R.I.P. Jean-Paul Belmondo

[Reza]

He truly had a great career. I don't think there was any actor who worked with so many top European directors, often more than once - Marc Allégret, Marcel Carné, Claude Chabrol, Godard, Claude Sautet, Peter Brook, Alberto Lattuada, De Sica, Mauro Bolognini, Jean-Pierre Melville, Philippe de Broca, Henri Verneuil, Marcel Ophüls, Édouard Molinaro, Jacques Deray, René Clément, Louis Malle, Gérard Oury, François Truffaut, Claude Lelouch, Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Alain Resnais.

"Stavisky" seems to be the cut-off point in his career. Before that he worked with all the important directors, often in highly acclaimed projects, and with major male or female costars.
Post "Stavisky" - for the next 20 years or so - he became a huge boxoffice star in a series of often irreverent but delightful cop-crook thrillers, many of which had a whiff of James Bond.

[Mister Tee]

I'm surprised to see that the last-released film his I've seen is Stavisky, which came out in 1974 -- though he kept working for three decades longer.

On the other hand, it's only in the past two years or so that I've seen Classe Tous Risques and Leon Morin, Priest, two of his finest efforts from the early 60s.

I can't say I loved That Man from Rio, which struck me as weak-sauce spy parody, and Pierrot le Fou is pretty much everything I don't like about Godard. Breathless, on the other hand, is everything I DO like about Godard, and for that alone he's in the film history books. Along with much more. A giant.

[Sabin]

I had no idea he was still alive.

[Reza]

Interesting comment in the obit.:

Three weeks ago he was photographed smiling at a party to mark his 88th birthday with a number of his children and grandchildren, including his youngest daughter, Stella, who is 17.

Courtesy of his third wife. Stella was born in 2003 when Belmondo was 70.

With Belmondo's passing only Alain Delon now remains of the old guard of male stars of French cinema.

[Big Magilla]

Interesting comment in the obit.:

Three weeks ago he was photographed smiling at a party to mark his 88th birthday with a number of his children and grandchildren, including his youngest daughter, Stella, who is 17.

[anonymous1980]

Story.

Another major loss. R.I.P.