Post by petrolino on Jan 16, 2021 22:19:32 GMT
French Art : 'Cause De Scandale'
Punk's second nation is the United States of America's oldest and greatest ally, France. With a cultural history as rich, experimental and diverse as France undoubtedly has, it's difficult to assess the impact of French art upon punk in a single post. I can only mention some individuals, groups and movements I feel were essential to the cause. They were also influential on British punk which the English held up as being "the only true original punk", though this remains open for debate.
"The story of punk rock has become a decidedly British affair, through its many retellings, with the Sex Pistols providing its Anarchy in the UK strapline as well as its chief emblem - the Queen with a safety-pinned face. Sure, the Americans got in first musically with their scene at venerated New York punk club CBGB - where bands like Blondie, Television and The Ramones were on stage from as early as 1974 - but the social impact of British punk was more profound and its ramifications more lasting.
There is, though, another essential part of the story that has been forgotten by all but the staunchest connoisseur, and that is the contribution of the French.
The French? Mais oui.
"Punk rock would have happened in the UK without France," said Andrew Hussey, head of French and Comparative Studies at the University of London Institute in Paris. "But without the French, without their big ideas and their politics and fanaticism, punk rock in the UK would've been nothing more than growly old rockers with shorter hair." He believes the confrontational attitude and much of the thinking behind punk came from across the Channel rather than the Atlantic. "The real influence of French punk rock lies in the ideas, the style and the ruthless elegance - they never produced a (British bands) Clash or a Sex Pistols, but what they did was introduce the real politics in punk."
The roots of those politics, Hussey said, were to be found in a movement of intellectuals and rebels who became known as the Situationists. These characters, led by rebel extraordinaire Guy Debord, were dead set on cultural subversion, changing the world through art and ideas. They enjoyed their most notorious moment by providing the philosophical muscle to the Paris riots of May '68, when students and workers took to the streets to attack the state. This was disorder versus authority, youthful zeal versus a sclerotic status quo, and it was a direct inspiration of punk.
Now deified as arguably punk's most important individual, Malcolm McLaren, who went on to become the Sex Pistols' manager and helped cement punk style, was then an impressionable young rebel looking for direction. The Francophile dashed across to France in the aftermath of the riots and was seduced by Situationist posters and slogans like, "Be realistic, demand the impossible" and others that would later feed straight into Sex Pistols lyrics, "Cheap holidays in other people's misery" and "No future". Situationist thinking, McLaren said, "was bleeding from Paris into England", and others soon caught on."
- Geoff Bird, The British Broadcasting Corporation
There is, though, another essential part of the story that has been forgotten by all but the staunchest connoisseur, and that is the contribution of the French.
The French? Mais oui.
"Punk rock would have happened in the UK without France," said Andrew Hussey, head of French and Comparative Studies at the University of London Institute in Paris. "But without the French, without their big ideas and their politics and fanaticism, punk rock in the UK would've been nothing more than growly old rockers with shorter hair." He believes the confrontational attitude and much of the thinking behind punk came from across the Channel rather than the Atlantic. "The real influence of French punk rock lies in the ideas, the style and the ruthless elegance - they never produced a (British bands) Clash or a Sex Pistols, but what they did was introduce the real politics in punk."
The roots of those politics, Hussey said, were to be found in a movement of intellectuals and rebels who became known as the Situationists. These characters, led by rebel extraordinaire Guy Debord, were dead set on cultural subversion, changing the world through art and ideas. They enjoyed their most notorious moment by providing the philosophical muscle to the Paris riots of May '68, when students and workers took to the streets to attack the state. This was disorder versus authority, youthful zeal versus a sclerotic status quo, and it was a direct inspiration of punk.
Now deified as arguably punk's most important individual, Malcolm McLaren, who went on to become the Sex Pistols' manager and helped cement punk style, was then an impressionable young rebel looking for direction. The Francophile dashed across to France in the aftermath of the riots and was seduced by Situationist posters and slogans like, "Be realistic, demand the impossible" and others that would later feed straight into Sex Pistols lyrics, "Cheap holidays in other people's misery" and "No future". Situationist thinking, McLaren said, "was bleeding from Paris into England", and others soon caught on."
- Geoff Bird, The British Broadcasting Corporation
Fury & Aphrodisia (members of L.U.V.)
The Damned perform at Mont De Marsan Punk Festival in 1977
The influence of symbolist poets on the New York punk scene has been well-documented. Tom Verlaine took his stage name from Paul Verlaine whom he resembled physically, Patti Smith was a disciple of Arthur Rimbaud, Richard Hell directly quoted the poetry of Charles Baudelaire and Debbie Harry spoke of Stephane Mallarme's old haunts in Paris.
The symbolists were inspired by novelists of the age, notably Gustave Flaubert, mentor to Guy De Maupassant. Authors such as Stendahl, Honore De Balzac, Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo provided a framework for these poets. Their direct contemporary was Emile Zola which is significant due to the cheek he often displayed in his writing. For example, the spanking in Zola's novel 'L'Assommoir' (1877) impacted upon punks in much the way the bathing did from 'Germinal' (1885), in terms of creating heightened, sensory imagery. One way to look at this is through the lens of French theatre.
"If the punk movement is considered to have originated in the United States and developed in the United Kingdom, relatively little attention has been paid to the scene in France from 1975–78. Yet several factors point to the need to address this oversight: the first major punk rock festival was held at Mont‐de‐Marsan (France) in August 1976 and the first release on the legendary British indie label Rough Trade was by the Parisian punk band Métal Urbain.
Key figures such as Malcolm McLaren (manager of the Sex Pistols), Bernard Rhodes (manager of the Clash), and Tony Wilson (of Factory Records) were avid readers of French and other European intellectuals, whose thoughts on personal freedom, the individual, and the consumer society were a major influence on the British punk scene. But was there more to the French punk movement than an early festival, some intellectual concepts, and the handful of bands who crossed the English Channel, only to meet with limited critical and public acclaim? In this article, I examine the areas where French punk exerted significant international influence while also discussing how the music itself failed to take root both at home in France and abroad."
- John Greene, Online Library
Key figures such as Malcolm McLaren (manager of the Sex Pistols), Bernard Rhodes (manager of the Clash), and Tony Wilson (of Factory Records) were avid readers of French and other European intellectuals, whose thoughts on personal freedom, the individual, and the consumer society were a major influence on the British punk scene. But was there more to the French punk movement than an early festival, some intellectual concepts, and the handful of bands who crossed the English Channel, only to meet with limited critical and public acclaim? In this article, I examine the areas where French punk exerted significant international influence while also discussing how the music itself failed to take root both at home in France and abroad."
- John Greene, Online Library
Jeanne Moreau in Luis Bunuel's film 'Diary Of A Chambermaid' (1964), based upon Octave Mirbeau's decadent, oft-filmed novel 'Le Journal D'Une Femme De Chambre' (1900)
'Toi Mon Toit' - Elli Medeiros
The farce is an essential and intrinsic part of French stagecraft. Pierre Corneille and Moliere both wrote comic farces of an absurdist nature. Even hardened dramatist Jean Racine contributed a single comic farce to the French 17th century stage repertoire. When Belgian playwright Alfred Hennequin established the conventions of the bedroom farce, French playwright Georges Feydeau filled in the templates during the Belle Epoque.
Feydeau influenced playwright Jean De Letraz whose play 'La Fessee' (1936) caused a sensation in southern Europe (it's been filmed several times). De Letraz had researched the history of French art and discovered paintings and carvings that displayed Frenchmen spanking their disobedient wives, which inspired his writing.
"The man behind the Manchester punk scene, Tony Wilson, went on to name his club the Hacienda after a Situationist text, while arguably punk's most important artist Jamie Reid became a master of detournement, flipping images directly against themselves and subverting them so they became cultural weapons. Perhaps the most famous example was his cover for the Sex Pistols' famously banned single, God Save the Queen.
One of the natural products and great evils of Western life was boredom, according to the Situationists, and punks felt very much the same. Eric Debris from Parisian band Metal Urbain said: "Everything was black and white - the TV was in black and white, the streets were in black and white. "Everyday life was extremely boring, you felt people needed a push so they'd feel alive - the idea was to stir the pot and see what happened and of course people in England were doing the same."
In New York, the US proto-punks looked further back for Gallic inspiration. US punk "godmother" Patti Smith obsessed over French writer Jean Genet and the poet Arthur Rimbaud, while guitarist Thomas Miller became Tom Verlaine (in honour of the poet Paul Verlaine, Rimbaud's lover) and set up the band Television with Richard Hell, whose cropped hair and torn clothes became an influential look and similarly nodded towards fin-de-siecle poets.
But it was not just a story of influence, either. France's very own punk scene was taking shape if anything slightly earlier than the UK's. French bands like Metal Urbain and Stinky Toys began performing in 1975 and the likes of Marie et les Garcons, Asphalt Jungle and Gazoline soon followed. Europe's first punk festival took place at Mont-de-Marsan, Aquitaine in 1976, and was organised by Marc Zermati.
Zermati said the French felt close to the US scene: "The real punk movement started in New York and Paris came before the UK because we were really connected to New York... it was exciting because we thought we were conspiring against the establishment." He said it was in his record shop in Les Halles, Paris that he persuaded McLaren to call the movement punk rather than New Wave, which McLaren preferred for its overtones of the French "Nouvelle Vague" movement of the early 60s."
- Geoff Bird, The British Broadcasting Corporation
One of the natural products and great evils of Western life was boredom, according to the Situationists, and punks felt very much the same. Eric Debris from Parisian band Metal Urbain said: "Everything was black and white - the TV was in black and white, the streets were in black and white. "Everyday life was extremely boring, you felt people needed a push so they'd feel alive - the idea was to stir the pot and see what happened and of course people in England were doing the same."
In New York, the US proto-punks looked further back for Gallic inspiration. US punk "godmother" Patti Smith obsessed over French writer Jean Genet and the poet Arthur Rimbaud, while guitarist Thomas Miller became Tom Verlaine (in honour of the poet Paul Verlaine, Rimbaud's lover) and set up the band Television with Richard Hell, whose cropped hair and torn clothes became an influential look and similarly nodded towards fin-de-siecle poets.
But it was not just a story of influence, either. France's very own punk scene was taking shape if anything slightly earlier than the UK's. French bands like Metal Urbain and Stinky Toys began performing in 1975 and the likes of Marie et les Garcons, Asphalt Jungle and Gazoline soon followed. Europe's first punk festival took place at Mont-de-Marsan, Aquitaine in 1976, and was organised by Marc Zermati.
Zermati said the French felt close to the US scene: "The real punk movement started in New York and Paris came before the UK because we were really connected to New York... it was exciting because we thought we were conspiring against the establishment." He said it was in his record shop in Les Halles, Paris that he persuaded McLaren to call the movement punk rather than New Wave, which McLaren preferred for its overtones of the French "Nouvelle Vague" movement of the early 60s."
- Geoff Bird, The British Broadcasting Corporation
Betty Boop working in Paris
'Beauty And Pride' - Stinky Toys
The French and Italians consider themselves to be cousins and both nations have been at the forefront of erotic art. If you consider the work of writers like Voltaire, Denis Diderot, Restif De La Bretonne, Marquis De Sade, Choderlos De Laclos, Sophie De Renneville, Octave Mirbeau, Guy De Maupassant, Anais Nin, Pauline Reage, Simone De Beauvoir, Jean Genet, Boris Vian, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Emmanuelle Arsan and Joy Laurey for starters, you see the rapid evolution of erotica in French culture and its importance to the development of French art. Erotica, like punk, has been the art of objection, subversion, individualism and revolt.
"Like so many other pieds-noirs (the name given to people of European origin born in Algeria under French rule) the family fled to la métropole in 1962, when the country gained independence. Marc Zermati would always entertain a conflicted relationship with his new homeland, which he deemed backward-looking and inimical to youth culture. Lest we forget, the 1968 student uprising was sparked off by a protest against single-sex halls of residence at Nanterre – France, at the time, was not all nouvelle vague flair and post-structuralists zooming around in sleek Citröens.
It was in fact often very conservative – socially and culturally – and pop music from the US or the UK was frequently met with xenophobic contempt. In interviews, Zermati recalled how the police would constantly harass, and sometimes even arrest him on account of his long hair, and how he would escape to London, where he felt free, as often as possible. In recent years he bemoaned the “Toubon law”, introduced in 1996 to compel radio stations to play at least 40% francophone songs, singling it out as yet another instance of Gallic insularity – further proof that France and authentic rock music were incompatible.
It was not all bad, though. He joined the ranks of the fabled Bande du Drugstore, fashion-conscious members of Paris’s jeunesse dorée who hung out on the Champs-Elysées and were notorious for their hard partying (referenced by Jacques Dutronc on his 1966 hit Les Play Boys). These minets, as they were mockingly called, had a great deal of influence on the mod look across the Channel. This week, journalist Nick Kent wrote on his Facebook page that when he first met Zermati, in 1972 (when the New York Dolls were in town with their then manager, Malcolm McLaren), he was the “hippest man in Paris bar none”. Along with Yves Adrien, Patrick Eudeline, Alain Pacadis and a few others, Zermati – whose idea it was to dress the Flamin’ Groovies in sharp Fab Four suits – belonged to a typically French line of anglophile dandies, who would go on to shape the punk and post-punk years.
In the mid-60s Zermati worked in an art gallery in Saint-Germain-des-Prés where he rubbed shoulders with Joan Miró and Henri Michaux, and befriended Max Ernst – the German surrealist encouraged him to explore the burgeoning American counterculture. His first taste of LSD (in Ibiza, where he stayed for a year) was a turning point in his life, and he always claimed to be able to tell people who had experienced its mind-expanding properties from those who had not, however cool they attempted to appear. L’Open Market, the record emporium he opened in 1972 was originally a head shop, where people congregated to peruse the international underground press and smoke dope. The records on sale were few but carefully selected, and it was this loving curation that outlined a rival tradition, bypassing the progressive cul-de-sac and leading straight to punk. Kids who came in asking for the latest Yes or Genesis were shown the door unceremoniously. Lester Bangs, Lenny Kaye, Jon Savage, Chrissie Hynde, Malcolm McLaren and all the local punks-to-be ranked among the customers. Nico could often be found cooking in the apartment above the shop, while bands such as Asphalt Jungle would be rehearsing in the basement.
Zermati’s taste in music, as well as clothes, was always impeccable. The first release on his label was a wild jam session between Jim Morrison, Johnny Winter and Jimi Hendrix (whom he had met in London and venerated), followed by the Flamin’ Groovies’ legendary Grease EP. You would be hard pressed to start on a higher note. As early as 1974, he set up the first independent distribution network in partnership with Larry Debay; alongside the two Mont-de-Marsan festivals, he organised three nocturnal punk gigs at Paris’s Palais des Glaces in April 1977, with an unbeatable lineup featuring the Clash, the Damned, Generation X, the Jam, the Stranglers, Stinky Toys and the Police (still with their French guitarist, Henry Padovani). At one stage in the 80s, he even became the Clash’s de facto manager.
Following a spell in prison, he co-launched another label, Underdog, and went on to promote gigs in Japan (where he took Johnny Thunders). His greatest achievement, however, will always be transforming Paris, for a few short years in the run-up to punk, into what felt like the capital city of the rock world."
- Andrew Gallix, The Guardian
It was in fact often very conservative – socially and culturally – and pop music from the US or the UK was frequently met with xenophobic contempt. In interviews, Zermati recalled how the police would constantly harass, and sometimes even arrest him on account of his long hair, and how he would escape to London, where he felt free, as often as possible. In recent years he bemoaned the “Toubon law”, introduced in 1996 to compel radio stations to play at least 40% francophone songs, singling it out as yet another instance of Gallic insularity – further proof that France and authentic rock music were incompatible.
It was not all bad, though. He joined the ranks of the fabled Bande du Drugstore, fashion-conscious members of Paris’s jeunesse dorée who hung out on the Champs-Elysées and were notorious for their hard partying (referenced by Jacques Dutronc on his 1966 hit Les Play Boys). These minets, as they were mockingly called, had a great deal of influence on the mod look across the Channel. This week, journalist Nick Kent wrote on his Facebook page that when he first met Zermati, in 1972 (when the New York Dolls were in town with their then manager, Malcolm McLaren), he was the “hippest man in Paris bar none”. Along with Yves Adrien, Patrick Eudeline, Alain Pacadis and a few others, Zermati – whose idea it was to dress the Flamin’ Groovies in sharp Fab Four suits – belonged to a typically French line of anglophile dandies, who would go on to shape the punk and post-punk years.
In the mid-60s Zermati worked in an art gallery in Saint-Germain-des-Prés where he rubbed shoulders with Joan Miró and Henri Michaux, and befriended Max Ernst – the German surrealist encouraged him to explore the burgeoning American counterculture. His first taste of LSD (in Ibiza, where he stayed for a year) was a turning point in his life, and he always claimed to be able to tell people who had experienced its mind-expanding properties from those who had not, however cool they attempted to appear. L’Open Market, the record emporium he opened in 1972 was originally a head shop, where people congregated to peruse the international underground press and smoke dope. The records on sale were few but carefully selected, and it was this loving curation that outlined a rival tradition, bypassing the progressive cul-de-sac and leading straight to punk. Kids who came in asking for the latest Yes or Genesis were shown the door unceremoniously. Lester Bangs, Lenny Kaye, Jon Savage, Chrissie Hynde, Malcolm McLaren and all the local punks-to-be ranked among the customers. Nico could often be found cooking in the apartment above the shop, while bands such as Asphalt Jungle would be rehearsing in the basement.
Zermati’s taste in music, as well as clothes, was always impeccable. The first release on his label was a wild jam session between Jim Morrison, Johnny Winter and Jimi Hendrix (whom he had met in London and venerated), followed by the Flamin’ Groovies’ legendary Grease EP. You would be hard pressed to start on a higher note. As early as 1974, he set up the first independent distribution network in partnership with Larry Debay; alongside the two Mont-de-Marsan festivals, he organised three nocturnal punk gigs at Paris’s Palais des Glaces in April 1977, with an unbeatable lineup featuring the Clash, the Damned, Generation X, the Jam, the Stranglers, Stinky Toys and the Police (still with their French guitarist, Henry Padovani). At one stage in the 80s, he even became the Clash’s de facto manager.
Following a spell in prison, he co-launched another label, Underdog, and went on to promote gigs in Japan (where he took Johnny Thunders). His greatest achievement, however, will always be transforming Paris, for a few short years in the run-up to punk, into what felt like the capital city of the rock world."
- Andrew Gallix, The Guardian
A can-can dancer rehearses backstage in Paris
'Repetition' : Marie Et Les Garcons perform in a garage in 1977
Some painters exerted a considerable influence upon early French photography and with good reason. This is reflected within punk imagery and its exploration of mooning and planetary motion. The framing and figure-modelling of Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir has been justly cited for its influence on early French cinema. The figure paintings of Francois-Edouard Picot, William-Adolphe Bouguereau and Alexandre-Jacques Chantron were equally influential to early French photographers, whose subjects of choice were often feminine sensuality, exhibitionism and shapes thrown by the female form.
Inventor Louis Daguerre's "daguerrotypes" became the format of choice for early photographic explorations of the feminine figure, which Frenchmen often delineated as "rounds and curves". In Paris, photographer Jean Angelou became a figurehead for an underground movement dedicated to the photography of female nudes. Polish photographer Julian Mandel produced erotic postcards that were sold on the streets of the French capital. In America, E.J. Bellocq worked New Orleans' red light disctrict; a photographer of French-creole heritage, Bellocq's photographs of prostitutes working in Storyville have influenced poets, songwriters and filmmakers.
"In 1977 in Los Angeles, Claude Bessy, co-founded Slash magazine, the bible of LA punk. Thus did Bessy, writing as Kickboy Face, become a chronicler of that generation. In 1978 the magazine launched its record label, with the Germ's Lexicon Devil. Later signings included Los Lobos, Faith No More and the Violent Femmes. And in 1981 Slash and Bessy's band, Catholic Discipline, featured in Penelope Spheeris's film on LA punk, Decline Of Western Civilization.
He was born in Normandy. In the 1960s, he followed the trail to Afghanistan, visited LA and studied at the Sorbonne - leaving Paris to return to LA in 1968 before the events of that May. He studied film, featured as Frenchy in The Hardy Boys TV series and, in the mid-1970s, set up a reggae fanzine, Angeleno Dread.
With his partner Philomena Winstanley, Bessy moved to England in 1980 and became press officer for Rough Trade Records. The Fall, Virgin Prunes and Cabaret Voltaire could testify to his effectiveness. He also championed LA bands like X, the Gun Club, and the Blasters.
In 1982 he became video DJ at Tony Wilson's Hacienda club in Manchester and went on to become a music video producer, releasing work by the Fall, Virgin Prunes, the Birthday Party and William Burroughs. He later worked for the London comic and sci-fi shop Forbidden Planet, wrote record sleeve-notes - and his distinctive voice featured on records by Sonic Youth, Howard Devoto, Wire's Graham Lewis and trumpeter Marc Cunningham."
- Richard Thomas, The Guardian
He was born in Normandy. In the 1960s, he followed the trail to Afghanistan, visited LA and studied at the Sorbonne - leaving Paris to return to LA in 1968 before the events of that May. He studied film, featured as Frenchy in The Hardy Boys TV series and, in the mid-1970s, set up a reggae fanzine, Angeleno Dread.
With his partner Philomena Winstanley, Bessy moved to England in 1980 and became press officer for Rough Trade Records. The Fall, Virgin Prunes and Cabaret Voltaire could testify to his effectiveness. He also championed LA bands like X, the Gun Club, and the Blasters.
In 1982 he became video DJ at Tony Wilson's Hacienda club in Manchester and went on to become a music video producer, releasing work by the Fall, Virgin Prunes, the Birthday Party and William Burroughs. He later worked for the London comic and sci-fi shop Forbidden Planet, wrote record sleeve-notes - and his distinctive voice featured on records by Sonic Youth, Howard Devoto, Wire's Graham Lewis and trumpeter Marc Cunningham."
- Richard Thomas, The Guardian
Sculptors Camille Claudel & Jessie Lipscomb at work in the studio
'La Brune Et Moi' - Les Lou's
The visual capturing and erotic projection of the heaving female form can be extended to design and sculpture, cartooning and comic book design, as well as everything in between. Illustrative of this fact would be the controversial work of modern artists of the 20th century who worked across different mediums, be it Suzanne Ballivet, Robert Hugues, Lara-Marie Ostrowski or Esparbec.
There are, of course, many other artists whose ideas have contributed to the creation of punk art, be it the Surrealists in Paris, Georges Bataille's 'Acephale' collective, the Dadaists, the Situationists ... so, as a wise Italian woman once said, "... let the French be French, let the French create".
"For Marie-Pierre Tricot, this sad misadventure is nothing but a ransom for the glory: in the French cinema, she holds the impressive title of a ‘horror queen’: she plays, in fact, with a lot of brio, the vampires, the witches, the monsters of science-fiction, and other “typical” characters.
This title is even more impressive, since Marie-Pierre does not absolutely owe it to her physical appearance. Her blondness is that of a young ingenuous girl, and her size seems to devote her forever to the role of Alice in Wonderland. She is petite, even very petite — 1.56 m. [5.12ft] — and thin like a wire. Her big blue eyes reflect much rather the innocence of a newborn than the machiavellianism of a bloodthirsty vampire or a seasoned witch.
This title is even more impressive, since Marie-Pierre does not absolutely owe it to her physical appearance. Her blondness is that of a young ingenuous girl, and her size seems to devote her forever to the role of Alice in Wonderland. She is petite, even very petite — 1.56 m. [5.12ft] — and thin like a wire. Her big blue eyes reflect much rather the innocence of a newborn than the machiavellianism of a bloodthirsty vampire or a seasoned witch.
— "I believe in the opposite, that my physical appearance is an asset", affirms Marie-Pierre; "as the viewers are surprised to see such a not classical “evil woman”; I must change them, pleasantly, I hope, the tall and slender witches, with the eyes of ember and the dark hair of Gorgone." —
Marie-Pierre doesn’t have, in fact, the classic “beauty” of horror queens. She doesn’t have anything from Raquel Welsh, in One Million Years B.C., from Ursula Andress, in She or from the beautiful English Barbara Steele, who, in The Pit and the Pendulum, explodes on the screen with her 1.72 m. [5.64 ft], her dark hair, and her green eyes of a feline.
Her type of a woman places her among the antipodes of the vamps of the pre-war horror films such as Elsa Lanchester who was the Bride of Frankenstein and Kathleen Burke, the panther woman from Island of Lost Souls. No, her own kind is the one of a small kitten who we like to hear purring near a fireplace.
Probably, only two French women of the small “format” had managed to establish themselves before her in the world of horror: Danny Carel, in The Hands of Orlac and Mill of the Stone Women, and, around the war, Simone Simon, who had managed to lend with success her young and fresh face — as round as the one of Marie-Pierre — to the feline from Cat People by Jacques Tourneur.
The physical appearance of Marie-Pierre is not, however, misleading: in real life it’s a young and wise girl who doesn’t smell neither ashes nor sulfur; she likes to watch the television — especially westerns — and to take care of her interior between the reading of two scenarios."
Marie-Pierre doesn’t have, in fact, the classic “beauty” of horror queens. She doesn’t have anything from Raquel Welsh, in One Million Years B.C., from Ursula Andress, in She or from the beautiful English Barbara Steele, who, in The Pit and the Pendulum, explodes on the screen with her 1.72 m. [5.64 ft], her dark hair, and her green eyes of a feline.
Her type of a woman places her among the antipodes of the vamps of the pre-war horror films such as Elsa Lanchester who was the Bride of Frankenstein and Kathleen Burke, the panther woman from Island of Lost Souls. No, her own kind is the one of a small kitten who we like to hear purring near a fireplace.
Probably, only two French women of the small “format” had managed to establish themselves before her in the world of horror: Danny Carel, in The Hands of Orlac and Mill of the Stone Women, and, around the war, Simone Simon, who had managed to lend with success her young and fresh face — as round as the one of Marie-Pierre — to the feline from Cat People by Jacques Tourneur.
The physical appearance of Marie-Pierre is not, however, misleading: in real life it’s a young and wise girl who doesn’t smell neither ashes nor sulfur; she likes to watch the television — especially westerns — and to take care of her interior between the reading of two scenarios."
- Sophie Majeur, 'Marie-Pierre Tricot : So Young And Already A Vampire'
'Splendour In The Grass' : Psychedelic clown runaway Marie-Pierre Tricot of the twin infinities
'Pepe Gestapo' - Stinky Toys
Fun Fact : Jodie Foster was adopted as a cultural symbol of rebellion by French punks as well as American punks. Foster spent time in France and Italy in her youth and speaks French beautifully. Punk outfit Electric Callas played a gig that was attended by French girls dressed as Foster's Disney characters. Satirical punkers Ludwig 88 recorded the anthem 'Jodie Foster' as part of their "prophets of culture" recordings.