A French Tragedy
Our story begins with Daniel Gélin, a low-income working man who sells for a living cans of salted cods. His future was looking grim, boring and full of salty nothingness, that until, the flame of performance triggered his spirit, by that I mean that he saw a famous actress shooting a movie just out in the street where he worked, he abandoned his job and went to the big city - Paris - to become an actor.
He played small roles, met a woman he loved, he was not as famous as he imagined he would be, but he lived a good life. He married the woman, an actress, Danièle Delorme, they had a son together - Xavier.
That's until 1949, where Daniel got his big role, he became a star, a sensation across France. He got money, he got power, he got famous.
Each year, each movie, he just become more successful, soon he was known not only at France, there were talks of him showing in the next Hitchcock movie. And he let the success go into his head.
When models are throwing themself at you, can you really blame a man for indulging? ...Well when they are only 17 years old you can certainly do, but such meaningless limitations are beneath Daniel Gélin, a famous actor.
And so a child of an affair was born, Maria Schindler. She of course took the name of her mother, in fact for the first 12 years of her life she didn't know anything about her father.
Maria was a bold child, who loved adventures, her tee-...young mother was very caring, and managed to run a bookshop. Maria loved the books, but more than the books she loved the stories they hold, adventure, romance, heroes.
Later she would find that thrill in films, the action, the stakes. She would go to the movies 4 times a week.
As a teenager, who grilled her mother relentlessly about her father, Maria finally got the opportunity to meet him. Those meetings were always brief, and she could count the number of times they happened on one hand.
Gélin never recognised Maria as his daughter. And Maria in return decided that she will be better than him, become better than him, as a man - a human being and as an actress.
She left home at age 15 after an argument with her mother and went to Paris, where she made her stage-acting debut that same year. She eked out a living as a film extra and a model.
While working on a film set, she met Brigitte Bardot, who having worked with her father on several productions (a father who still refused to help his daughter), was "horrified" that the young actress was homeless and offered her a room in her house. Through Brigitte (or BB as she insisted to be called), Maria met people in the film business, including Warren Beatty, who was greatly impressed by her, and got her an agent.
She was 18 when she had her first break in 1970, appearing in Madly, starring Alain Delon.
"Then,
Last Tango… my first major role." She thought, her eyes already tearing up "In fact, it was a total coincidence. I was friends with Dominique Sanda at the time. And she was supposed to make the film with Jean-Louis Trintignant, but she became pregnant. She had a large picture with her of both of us. Bertolucci saw it. He made m-me do a casting…" Maria broke down completely at this stage.
"It's ok, I'm here with you." He said in a calm voice, "you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"No - yes, no. I-I feel I need to get it out of my chest…" she said, closing her eyes and continuing.
I was not prepared. The beginning of my career has been sweeter, quieter.
Tango was a violation.
I should have called my agent or had my lawyer come to the set because you can't force someone to do something that isn't in the script, but at the time, I didn't know that. Marlon said to me: 'Maria, don't worry, it's just a movie,' but during the scene, even though what Marlon was doing wasn't real, I was crying real tears. I felt humiliated and to be honest, I felt a little raped, even if it wasn't real.
Even Marlon with his charisma and class, felt a bit violated, exploited a little in this film. And me, I felt it doubly.
"People identify me with something I'm not, Butter, about saucy old pigs. I see it on their eyes, on their f-faces." She started to break down again in my arms, I held her tight and let her release that pain.
When I saw her from the street on the edge of the building, my building. I knew immediately something was wrong. I was never glad to be in a great shape as much as I was when I got to the top of the roof and she still didn't move from her previous spot, that rush of adrenalin caused me to sprint to there in a blur.
I could only try to console her as she laid down her life story.
We are not very different, running away to achieve our dreams, finding a mentor figure who gave us a place to stay.
If I didn't punch that producer, would I end up in a similar situation? I can't help but wonder as I half-hag, half-hold her still shaking figure. Sitting on the ledge of my building, Hollywood in front of us, and with the light it takes a dark and twisted tone.
After that night I made sure to visit Maria periodically, and check up on her. But I didn't really know what to say.
Of course, Carrie did manage to think of something.
Recently, I had an idea for a movie based loosely on some vague accounts of another French woman, who was confident, brave and bold.
Carrie, who read the stuff I write (and then handed me that corrected, and at much quality) showed Maria some of it, and Maria fell in love with the character.
A badass woman, who is the best at what she does, and is not afraid to show it in any way. The adventurous spirit and the sheer confidence of that character inspired her.
I hope that Maria will rise up from this incident, and will become stronger.
Notes:
- While Brando and Bertolucci won award nominations and positive recognition, Schneider's career was seriously damaged by the film. At 20 she was seen and treated as a sex symbol rather than as a serious professional. Afterwards she struggled with depression, drug addiction and suicide attempts.
- In 1974, Schneider came out as bisexual
- The 1970s were turbulent years for Schneider, marked by drug addiction, overdoses, and a suicide attempt. Schneider said that she disliked the instant fame accorded to her from Last Tango in Paris. She suffered abuse and began taking drugs
- "I was rock 'n' roll. About drugs, we did not know at the time, it was so dangerous. There was an ideal, to change society and especially a thirst for novelty ... I have lost seven years of my life and I regret it bitterly ... I started using drugs when I became famous. I did not like the celebrity, and especially the image full of innuendo, naughty, that people had of me after Last Tango. In addition, I had no family behind me, who protect you ... I suffered abuse. People who come up to tell you unpleasant things on planes. I was tracked down, and I felt hounded."
- She later became a women's rights advocate, in particular fighting for more female film directors, more respect for female actors, and better representation of women in film and media.
