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All Music Guide:
Born Arlette-Leonie Bathiat in Courbevoie, France, this singer and screen star was raised by a mother who worked as a linen maid and a father who drove for a living. In her twenties, she appeared in several music hall reviews, mixing her love of song with her love of theatre. In 1930, Arletty began her film career. In 1935, Arletty was directed by Jacques Feyder in the film Pension Mimosas. Often drawing comparisons to French singers and starlets such as Edith Piaf, Arletty made her mark in such films like Hotel du Nord in 1938, Le Jour Se Leve in 1939, Les Visiteurs du Soir in 1942 and Les Enfants du Paradis in 1945. As the Second World War ended in 1945, Arletty's career was marked with controversy. After falling in love with a German officer during the occupation of France, Arletty was jailed as a collaborator. Her career would continue afterwards but never reached the same plateau. In 1962, while suffering from partial blindness, she was casted in The Longest Day. One more film would follow, but Arletty would be completely blind by age 68. She lived her remaining years in a small Paris dwelling. She died in Paris on July 23, 1992. In 2002, a self-titled album featuring some of her favorite songs and performances was released. Hits from Arletty include Couer de Parisienne.
Wikipedia:
Arletty (15 May 1898 – 24 July 1992) was a French actress, singer, and fashion model.
Life and career
Arletty was born Léonie Marie Julie Bathiat in Courbevoie (near Paris), to a working-class family. Her early career was dominated by the music hall, and she later appeared in plays and cabaret. Arletty was a stage performer for ten years before her film debut in 1930. Arletty’s career took off around 1936, when she appeared as leading lady in the stage plays Les Joies du Capitole and Fric-Frac, in which she starred opposite Michel Simon.
In 1945, Arletty appeared in her most famous film role, the central part of Garance in Marcel Carné's Les Enfants du Paradis, her fourth role for the director. Arletty was imprisoned in 1945 for having had a wartime liaison with a German officer during the occupation of France. She allegedly later commented on the experience, "My heart is French but my ass is international." After a moderately successful period as a stage actress in later life, an accident in 1963 left her nearly blind, forcing her to retire. One of her final screen appearances was in a small role as an elderly French woman in the 1962 epic The Longest Day.
After her death in 1992, Arletty was cremated, and her ashes interred in her hometown at the Nouveau Cimetière de Courbevoie.
Legacy
In 1995, the government of France issued a series of limited edition coins to commemorate the centenary of film that included a 100 Franc coin bearing the image of Arletty.
