In the iridescent light that bathes Cannes Bay at the start of the evening, it appears, haloed by her blonde hair. Obviously delighted to find us, at her request, on the beach of Martinez, on this pontoon linked for her at a very time her childhood: “It is one of my best memories of canes, because it is here that I made my first breaststrokes, rembobine-t-elle. I was eighteen months old the first time I came here with my parents, to my uncle and my aunt at Villa Mélite [une résidence située dans le quartier de la Basse Californie à Cannes, Ndlr]. Being from Tourcoing, I immediately felt overwhelming heat here, I was literally sufficient. So as soon as I was taken to the beach and put my feet in the water, it was a release. And very quickly, I wanted to learn to swim, from the age of three, because I was already with a fiercely independent character! “
The youngest swimmer in France, in Martinez
And bring up a host of sensations and images: “I still remember my discovery of the sand, lukewarm water in which I crossed out. I took lessons here, on the Pontoon du Martinez, at the same time as my mother who did not know how to swim either, with a certain Mister Shoebel, a very great swimming teacher. Thanks to him, after a month, I spent a competition, and I became the youngest swimmer in France!
Casting “Prohibited games “at the Rhul hotel in Nice
It is also during one of his stays in Cannes that this decidedly early child would become the unforgettable paulette of Prohibited games (1952), René Clément’s masterpiece, thanks to an announcement published in Nice-Matin: “My aunt saw this announcement indicating that this director was looking for a little girl. She immediately said to my mother: if René Clément sees her, he will take her. What my mother replied: Mauricette, I bet you a hundred francs that no!” The rest, as we know, will prove the aunt of Brigitte Fossey. With a career of more than seven decades, it now even has the longest in French cinema. However, when the 5 -year -old girl comes at the Rhul hotel in Nice, where the casting is organized in the casino room, the bet is far from being won: “René Clément was looking for a little girl between 9 and 11 years old. I was therefore really too small. But he was very surprised to discover that I already knew how to read and write, since I had learned at the age of three and a half, and to tell a story very correctly, crying even if I was asked!”
First cultural emotions in Cannes
A baby-star was born. Who did not hesitate, during his Cannes stays, to go alone to the cinema, dressed in a raffia skirt, to see films like High society or Let’s sing in the rain And the stars of the time: Grace Kelly, Leslie Caron, Gene Kelly. On the reading side, the one who will subsequently do Khâgne and Hypokhâgne was not to be outdone. His first literary emotion: The hare and the turtletold in prose (in a collection for children) and not in verse as in the fables of La Fontaine. “I was all the more delighted since I had two turtles in the gardens of the Villa Mélite: Nénette and Rintintin.” She devours the books of the Countess de Ségur, or adventure stories.
Reading in music
“I loved it, I was traveling! And when I read my public, I try to find this passionate side, to create a suspense with music. There, on the occasion of the reading that I will make Sentimental educationfrom Flaubert, to the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, where I reappear, there will be the (recorded) start of Chromatic fantasy of Bach by pianist Jean-Frédéric Neberger, and the start of The great Polish of Chopin. That of Rachmaninoff’s prelude No. 8, also interpreted by my virtuoso fanny Azzuro friend. Then a 25 -minute intermission during which the public will be able to admire the collections of the villa, before attending a fabulous ballet on the theme of love. ” The choreographer Gaël Rougegrez will offer an intense closed do. Between musical reading and contemporary dance, a great range of emotions …
Brigitte Fossey – Flaubert & Gr Infini -Amour H Tuesday August 19 at 8 p.m. Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Prices: 35 euros (20 euros for 7-17 year olds) / 60 euros with picnic basket. Rens. 04.93.01.33.09. www.villa-ephrussi.com
“I would have liked to be a writer”
A great reader before the Lord, Brigitte Fossey, gave us her favorites. While confiding in us: “What fascinates me in literature is this transcendence of the verb and language. It’s the same with poems, and I have to make a record next year with a poet. Above all, I would have liked to be a writer. My parents pushed me to do a school of interpreters in Geneva. And finally I interpreted very romantic characters. From there, I knew that I will not be able to write anymore, because I was going to put my whole flame in these interpretations. »» 1. The sentimental education of Flaubert and Moby Dick:
“It is one of my favorite novels. Pure genius, that the story of this boy who, coming from his province, falls in love madly on the boat of a Parisian, in the same way that Flaubert was madly in love with a young woman whom he had seen bathe on the beach of Trouville, when he was only 14 years old! The negative, what the positive of forgiveness is. “ 2. The Grand Meaulnes d’Alain-Fournier:
“By preparing the role of Yvonne de Galais, I discovered that this book had been inspired by a true story. Alain-Fournier had fallen in love with a young girl at the exit of the church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. He followed him to the bus, jumped on the platform and said to him:” You are beautiful, I would like to see you again. ” And the attractive unknown, who was called Yvonne, always replied “what good?” Because she was engaged. When Alain Fournier saw her 8 years later, she was married. 3). My spiritual abécédaire: “When a friend of the looking for a publisher asked me to make a book on my life, I didn’t want to! I wanted to talk about the authors who helped me live, like Maria Rilke, Nietzsche, Pascal, Beethoven, Sainte-Thérèse de Lisieux, the four Gospels. And I must read as a jury of” Nohee ” Bonnefoy) Madeleine before dawn (Sandrine Colette) and my grandmother and the country of poetry (Minh Tran Huy).
