France and Europe vibrated in Alain Delon, and all his viewers felt what it was like to be born to greatness, to live as a hero.
That the man was sitting there in the small cinema, silence and excited anticipation hovering around him, that the black-shirted Zorro would soon appear on the screen, who of course we knew who he was, despite his "disguise", but we were already waiting so long for him to give us a good beating with his whip and chase him away the bad ones.
Or when he wrestled with Belmondo for long minutes in Borsalino, and the producer and the director allegedly agreed in advance that one of them would hit and receive the same amount of punches as the other, so that the fan base of one of them would not revolt.
We saw him as a naive young man in Visconti's film, quite often as a ruthless cop, but for me he will forever remain "the samurai", the strange and lonely assassin. Because that's how we all secretly are, we can only count on ourselves, and not others, but ourselves, write the script of our lives, even if we are about to board the death train. I think it was the performance of his life, that's when he found his best acting character.
I also recall that among the few French stars, he perhaps declared the loudest that he did not like communists. Jean-Marie Le Pennel already secretly consulted about the future, when no one had any idea what was in store for this poor Europe. He never hid the fact that he loved his dogs more than any other person, and he liked to hide away from the world, at least he felt great when no one tried to tell him what to think or what not to think.
Alain Delon was admired by women, but also feared because he was a man who could not be controlled or influenced. He owed the difficulties of his life to his stubborn nature. Still, France and Europe vibrated in him, and all his viewers felt what it was like to be born to greatness, to live as a hero. In the age in which everything had to be explained, the flowers of corruption covered the field, and the hero-lover and soldier were called idiots by those who could neither love nor fight.
Alain Delon is no more. I know it's a cliché, but I'll write it down, I'll admit it: today we also died a little.
Featured image: French actor Alain Delon, who died on August 18, 2024, at the age of 88, arriving at the premiere of A Hidden Life at the 72nd Cannes International Film Festival on May 19, 2019.
MTI/EPA/Ian Langsdon
