Marina Vlady, actress of Russian origin and icon of French cinema, dies at 88

She lent her smile to the Mona Lisa. The beautiful and deceptively wise Marina Vlady has just passed away at the age of 88. The actress of Russian origin was an unforgettable Princess of Cleves by Jean Delannoy and lent her Slavic charm, her soft and distinguished voice to numerous heroines, often with ambiguous characters, for more than half a century. She died “at home, surrounded by her loved ones and her animals”, said her children in a press release, who praised “a long and beautiful, full life”.

Born Marina Catherine de Poliakoff-Baidarov on May 10, 1938 in Clichy-la-Garenne (Hauts-de-Seine), into a family of white Russian immigrants fleeing the Bolshevik revolution, she left behind a cinematographic and theatrical work of exceptional richness, marked by more than 60 films and an unforgettable stage presence.

Also read Marina Vlady: “Jean-Luc Godard directs the actors live”

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It all began, however, on the stages of the Paris Opera, where the young Marina, then aged 9, joined the dance school as a little rat. But it is towards cinema that his destiny will quickly change. In 1949, at just 11 years old, she made her first film, Orage d'été by Jean Gehret, alongside her sister Odile Versois, also an actress. Blonde, reserved, knowing how to play with her charm, she appeared for a few years in Italian productions of little importance, before her meeting with Robert Hossein changed the course of her life.

Robert Hossein, his first great love

In 1955, at the age of 17, Marina married the actor and director Robert Hossein, who truly revealed her to the general public. He directed her in several films where she played femme fatale or tormented characters: The Bastards Go to Hell (1955) based on the novel by Frédéric Dard, Pardonnez nos offenses (1956), Toi, le venin (1958) or La Nuit des spies (1959). From this union two sons were born, Pierre and Igor, who also became actors. The couple divorced in 1960, but this first marital experience left a lasting mark on the career of Marina Vlady, who acquired the status of a promising young premier.

The 1960s would be its golden age. She plays leading roles in notable films. In 1956, she played the Princess of Cleves in the adaptation of Madame de Lafayette's novel. This role allows him to show the full extent of his dramatic talent. She also appeared under the direction of Christian-Jaque in La Loi des hommes (1958).

But it is with Jean-Luc Godard that Marina Vlady reaches a more intellectual and experimental dimension. In Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1967), she plays a young woman torn between her life as a mother and her life as a prostitute, in a story that explores the contradictions of consumer society. This role earned him a Golden Globe nomination, then international recognition.

She also appeared in Le Lit marital (1963), by Marco Ferreri, where she shared the bill with Ugo Tognazzi, in a scathing comedy about marital mores. And of course, the general public discovered her in the role of the sulphurous agent OSS 117 in OSS 117 Unleashed (1963), alongside Kerwin Mathews, a spy film which enjoyed immense popular success.

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Falstaff or the meeting with Orson Welles

In 1966, Marina Vlady had one of the most memorable experiences of her career when she starred under the direction of Orson Welles in Falstaff (also known as Chimes at Midnight). She plays a courtesan alongside Welles himself, who plays the title role. This collaboration with one of the greatest filmmakers in history will remain an unforgettable memory for her and will testify to her ability to evolve in demanding and ambitious registers.

In 1972, the actress reunited with Jean Yanne, with whom she had already filmed Everyone is beautiful, everyone is nice, a satirical comedy on the world of show business and advertising. The film, carried by Yanne's scathing humor and Marina's charm, enjoyed great popular success and confirmed the complicity between the two actors. Able to move from lightness to more serious subjects, we found her in 1975 in front of the camera of Bertrand Tavernier, one of the greatest contemporary French directors. In Let the Party Begin, she plays the mistress of the regent Philippe Noiret, a deliciously libertine aristocrat, in a sumptuous historical film.

The theater, his first home

His private life is just as tumultuous. In 1969, Marina Vlady married for the third time the Russian singer, poet and actor Vladimir Vysotsky, an emblematic figure of the Soviet counterculture. The great love of his life. She settled in the USSR, where she lived until 1980, the date of the premature death of her husband at the age of 42. This passionate union left a deep mark on her. She will do everything to promote Vysotsky's popularity in France, organizing concerts and translating his songs. She devoted several books to him, including Vladimir or the Arrested Flight (1987), a moving testimony about their love and Russia.

If Marina Vlady is above all a figure of French cinema of the 1960s and 1970s, she has never stopped returning to the theater which she considers to be her first home. From 1967, she performed regularly on stage, notably in Chekhov's Three Sisters (1966), alongside her three sisters Hélène Vallier, Odile Versois and Olga Poliakoff. She gave 250 performances at the Hébertot theater, in a family show of rare intensity. Later, she played in La Source bleue (1994) and Le Cavalier Seul (2014), confirming her visceral attachment to theater.

Great stage intelligence

In the 1980s, she shared the life of Professor Léon Schwartzenberg, a cancer specialist, until his death in 2003. Over the decades, the actress continued to film, appearing in films as diverse as Tangos, the Exile of Gardel (1985) by Fernando Solanas, The Exploits of a Young Don Juan (1987) or Victory, or the Pain of Women (2000) by Nadine Trintignant. Marina Vlady leaves behind the image of a free woman, an artist committed to the left, and a culture broker between France and Russia.

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Her Mona Lisa beauty, her stage intelligence, and her ability to embody complex and contradictory characters have captured the imagination of several generations of spectators. Not to mention that his life was also marked by activism. “Marina Vlady was a generous woman who was committed all her life, since the Algerian war, the + Manifesto of the 343 + then undocumented immigrants and the Right to housing with her last companion Léon Schwartzenberg”, with whom she created the DAL, the association for the right to housing, her sons wrote in a message to AFP. She will be remembered as one of the most beautiful Slavic stars of French cinema of the 1960s, a devoted wife and a demanding artist.