Jean-Paul Belmondo: cineast icon, clown and action hero

Jean-Paul Belmondo
Cineast icon, clown and action hero

Jean-Paul Belmondo at a young age

© imago images / KHARBINE-TAPABOR

From anti-hero of the Nouvelle Vague to clown and action star: A look back at the career of the great Jean-Paul Belmondo.

As a nihilistic would-be Bogart Michel who looked bored even when dying, Jean-Paul Belmondo (1933-2021) became a symbol of the Nouvelle Vague in “Out of Breath” in 1960 – the wave of renewal in French cinema. With the director of “Out of Breath”, Jean-Luc Godard (90), the Frenchman from Neuilly-sur-Seine shot another cult film of the movement with “Elf Uhr nachts” in 1965.

In the 70s and 80s Belmondo was then mainly seen in routine action comedies, which in Germany had titles such as “Ein irrer Typ” (1977), “Der Profi” (1981) or “Der Boss” (1985) and in the German dubbing were brushed even more strongly on slapstick. Only very few actors manage to mature into icons in such different genres. Jean-Paul Belmondo did it – an obituary.

Nobody trusted Jean-Paul Belmondo’s career

As the son of the famous sculptor Paul Belmondo and the dancer Madeleine Belmondo, Jean-Paul Belmondo was drawn into acting at an early age. However, after an audition, an actor from the venerable Comédie-Française, one of the six French national theaters, attested him lacking talent. The young artist did not give up, however, and successfully applied to the Paris Conservatory.

Belmondo was initially not expected to have a film career either. It did not correspond to the current ideal of beauty that dominated at the end of the 1950s. But as the antihero in “Out of Breath” he achieved what is now called cult status – and with his performance paved the way for actors whose faces have more character than regularity.

Action star and stunt man

Just a few years after the success of “Out of Breath”, Belmondo actually became a global movie star. In 1962 he embodied the charming adventurer in “Cartouche, the Bandit”, as well as in 1964 in “Adventure in Rio”. It is a role profile that Belmondo successfully fit into in the years that followed, even though he continued to make “art films” at the same time. These include “The Monkey in Winter” (1962) and three works with Jean-Pierre Melville (1917-1973) – the director who mediated between Nouvelle Vague and genre film like no other.

At the end of the 1970s, the pendulum swung for Belmondo, who, alongside Alain Delon (85, “The Ice Cold Angel”) is considered the greatest French film star, then finally turned towards genre. He played the casual hero or villain in crime novels, gangster films and action comedies. The hobby boxer did the stunts himself. However, as a result of a head injury sustained while shooting “The Boss”, Belmondo ended his action career. His last film, entitled “A Man and His Dog”, a fitting remake of the classic art film “Umberto D” from 1952, was shot in 2008.

On Monday (September 6th) Jean-Paul Belmondo died in Paris at the age of 88.

SpotOnNews