Serge Reggiani (born Sergio Reggiani; 2 May 1922 – 23 July 2004) was an Italian-French actor and singer. He was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy, and moved to France with his parents at the age of eight.
After studying acting at the Conservatoire des arts cinématographiques, he was discovered by Jean Cocteau and appeared in the wartime production of Les Parents terribles. He then left Paris to join the French Resistance.
In 1965, at the age of 43, he began a second career as a singer, with the help of Simone Signoret and her husband Yves Montand, and later with the assistance of the French singer Barbara. Reggiani became one of the more acclaimed performers of French chanson, and although he was in his 40s, his rugged image made him popular with both younger and older listeners. His best-known songs include Les loups sont entrés dans Paris ("The Wolves Have Entered Paris") and Sarah (La femme qui est dans mon lit) ("The Woman Who Is in My Bed"), the latter written by Georges Moustaki. He regularly sang songs by Boris Vian (Le Déserteur, Arthur où t'as mis le corps, La Java des bombes atomiques). His young fans identified with his left-wing ideals and anti-militarism, most notably during the student revolts in France in 1968. With age, he became acclaimed as being one of the better interpreters of the chanson and for bringing the poems of Rimbaud, Apollinaire, and Prévert to new audiences.
From 1980, when his son died, Reggiani struggled with alcoholism and depression. In 1995, however, he made a comeback to singing, giving a few concerts despite his deteriorated health and personal distress, the last one being held as late as the spring of 2004.
In later life, he became a painter and gave a number of exhibitions of his works.
Serge Reggiani died in Paris of a heart attack at the age of 82. He is buried in Montparnasse Cemetery.
François Villon is the best known French poet of the Late Middle Ages. He was involved in criminal behavior and had multiple encounters with law enforcement authorities. Villon wrote about some of these experiences in his poems.
Juliette Gréco was a French singer and actress. Her best known songs are "Paris Canaille", "La Javanaise" and "Déshabillez-moi" (1967). She often sang tracks with lyrics written by French poets such as Jacques Prévert and Boris Vian, as well as singers like Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour. Her 60-year career concluded with her final worldwide tour titled "Merci", which began in 2015.
Casque d'Or is a 1952 French historical-drama film directed by Jacques Becker. It is a Belle Époque tragedy, the story of an ill-fated love affair between characters played by Simone Signoret and Serge Reggiani. The story was loosely based on an infamous love triangle between the prostitute Amélie Élie and the Apache gang leaders Manda and Leca, which was the subject of much sensational newspaper reporting during 1902.
Le Doulos is a 1962 French crime film written and directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, adapted from the novel of the same name by Pierre Lesou. It was released theatrically as The Finger Man in the English-speaking world, but all video and DVD releases have used the French title. Intertitles at the beginning of the film explain that the French title refers both to a kind of hat and to the slang term for a police informant.
Joseph Rouletabille is a fictional character created by Gaston Leroux, a French writer and journalist. Rouletabille is an amateur sleuth featured in several novels and other works, often presented as a more capable thinker than the police.
Maurice Ronet was a French film actor, director, and writer.
François Périer was a French actor renowned for his expressiveness and diversity of roles.
La terrazza is a 1980 Italian drama film directed by Ettore Scola. The all-star cast features the best of Italian Cinema of its era: Marcello Mastroianni, Ugo Tognazzi, Vittorio Gassman, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Serge Reggiani, Stefano Satta Flores, Stefania Sandrelli, Carla Gravina, Ombretta Colli, Milena Vukotic.
Jean Desailly was a French actor. He was a member of the Comédie-Française from 1942 to 1946, and later participated in about 90 movies.
Raymond Bussières was a French film actor. He appeared in more than 160 films from 1933 to 1982. He was born in Ivry-la-Bataille and died in Paris. He is buried in Marchenoir. He was married to the actress Annette Poivre.
Gaston Modot was a French actor. For more than 50 years he performed for the cinema working with a number of great French directors.
René Lefèvre was a French actor and writer. Throughout his career, he worked with several notable directors, like Jean Renoir, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jules Dassin, and René Clair.
The Ballade des pendus, literally "ballad of the hanged", also known as Epitaphe Villon or Frères humains, is the best-known poem by François Villon. It is commonly acknowledged, although not clearly established, that Villon wrote it in prison while he awaited his execution. It was published posthumously in 1489 by Antoine Vérard.
Georges Van Parys was a French composer of film music and operettas. Among his musical influences were the group Les Six, Maurice Ravel, and Claude Debussy. Later in his career he served as vice-president of the Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique. He is buried in the cemetery at Villiers-sur-Marne.
Pierre Vaneck was a French actor. During his career, he won a Molière Award in 1988 and received a César Award nomination in 2009.
The Perfume of the Lady in Black is a 1949 French mystery film directed by Louis Daquin and starring Hélène Perdrière, Serge Reggiani and Marcel Herrand. It is an adaptation of the 1908 novel The Perfume of the Lady in Black by Gaston Leroux featuring the detective Joseph Rouletabille. It is a sequel to The Mystery of the Yellow Room, released the same year.
Robert Dalban was a French actor. His work included stage acting, roles in TV shows and dubbing American stars. Moreover, he was a fixture in French cinema for many decades.
François Villon is a 1945 French historical drama film directed by André Zwoboda and starring Serge Reggiani, Jean-Roger Caussimon and Henri Crémieux. It portrays the life of the fifteenth century writer François Villon. The film was inspired by the play If I Were King by Justin Huntly McCarthy.
Albert Vidalie was a French writer, screenwriter, and songwriter.
Old Boys of Saint-Loup is a 1950 French crime film directed by Georges Lampin and starring François Périer, Bernard Blier and Serge Reggiani. After attending a fundraising reunion at their old boarding school in the countryside, the murder of a young woman leads to an investigation.
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