Roger Vadim
Roger Vadim | |
---|---|
Born | Roger Vadim Plemiannikov 26 January 1928 Paris, France |
Died | 11 February 2000 Paris, France | (aged 72)
Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter, producer |
Years active | 1950–1997 |
Spouses | Catherine Schneider
(m. 1975; div. 1977) |
Partners |
|
Children | 4, including Christian |
Roger Vadim Plemiannikov (French:
Early life
Vadim was born Roger Vadim Plemiannikov (sometimes transliterated Plemiannikoff) in Paris. His father, Igor Nikolaevich Plemiannikov (И́горь Никола́евич Племя́нников), a
Vadim studied journalism and writing at the University of Paris, without graduating.[3]
Film career
At age 19, he became assistant to film director Marc Allégret, whom he met while working at the Theatre Sarah Bernhardt, and for whom he worked on several screenplays. He was an assistant director on Allegret's Blanche Fury (1948), a commercially unsuccessful melodrama which Allegret made for a British company in English. Vadim was one of several writers on Allegret's French-British The Naked Heart (1950), aka Maria Chapdelaine, starring Michèle Morgan, as well as serving as assistant director. It was shot in French and English versions. Blackmailed (1951) was another film Allegret directed in England, starring Mai Zetterling and Dirk Bogarde; Vadim was credited as one of the writers. He was also one of several writers on Allegret's, La demoiselle et son revenant (1952).
Vadim did the screenplay and commentary for a documentary, Le gouffre de la Pierre Saint-Marti (1953), and was assistant director on Allegret's
Vadim's first film as director was based on an original story of his,
Vadims's next film was an adaptation of the book Les liaisons dangereuses (1959), which he wrote and directed. It starred Moreau, Gérard Philipe (in his final film) and Annette Stroyberg, a Danish model who became Vadim's second wife. The film became a huge hit in France. Stroyberg was also in the vampire film Blood and Roses (1960). Vadim was reunited with Bardot for Please, Not Now! (1961), a popular comedy. He was one of several directors of the anthology film, The Seven Deadly Sins (1962).
Vadim began a relationship with a young Catherine Deneuve. She starred in a segment of the anthology film Tales of Paris (1962), which was written by Vadim and directed by Allegret. She starred in a film Vadim helped write and produce, And Satan Calls the Turns (1962), and was also in Vice and Virtue (1963), which Vadim directed. Vadim had another success writing and directing for Bardot, Love on a Pillow (1962), but found less favour with Nutty, Naughty Chateau (1963) starring Monica Vitti.
Vadim tried another adaptation of a classic erotic text,
Vadim returned to France. He wrote and directed Hellé (1972), starring Gwen Welles, which was a flop. He was reunited with Bardot for Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman (1973), which was Bardot's penultimate movie and a commercial disappointment. Not particularly successful either were Charlotte (1974), and Game of Seduction (1976) with Sylvia Kristel and Nathalie Delon. He directed a TV movie Bonheur, impair et passe (1977), starring Danielle Darrieux.
In the 1980s Vadim based himself in the US. He directed
His final years were spent working in TV, where he directed Safari (1991) and wrote and directed Amour fou (1993), starring Marie-Christine Barrault who became his final wife. She was also in La Nouvelle tribu (1996) and its sequel Un coup de baguette magique (1997), which Vadim wrote and directed.
Personal life
Romances
Vadim was famous for his romances and marriages to young beautiful actresses.[6] In his mid-30s, he lived with the teenaged Catherine Deneuve, by whom he had a child, Christian Vadim, prior to his marriage to Fonda.[7] He was also involved with American actresses Margaret Markov[8] and Cindy Pickett.[9] Later, he cohabited with screenwriter Ann Biderman for several years, announcing their engagement in 1984,[10] but the couple never wed.[7]
Marriages
- Brigitte Bardot, 20 December 1952 – 6 December 1957 (divorced)
- Annette Stroyberg, 17 June 1958 – 14 March 1961 (divorced); 1 daughter (Nathalie) b. 7 December 1957
- Jane Fonda, 14 August 1965 – 16 January 1973 (divorced); 1 daughter (Vanessa) b. 28 September 1968
- Catherine Schneider, 13 December 1975 – 10 June 1977 (divorced); 1 son (Vania) b. 6 April 1974
- Ann Biderman, partner (engaged 1984 but never wed), California
- Marie-Christine Barrault, 21 December 1990 – 11 February 2000 (his death)
He also had two stepsons from his marriage to Schneider (younger sister of novelist Dominique Schneidre and heiress to the Schneider-Creusot steel and armaments firm) as well as adult stepchildren from Barrault's first marriage to Daniel Toscan du Plantier, also a friend of Vadim's, who called him "a happy man. He was someone in whom there was so much satisfaction to the end of his life. The films merely reflected his happiness."[7] Nathalie, his eldest daughter, told Fonda biographer Patricia Bosworth: "Jane was the love of my father's life."[11]
Writing
In addition to Vadim's theatre and film work, he also wrote several books, including the memoirs "Memoires du Diable", "Le Gout du Bonheur: Souvenirs 1940–1958" and an autobiography, D'une étoile à l'autre (From One Star to the Next) as well as a tell-all about his most famous exes, Bardot, Deneuve & Fonda: My Life with the Three Most Beautiful Women in the World, published in 1986.[12] "My attitude is that if this book makes me a little money it will be a tiny compensation for all the money I helped those actresses make", Vadim explained.[13] He also wrote several plays and books of fiction, including L'ange affamé.
Death
Vadim died of cancer at age 72 on 11 February 2000. Ex-wives Bardot, Fonda, Schneider and Stroyberg were all in attendance at his funeral.
Filmography
Writer or director
- The Naked Heart (1950)
- Blackmailed (1951)
- Plucking the Daisy aka Mam'selle Striptease (1956)
- And God Created Woman (1956)
- Sait-on jamais? (1957)[15]
- Sois belle et tais-toi/Be Beautiful but Shut up (1957)
- Les Bijoutiers du Clair de Lune/The Night Heaven Fell (1958)
- Les liaisons dangereuses/Dangerous Liaisons(1959)
- Blood and Roses (1960)
- La Bride sur le cou/Please Not Now!(1961)
- Les Sept péchés capitaux/Seven Capital Sins(1962)
- Les Parisiennes/Beds and Broads (1962)
- Love on a Pillow (1962)
- Un château en Suède/Castle in Sweden (1963)
- Le vice et la vertu/Vice and Virtue (1963)
- La Ronde/Circle of Love(1964)
- La Curée/The Game is Over (1966)
- Spirits of the Dead (1968)
- Barbarella (1968)
- Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971)
- Hellé (1972)
- Don Juan ou Si Don Juan était une femme (1973)
- La jeune fille Assassinée/The Murdered Young Girl (1974)
- Une femme fidèle(1976)
- Bonheur, impair et passe (1977)
- Jeux de Nuit/Night Games (1980)
- The Hot Touch (1981)
- Surprise Party (1983)
- Faerie Tale Theatre (1984 TV, segment "Beauty and the Beast")
- The Hitchhiker (1986 TV, segment "Dead Man's Curve")
- And God Created Woman (1988)
- Safari (1991, TV movie)
- Amour fou (1993, TV movie)
- La Nouvelle tribu (1996, TV mini-series)
- Mon père avait raison(1996, TV movie)
- Un coup de baguette magique (1997, TV movie)
Actor
- School for Love (1955)
- Sweet and Sour (1963)
- Ciao! Manhattan (1972)
- The Assassinated Young Girl (1974)
- Rich and Famous (1981)
- Into the Night (1985)
References
- ^ "ROGER VADIM writes his "Memoirs of the Devil"". The Australian Women's Weekly. 12 January 1977. p. 26. Retrieved 3 January 2015 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ "Roger Vadim profile at Filmreference.com". Retrieved 18 December 2012.
- ^ a b c "Biography for Roger Vadim". TCM. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
- ^ Patricia Bosworth (15 August 2011). "Jane Fonda: The She Decade". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
- ^ Scheuer, Philip K. (20 July 1965). "Vadim Is Frank On, Off Screen". Los Angeles Times. p. C8.
- ^ "Roger Vadim is no braggart about his love life". Beaver County Times. 11 July 1975. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
- ^ a b c Smith, Kyle (28 February 2000). "Sweet Svengali". People. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
- ^ "Vadim's Next?", Democrat and Chronicle, October 24, 1970
- The Milwaukee Sentinel.
- ^ Tipoff. Star-News. 15 January 1984.
- ISBN 978-0-547-50447-6.
- ^ Pulleine, Tim (11 February 2000). Film director with a lifelong penchant for beautiful blondes and glossy, erotic movies. The Guardian.
- ^ Vadim candid about reasoning behind book. Daily News. 30 March 1986.
- ISBN 9780375507106.
- ^ "Sait-on jamais... (1957) – Full cast and crew". Internet Movie Database. IMDb.com. Retrieved 15 March 2009.
External links
- Roger Vadim at IMDb
- Image of Rock Hudson, Gene Roddenberry, and Roger Vadim posing with women cast members for motion picture "Pretty Maids All in a Row", California, 1970. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.