong in R9 about the rent boys - it looks like Leaud is married.

Because marriage makes one automatically heterosexual? R27

The Dreamers and Chansons d'Amour. There is considerable gay interest in both, but it has been edited out in online versions of The Dreamers.

Actually, I think the second jerk-off scene was in Ma Mère. The Dreamers is his only film of any real merit.

Ma Mere was a horrendous film. A bloody accident - though you couldn't stop looking at the carnage.

R24 What's up with the French and incest (meaning almost an approval)? Watched 3 Hearts last night (Deneuve, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Ciara Mastroianni). It reminded me of Lemon Incest...

R25 N'ayez pas honte. Ce n'est vraiment pas nécessaire.

R32 was meant for R26

WHET Gaspard Ulliel and anyone have any gossip on Raphaël personnaz he had such a sexy body in The New Girlfriend in the shower fantasy scene.

Raphael Personnaz is a very good actor. I have zero gossip about him. Gaspard Ulliel was in a few movies of late, there was Sybil among others...

Gaspard Ulliel is pretty active in films. He's probably France's best-looking actor since Alain Delon.

I once met someone who worked in tv/films. This source told me that Juliette Binoche is a major cunt to work with and treats crew like shit. screams and throw things around.

Gaspard and Louis Garrel in SAINT LAURENT.

For a straight guy who's never been known to have a gay r'ship, Louis Garrel sure plays a lot of gay roles.

r31, I'm not sure what it is about the French and incest (I am American), but I've noticed that current in French cinema as well. I haven't seen all that many French films since they usually bore me yet I can name several with incest themes -- Louis Malle's Souffle au coeur, Les Blessures assassines (about the murderous incestuous Papin sisters), and La Pianiste (where Isabelle Huppert tries to have sex with her mother in one disturbing scene).

As for the latest string of public accusations, a book that came out in January entitled La Familia Grande by Camille Kouchner has set off a sort of MeToo movement for incest survivors in France. Camille Kouchner is the twin sister of the guy who was sexually molested by the politologue Olivier Duhamel (mentioned upthread). In her book, Kouchner recounts life with Duhamel and her mother Evelyne Pisier, and how sexual liberation reigned over their summer home in Sanary where they hosted the intellectual elite. Adults walked around naked in front of the kids and kids were encouraged to simulate sex during games of charades. And of course she spills the beans about the incestuous acts commited against her brother by Duhamel. Their mother sounds like a real piece of work and comes out sounding even worse than Duhamel IMO. When Camille and her twin brother finally revealed the sexual abuse to their mom, her response was to accuse them of trying to steal her man and she minimized the abuse by saying it only involved fellations and not penetration. Then when their mother confided in her sister (the actress Marie-France Pisier) about the accusations, Marie-France was absolutely horrified and told her sister that she needed to leave Duhamel. Evelyne decided to stand by her man however and the once close Pisier sisters never spoke again after that. However Marie-France spent the rest of her life denouncing Duhamel to anyone who would listen. Marie-France was found dead in her swimming pool stuck under a metal chair in 2011, and although her death was ruled a suicide, some believe it wasn't.

Since the book came out, the incest accusations have snowballed, the most recent and notable against TV producer Gerard Louvin and actor Richard Berry. On a related note, the director of Sciences Po (where Duhamel was a bigwig) just resigned today for not acting on the information he had about the incest accusations even though he has been au courant for a couple of years.

I live part-time in France, and once when looking at a local magazine in Provence, I saw an advertisement a psychologist had placed. Amongst the services she offered - treating anxiety, depression, marriage - there was listed INCEST. That should tell you something about the culture.

Great summary, r40. Just read about it in the Guardian and this passage shocked me:

"Under French law, there is no legal age of sexual consent, though last month the Senate voted for the threshold to be set at 13. At present a victim of rape or abuse is considered consenting by default and has to prove non-consent. "

Wasn't there a scandal recently about a man having sex with a 11 year old girl? And he was found not guilty of rape?

Thanks for your post R40. I was very surprised, and saddened, over Marie-France Pisier's apparent suicide in 2011.

Yes R42, there was indeed such a case a few years ago.

Césars 2021 (12th March)

Best Actress: Laure Calamy

This is pretty well known but Francois Truffaut slept with almost all the actresses who played the female leads in films that he directed. Jeanne Moreau, Julie Christie, Francoise Dorleac, Claude Jade, Catherine Deneuve, Kika Markham, Jacqueline Bisset and Fanny Ardant to name just some. He was also interested in Isabelle Adjani but she turned him down. It wasn't casting couch situations as such: the relationships usually began in the middle of filming, they didn't have to sleep with him to get the role in the first place (and many of them were already established stars who didn't need to sleep with the director to succeed). He stayed on good terms with most of them and often worked again with ex-lovers in later films, even when the romantic relationship was now in the past (such as when he worked again with Deneuve in The Last Metro, 11 years or so after they had split up).

Truffaut had a daughter, Josephine, with Ardant a year before he died in 1984. She is now a clinical psychologist in Paris.

Thanks R47. I had wondered what happened to his family in their later lives. It was sad that he died so prematurely after finally getting settled in a relationship again and having another child. His relationship with Ardant was slightly different from his other on-set romances because they actually got together a year before they began working together, and it lasted well beyond the films they made; with other girlfriends he had tended to break up within several months of the end of the film shoot, whereas he and Ardant stayed together and were planning a future. According to a biography I read, he found out he had a brain tumour midway through Ardant's pregnancy. He had a number of operations and was able to see his daughter born, but the brain treatments couldn't solve the problem and it killed him the following year. It was very sad.

I found an old interview with Isabelle Adjani where she talks about the end of her relationship with Daniel Day Lewis. She denies the infamous rumour that he broke up with her by fax, but says a lot of other critical things, including implying that he did not attend the birth of their son because he was seeing Julia Roberts at the time. This was from 1996 when the breakup was still very raw. Having said that, I have heard that they get along much better these days. There were some photos of them a few years ago out in Paris with their son and looking to be on friendly terms.

Gaspard Ulliel was always too smouldering for me. Louis Garrel, on the other hand, was always the real deal.

As predicted two weeks in advance here on DL, Laure Calamy (Noémie in Dix pour cent) won Best Actress.

I've read quite a few interviews with Isabelle Adjani where she broaches the subject of her hypersensivity: she tells it just like we know she likely is but just short of telling that she's borderline. Also, she and I have the same plastic surgeon. I should know: the surgeon got all mixed up in his waiting rooms that one time and let me enter the room she was supposed to wait all by herself. D'oh! Hi Isabelle, sorry Isabelle, my mouth will be zipped for 10 years and then you're on your own. The plastic surgeon used to practice in the surbubs of Lyon but now mainly works in Switzerland. Also she and I have the same problem: we got fat transfered from our belly to our cheeks and when we put on weight, our face become too, um, plump. But it ain't fillers, sweeties!

Last but not least the original thread is still available: link below.

The director Jacques Demy (who made The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) was gay/bisexual but it has been largely kept off the public record (no mention of it on his Wiki page, for example). He was married to Agnes Varda but they split for a while in the 1980s when he became involved with David Bombyk, who was a story editor and later became a producer (including on the film Witness). They both became HIV positive and developed AIDS, and after Bombyk's death Demy returned to Varda who cared for him until his own death the following year. She found it very hard to accept, and it was only in the 2000s that she publically acknowledged his cause of death and that they had split for a while (although I don't think she ever discussed his sexuality directly). She did say that Demy himself did not want to talk about having AIDS either. The film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote an article about Demy in the 1990s in which he mentioned Demy being bi, but was supposedly asked to remove the information after the paper was contacted by the family (there are two different versions of the article online, one in which this is mentioned which seems to have been overlooked in the archives, and the other edited to remove it). I also read something by David Ehrenstein in which he said that Demy himself did not become completely aware of his sexuality until relatively late in life, but other people had speculated about it in the past. There is a 2010 article about his film Une chambre en ville on Senses of Cinema which says that there had been rumours about Demy's sexuality even before he met Varda, and that his marriage to her did not entirely quash those rumours, so it seems people had wondered about this for a long time.

Je suis d'accord que la cinema française etait le mieux avant que de maintenant. Je prefere Simone Signoret est Bridget Bardot, que les nouveaux actrices . Le acteur français je prefere = jean Sorel

R22 Well, then let's compile that list of rumored gay/bi French celebrities?

Seems like there are very few OPENLY gay celebrities in France, especially among the younger people, and there is little information available in English....

Wow, I can’t believe Binoche treats the crew badly.

Young French Cinema

R31 To be fair, La Pianiste is an adaptation of the Austrian novel by Elfriede Jelinek.

R58 But what is the reason why the French like to adapt incest-related material? In the puritanical US there would be no market for this stuff and there would be some public outrage….

This makes me think of Noemie Merlant, 33, making a movie about how she left her husband for a 16-year-old Gypsy boy. The comments from the posters, most from the US, are too funny.