“Romy and Delon”, how these names flutter in our minds and create images, fantasies! The first name of one like a familiar friend, someone close, and the last name of the other, the distance imposed by the character.
We first think of the couple as young aspiring actors, perfect fiancés. The little Sissi, happy and innocent, and the dark angel Delon… Then, the sensuality of La Piscine is brought to mind as well as the screen-shattering animality of the two actors now adult in a more equitable relationship.
To me, Romy is a bit like our own Marilyn : an exceptional life, a magnificent career, a tragic end, and always this melancholy look in her eyes that pierces hearts and moves us deeply.
As for Delon, all has been said: a unique career, an angelic beauty, privilege and burden, and a sturdy character.
When he met Romy on a film shoot in 1958, she was the star, and he was an aspiring young actor. Though their first meeting was not the most romantic, they rapidly got to know each other better. Their romance quickly made them one of the most well-known couples of the 1950s, to the despair of Romy’s mother, who did not appreciate her daughter’s emancipation.
Their love affair continued until 1963. While Romy was filming in Hollywood, Delon met Nathalie, who would become his wife, and left Romy.
Five years later, he imposed her in the film of Jacques Deray’s La Piscine.
From lovers, they became friends. Their respective beauty exploded in this wildly sensual film, which would rapidly become mythic. It seems to me to be the perfect image of this sublime couple that stays in our memory .
Almost fifty years later, they are still making us dream. For a a long time I have had a desire to give an homage to the beauty of this couple, to their intensity, their grace… “Romy and Delon” have never ceased to move and inspire us.
Julia Gragnon
Julia Gragnon is the director of Galerie de l’Instant in Paris.
Romy Schneider & Alain Delon, Les amants magnifiques (The Magnificent Lovers)
From March 22 through June 7, 2017
Galerie de l’Instant
46 Rue de Poitou
75003 Paris
France
