Deaths . . . . . Anouk Aimée [27 April 1932 – 18 June 2024]

 speaking of muses . . . . . . . 

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portrait of Aimée by Irving Penn, 1965.

"Adieu to the magnificent Anouk Aimée (née Nicole Françoise Florence Dreyfus, 27 April 1932 – 18 June 2024), who has died aged 92. The most feline and inscrutable of mid-twentieth century French actresses, she’s a haunting, sensual, and Garbo-like presence in the glory days of European art cinema. Her death represents one less lifeline to that era: off the top of my head, it feels like of Aimée’s nouvelle vague French contemporaries, only Alain Delon, Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve are left? My favourite performances by Aimée: Les Amants de Montparnasse (1958), La Tête contre les murs (1959), La Dolce Vita (1960) – unforgettable as the elegant jaded thrill-seeking heiress in sensational sunglasses and little black cocktail dress! – Lola (1961), 8 ½ (1963), Model Shop (1968) and Justine (1969). But hell, I also love Aimée (dubbed by an American actress!) as the cruel lesbian queen in trashy sword-and-sandal biblical epic Sodom and Gomorrah (1962). It’s fascinating to contemplate that at the height of her international fame in the sixties, Hollywood considered Aimée for two high profile roles: the part played by Faye Dunaway in The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) – and The Baroness in The Sound of Music (1965)! Let’s give punk poetess Patti Smith the final word. In her 1972 poem “girl trouble”, Smith wrote “I need a chick. not a fresh easter chick. egg pop. not a new peach. but a girl with intricate balance. a girl who is grown up. but not cold enough to be called a woman. Anouk Aimée of the black dress and bruised eyes. not a bomb shell.” Later, in 1976, Smith raved to Circus magazine “Besides me wanting to be an artist, I wanted to be a movie star. I don't mean like an American movie star. I mean like Jeanne Moreau or Anouk Aimée in La Dolce Vita. I couldn't believe her in those dark glasses and that black dress and that sports car. I thought that was the heaviest thing I ever saw.”

American Primitives

Adieu Anouk Aimée (1932-2024) 💔 Photographed by the great William Klein, 1967.