Alain Delon’s death at the age of 88 brings down the curtain on one of postwar European cinema’s most important film stars.

Known for his striking “movie star” looks — chiselled features, piercing blue eyes — and magnetic screen presence, Delon portrayed characters who seemed on the surface to be effortless and suave.

He was often described as feline. But this outward gracefulness often masked a morally dubious, anti-hero persona. Beneath the sharp suits lay icy steel.

A breakthrough role

Born in 1935 in Sceaux, a wealthy Paris suburb, Delon had a difficult childhood, marked by his parents’ divorce, a disrupted schooling and an unhappy stint in the French Navy.

Alain Delon was an enigmatic anti-hero, and France’s most beautiful male movie star

After being spotted by a talent scout at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival, Delon’s breakthrough came in 1960, with the French film Purple Noon, directed by René Clément.

In this adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr Ripley, Delon played the role of Tom Ripley, a charming but morally ambiguous forger and identity thief.

Setting the standard for future screen versions of Ripley (played by the likes of Matt Damon and Andrew Scott), Delon’s performance was widely acclaimed and established him as a rising star.

Rarely had audiences seen such a cool, enigmatic and morally compromised character. Highsmith was particularly impressed.

A 1960s icon

What followed was a glittering range of roles.

He collaborated twice with the great Italian director Luchino Visconti on Rocco and His Brothers (1960) and The Leopard (1963). Both films were critical successes, further solidifying Delon’s reputation as a leading actor.

In The Leopard, Delon plays Tancredi Falconeri, a young and charming Sicilian nobleman. His chemistry with Claudia Cardinale is one of the film’s highlights.

He moved effortlessly between genres, from crime dramas and thrillers to romantic films and period pieces. In the psychological thriller La Piscine (The Swimming Pool, 1969), Delon starred alongside Romy Schneider.

A year later came Borsalino, a popular gangster film in which Delon starred alongside his great friend, Jean-Paul Belmondo.

While deeply rooted in French culture, Delon’s appeal transcended national borders. He became a global star, beloved not only in Europe but also in places like Japan, where he had a huge fan base.

The anti-hero archetype

But Delon’s most remarkable performance came in Le Samouraï (1967). Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville, Delon played Jef Costello, a stoic, methodical hitman, in a performance that became a benchmark for the “cool” anti-hero archetype in cinema.

It is widely regarded as a masterpiece of minimalist cinema and has had a significant influence on the crime and thriller genres.

Michael Fassbender in The Killer (2023), Forest Whitaker in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) and Ryan Gosling in Drive (2011) all owe a debt to Delon’s “angel of death” portrayal of the silent hitman. Delon wore a trench coat and fedora in the film: his costume has been endlessly analysed and much imitated.

Delon worked again with Melville in Le Cercle Rouge (The Red Circle, 1970) and Un Flic (A Cop, 1972), plus other great European auteurs, such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Louis Malle and Jean Luc-Godard, for whom he played twins in Nouvelle Vague (New Wave, 1990).

And don’t forget his role as Klein in Joseph Losey’s gripping Mr Klein (1976), a film set in wartime Paris, with Delon playing an art dealer who begins to realise there is another Klein who is Jewish and a Gestapo target. The police begin to investigate him, suspecting he might be the man they are looking for.

It was the clinching proof, wrote film critic David Thomson, that Alain Delon “matters” as an actor.

His final role, in 2008, was a memorable one: Julius Caesar in Asterix at the Olympic Games.

He received an honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019, recognising his contributions to cinema over several decades. After suffering a stroke in 2019, Delon withdrew from public life.

A complicated off-screen life

That withdrawal only fuelled press gossip over his complicated personal life.

Delon’s relationship with Austrian actress Romy Schneider had captivated the public’s imagination. The two met on the set of the film Christine in 1958 and became engaged. Their break-up in 1963 reportedly devastated Schneider.

He later had relationships with the French singer Dalida and Swedish star Ann-Margret, before settling down with French actress Mireille Darc. She was his companion and occasional co-star from 1968 to 1982.

His outspoken political views often scandalised France (he once said he supported France’s far-right party). More recently, his personal life was marked by controversies, including legal issues involving his four children. His son Anthony (also an actor) spoke publicly about the difficulties he faced growing up in his father’s shadow.

Another son, Alain-Fabien, also had a troubled relationship with his father, including a long estrangement. Delon’s final years were beset by squabbles and accusations among the family; at one point, his children accused Delon’s assistant of abuse and harassment.

What will endure is the “Delon style”, both on and off the screen. He influenced fashion, cultural attitudes and the concept of the “modern man” during the 1960s and 1970s.

Back in April, the New Yorker posed a rhetorical question about Delon: can a film star ever be too good-looking? Look at the towering achievement of Delon’s films and you’ll have your answer.

The writer is an Associate Professor of French Studies at the University of Adelaide in Australia

Republished from The Conversation

Published in Dawn, ICON, August 25th, 2024