仏の「国宝」俳優ベルモンドさん死去　８８歳

【パリＡＦＰ＝時事】戦後のフランス映画界を代表するスター俳優の一人だったジャン＝ポール・ベルモンドさんが死去した。８８歳。家族が６日、発表した。（写真は仏俳優ジャン＝ポール・ベルモンドさん）
　ベルモンドさんは、仏映画運動「ヌーベルバーグ」の担い手として、ジャン＝リュック・ゴダール監督の『勝手にしやがれ』などで最初に名をはせた。映画８０作品に出演し、コメディーからスリラーまで多岐にわたるジャンルをこなして、誰もが知る俳優となった。
　ベルモンドさんの家族は代理人弁護士ミシェル・ゴデスト氏を通してＡＦＰに出したコメントで、「彼はしばらく前から非常に疲れていた。安らかに息を引き取った」と説明した。
　ベルモンドさんは１９３３年４月９日、パリ郊外の高級住宅地ヌイイシュルセーヌに生まれ、芸術家の家庭で育った。父親は有名な彫刻家だった。
　学校の成績は悪かったが、ボクシングは得意だったベルモンドさんは、舞台俳優として演技のキャリアを開始。半世紀にわたり出演した映画の数々は、劇場で総計１億３０００万枚ものチケットを売り上げた。
　ベルモンドさんは１９７０年代に出演したスパイコメディー映画『おかしなおかしな大冒険』の原題にちなみ、「ル・マニフィック（偉大な人）」とも呼ばれていた。エマニュエル・マクロン仏大統領は訃報を受け、「彼は今後もずっとル・マニフィックであり続ける」とツイッターに投稿。ベルモンドさんを「国宝」と呼び、「私たちは皆、彼の姿に自分を重ねた」と述べた。
　同じくフランスを代表する俳優で、ベルモンドさんの友人でありライバルだったアラン・ドロンさんは、訃報に「完全に打ちのめされた」と述べている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/09/07-10:13）

Actor Jean-Paul Belmondo, one of postwar French cinema's biggest stars whose charismatic smile lit up the screen for half a century, has died aged 88 at his Paris home, his family announced Monday.
Belmondo, who first came to fame as part of the French New Wave cinema movement with films like Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard, went on to become a household name, acting in 80 films covering a multitude of genres, including comedies and thrillers.
He had been very tired for some time. He died peacefully, the family said in a statement sent to AFP by Belmondo's lawyer, Michel Godest.
Belmondo, who was born on April 9, 1933 in the wealthy Paris suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine, grew up in a family of artists. His father was a well-known sculptor.
Belmondo, who was bad at school but good at boxing, started his acting career in theatre before embarking on a film career that was to span half a century, with 130 million cinema tickets to his films sold.
Known in France as Bebel, Belmondo was also often called Le Magnifique (The Magnificent), after a 1970s secret agent satire in which he starred.
He will always be The Magnificent, President Emmanuel Macron tweeted. Calling Belmondo a national treasure, Macron added: We all recognised ourselves in him.
- 'Solar, talented... and so French' -
Former president Francois Hollande said that everybody would have loved to be friends with him, while ex-premier Manuel Valls called Belmondo magnificent, solar, talented ... and so French.
Fellow iconic French actor Alain Delon -- both a friend and a rival of Belmondo -- said he was completely crushed by the news of Belmondo's death.
French director Bertrand Blier said it was so easy to film with Belmondo. It's always easy with great actors.
French actor Richard Berry said of Belmondo that he was everybody's friend and Michel Boujenah, also a French actor, called him our very own Eiffel Tower.
Spanish actor Antonio Banderas said that this is a sad day for culture. A great actor and an icon of French and European cinema has left us.
Many others, including politicians, the French Foreign Legion and film fans the world over also paid homage to Belmondo on social media.
It's impossible not to feel that this is the end of an era, tweeted Uruguay's national film library. The world is mourning a monument of film, wrote a fan in Italy, Peter Patti, also on Twitter.
Apart from Godard, Belmondo also worked with famous French directors Francois Truffaut, Alain Resnais, Louis Malle and Jean-Pierre Melville.
He later turned to film production, and returned to his first love, theatre.
Belmondo's acting career was cut short in 2001 when a stroke he suffered while on set left him handicapped.
He won France's highest film prize, the Cesar, in 1988 for his role in Itinerary of a Spoiled Child -- which he didn't accept -- and an honorary Cesar in 2017.
Many of his films became international hits, and Time magazine in 1964 even declared Belmondo the face of modern France.
He won several lifetime achievement awards, in 2010 from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, in 2011 at the Cannes film festival, and in 2016 at the Venice festival.
His generosity, both as a man and as an actor, created some of film history's greatest moments, Cannes festival director Thierry Fremaux tweeted on Monday. Thank you, Jean-Paul.
burs-jh/spm