The French name “Garance” (a name that conjures a sophisticated yet gentle mysteriousness) popped into my mind this morning (honestly I have no idea where it came from) — and so I toyed briefly with the idea of searching for and writing about famous women named Garance. But then the brainwaves, swifter than the speed of light, flashed to the most famous of all Garances, namely the one played by the actress Arletty in the film Les Enfant du Paradis, by Marcel Carne, and all else paled.
So what began as an exercise in finding real people (actually I did try), ended up in a shameless adulation of the character Garance, exquisite, worldly, a woman who above all cherishes her freedom, played by the actress Arletty.
The film of course, speaks for itself. If you haven’t seen it, you’re missing one of life’s greatest pleasures. It was shot in 1945 in France during the German occupation—cleverly, apparently right under the Germans’ noses, and tells the story of the beautiful courtesan, Garance, and the four men who love her and desire to possess her. My favorite of her lovers should be Baptiste the mime, played with winsome grace by the famous Jean-Louis Barrault, and the one that in spite of herself, Garance falls irrevocably in love with—
But I couldn’t help lusting after Lacenaire, the thief with his fearlessness and smoldering air of tragic sarcasm—
The setting for the film was the theatrical world of Paris during the 1840’s . . . I could go on, but it’s Garance who’s our star at present, and you can find great synopses all over the internet and more info on Wikipedia—
As a final note on Arletty herself: she was born to a working class family in Courbevoie, outside Paris and went on to appear in music hall plays and cabaret, finally getting her career going in 1936. She appeared in Les Enfants in 1945, but soon thereafter was imprisoned for sleeping with a German officer (supposedly Coco Chanel did the same thing but got away with it). On this affair, Arletty commented, “My heart is French but my ass is international.” In any event, she eventually went back to the stage with some success. She died in 1992.
Edited: September 9th, 2009
