"A certain French relaxation", headlines
The Hollywood Reporter
, one of the benchmark publications in the Hollywood industry.
For several decades, Jean-Paul Belmondo embodied French class.
This Monday, the announcement of his death, at the age of 88, made the headlines of dailies around the world.
Proof that the talent of our national Bébel has moved far beyond our borders.
All salute a prolific career, rich in more than 80 films.
But especially remember his beginnings as an icon of the New Wave, who became a star thanks to “Breathless”, cult film by Jean-Luc Godard.
The Spanish daily
El País
celebrates "the icon of modernity who brought with him the New Wave, shot with great filmmakers like Godard, Truffaut and Chabrol", not forgetting "this naughty image" which stuck to his skin and which made its success.
Icono de la modernidad that trajo consigo la Nouvelle Vague, Belmondo rodó con los grandes de su tiempo, como su descubridor Jean-Luc Godard, pero también François Truffaut, Alain Resnais, Claude Chabrol and Jean-Pierre Melville.
Tenía 88 años https://t.co/l6dg2amE7S
- El País Cultura (@elpais_cultura) September 6, 2021
On the other side of the Channel, we also remember this interpreter with a unique presence.
The Guardian
headlines on "this actor with the face of a boxer" who knew how to "make crime sexy".
“Belmondo's face was superbly beautiful, coarse, earthy, sexy and real.
His nose was broken by his career as an amateur boxer and his lips were full and poorly molded, ”describe the English journalists.
A face, a style and a personality which “captured the imagination of French youth in the 1960s,” adds
the BBC
.
"Nobody gave so much sex appeal to crime", add the German journalists of the daily
Bild,
without forgetting to recall that Belmondo was also a "legend of the theater".
A “black sheep” who became “the most innovative actor of his generation”
Americans, in the columns of the New York Times
remember his deep acting, his ability to embody "difficult and alienated characters", like the stars of the time "Marlon Brando and James Dean".
As for the Italians, they say goodbye to the "magnificent seducer".
In the daily newspaper of Turin La Stampa, we pay homage to the one who has "lived at least seven lives", a performer and a "happy and facetious" man as "agile as a cat in life and on the sets".
Belmondo, il fascino incorreggibile di un uomo felice https://t.co/WQUYNNbEi7
- La Stampa (@LaStampa) September 6, 2021
But it is still in the French-speaking press that the tributes are the most numerous.
The Swiss daily
Le Temps
portrays an artist "cheeky and leaping", a "tender thug who will remain in the pantheon of the most sympathetic actors".
While
La Libre Belgique
salutes the itinerary of a “black sheep” actor who “became the most innovative actor of his generation”.
The Brussels daily remembers, not without mischief, that the deceased actor embraced "the most beautiful actresses, from Catherine Deneuve to Sophia Loren via Claudia Cardinale and Françoise Dorléac".
Jean-Paul Belmondo: the black sheep has become the most innovative actor of his generation (Update) https://t.co/7YP81cIlDU pic.twitter.com/rnJIUlWPyR
- La Libre (@lalibrebe) September 6, 2021
The newspaper
Le Soir
tells us about the last arrival of the actor in Belgium. A moving appearance at the Theater 140 while his friend Guy Bedos performs there. “For several months, a party had been secretly prepared around Bedos. We were trying to concoct various surprises for him. The craziest, the most moving, the most joyful, it was undoubtedly the one embodied by an 83-year-old boy… His friend Jean-Paul Belmondo ”, the Belgian daily reports fondly.