Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in Backfire (Échappement libre), directed by Jean Becker (1964).
Jean-Paul Belmondo, the French actor who shot to international fame in Jean-Luc Godard’s revolutionary New Wave classic Breathless with Jean Seberg has died aged 88.
Belmondo became one of the country’s biggest box-office stars in the 60s and 70s with films including Two Women , starring Sophia Loren, and That Man From Rio. His rugged yet boyish looks combined with the series of films he made with Godard--which included A Woman Is a Woman and Pierrot le Fou--made an indelible mark.
Born in 1933, Belmondo embarked on a brief amateur boxing career as a teenager. After contracting tuberculosis, he became interested in performing, and applied to and attended the elite National Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1952.
After graduation, Belmondo began acting in the theatre and in small film roles. One of them, Marc Allegret’s 1958 comedy Un Drôle de Dimanche, brought Belmondo to the attention of Godard who was then still a critic at Cahiers du Cinéma. Godard cast him in his 12-minute short, Charlotte and Her Boyfriend.
Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in Jean-Luc Godard's French New Wave classic "Breathless" (Photo by Raymond Cauchetier).
Before Godard could get a full-length feature off the ground, his fellow critic Claude Chabrol cast Belmondo in his 1959 thriller A Double Tour playing the murder victim’s boyfriend. But it was Godard’s film, shot in the late summer of 1959, that secured Belmondo’s (as well as Seberg’s and Godard’s) ascension into the small circle of members of the French New Wave.
Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg reteamed in the comedy caper film Echappementlibre (Backfire) four years after Breathless to the enjoyment of many. Although they were friendly to each other and grateful for the success of Breathless, Belmondo and Seberg were never close friends. However, when Seberg passed away in 1979, Belmondo attended her graveside service at Montparnasse Cemetery as a tribute to his former co-star.
Garry McGee is the co-producer-director-writer of Jean Seberg: Actress, Activist, Icon (now in the distribution phase). He is the Emmy® nominated filmmaker behind the documentary The Last Wright (co-produced with Lucille Carra) and the author of Jean Seberg--Breathless, Neutralized: the FBI vs. Jean Seberg (with Jean Russell Larson) and The Films of Jean Seberg (with Michael Coates-Smith).
The award-winning documentary Jean Seberg: Actress, Activist, Icon tells the true story of Hollywood and heartbreak, beginning when an unknown 17-year-old Iowa girl who beat out 18,000 actresses to play Saint Joan in Otto Preminger's 1957 film. The documentary goes behind the scenes of her rocky life in the international film spotlight, her civil rights activism that drew FBI attention, and her mysterious death in Paris in 1979 - deemed a "probable suicide." Produced by Emmy-nominated and award-winning filmmakers Garry McGee (McMarr Ltd.), and Kelly Rundle and Tammy Rundle (Fourth Wall Films).
Visit JeanSebergMovie for updates on the documentary, glimpses behind-the-scenes, all things Jean Seberg, and upcoming news on the film's release.
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