Details
ARLETTY (i.e. Léonie Marie Julie Bathiat, 1898-1992). Autograph letter signed to 'Mon cher Jacques' [Prévert], Hôtel Negresco, Nice, n.d. [1945], on light paper, 2 pages, 8vo; Sacha GUITRY, (1885-1957). Autograph letter signed to 'Monsieur Monet', Les Zouaques, n.d. [1913-15], 2 pages, 8vo.
A heartbroken note:
'Garance désolée partir
Merci pour Clara
Dominique
Mais
Je suis triste
Arletty'
The postscript -- 'Claudie je vous embrasse' -- is for Prévert's companion, Claudy Carter. Born into a working-class family, after an early career in music hall and the theatre Arletty made her film debut in the 1930s, starring as Clara in Marcel Carné's Le jour se lève (1940) and Dominique in Les Visiteurs du Soir. She was immortalised by her performance as the mysterious and seductive Garance in Carné's Les Enfants du Paradis, the iconic film made during the German Occupation and released in 1945. After the Liberation Arletty was arrested and imprisoned for her wartime affair with a German officer, conducted mostly in the Ritz Hotel. She was allowed out to complete the filming but then banned from acting until 1949. Jacques Prévert (1900-1977), in his youth a poet and member of the surrealist group, wrote a series of classic screenplays for Marcel Carné of which the most famous were Quai des Brumes, Le jour se lève and Les Enfants du Paradis.
Sacha Guitry writes somewhat effusively after a visit from Monet to thank him for his advice [on his house and garden]. 'On m'a jusqu'ici souvent donné des conseils -- c'était la première fois qu'on me donnait des exemples. Vous m'avez donné l'exemple d'une bonté inaltérable, d'une pureté artistique sans pareille et d'une modestie admirable'. Guitry had purchased a manoir near Giverny, with the proceeds of the play after which he re-named it. (2)
A heartbroken note:
'Garance désolée partir
Merci pour Clara
Dominique
Mais
Je suis triste
Arletty'
The postscript -- 'Claudie je vous embrasse' -- is for Prévert's companion, Claudy Carter. Born into a working-class family, after an early career in music hall and the theatre Arletty made her film debut in the 1930s, starring as Clara in Marcel Carné's Le jour se lève (1940) and Dominique in Les Visiteurs du Soir. She was immortalised by her performance as the mysterious and seductive Garance in Carné's Les Enfants du Paradis, the iconic film made during the German Occupation and released in 1945. After the Liberation Arletty was arrested and imprisoned for her wartime affair with a German officer, conducted mostly in the Ritz Hotel. She was allowed out to complete the filming but then banned from acting until 1949. Jacques Prévert (1900-1977), in his youth a poet and member of the surrealist group, wrote a series of classic screenplays for Marcel Carné of which the most famous were Quai des Brumes, Le jour se lève and Les Enfants du Paradis.
Sacha Guitry writes somewhat effusively after a visit from Monet to thank him for his advice [on his house and garden]. 'On m'a jusqu'ici souvent donné des conseils -- c'était la première fois qu'on me donnait des exemples. Vous m'avez donné l'exemple d'une bonté inaltérable, d'une pureté artistique sans pareille et d'une modestie admirable'. Guitry had purchased a manoir near Giverny, with the proceeds of the play after which he re-named it. (2)
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