“If I had to go through this again, what would I do? Is there anything else I could do? To see her for months on end as a pal. What happens? You end up being pals, maybe. She wired, ‘I love you.’ Admit it boy, you just don’t understand women.”
From left to right: Ava Gardner, Sophia Loren, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Gina Lollobrigida, Anouk Aimée, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and Jean Seberg
Born on this day ninety years ago: the most feline and inscrutable of mid-century French actresses, the sublime Anouk Aimée (née Nicole Françoise Florence Dreyfus, 27 April 1932). She’s a haunting, sensual and Garbo-like presence in the glory days of European art cinema. My favourite performances by Aimée: Les Amants de Montparnasse(1958),La Tête contre les murs(1959),La Dolce Vita (1960) – unforgettable as the most elegant jaded rich nymphomaniac in cinema history! – Lola (1961) and Model Shop (1968). But hell, I also love Aimée as the cruel lesbian queen in trashy swords’n’sandals biblical epic Sodom and Gomorrah (1962). It’s fascinating to contemplate that at the height of her fame in the sixties, Hollywood considered Aimée for two high profile roles: the part played by Faye Dunaway in The Thomas Crown Affair – and The Baroness in The Sound of Music!
