'La Dolce Vita', '8 1/2' star Anouk Aimee dies at 92
Anouk Aimee, the French actress whose movies included Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita", Jacques Demy's "Lola" and Claude Lelouch's "A Man and a Woman", has died aged 92. "We bid farewell to a world-famous icon, to a great actress of French cinema who took on roles for some of the biggest names, such as Demy, Lelouch and Fellini," said French Culture Minister Rachida Dati on social media platform X on Tuesday. Aimee's daughter Manuela Papatakis said in an Instagram post that Aimee had passed away at home in Paris.  Her role as a lovelorn widow in "A Man and a Woman" (1966) famous for its "chabadabada, chabadabada" theme tune won her an Oscar nomination, a Golden Globe for best actress and her entry into Hollywood. Aimee's elegant sophistication had already made her a star of such European masterpieces as Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" (1960) and "8 1/2" (1963), and she was unforgettable as the ageing showgirl in Jacques Demy's heartbreaking musical "Lola" (1961). Fellini in particular revered her, saying her "face has the same intriguing sensuality as that of (Greta) Garbo, (Marlene) Dietrich or (Cindy) Crawford, these great mysterious queens, these priestesses of femininity. "Anouk Aimee represents the kind of woman who worries you to death," he said. That combination of "melancholy and passion" marked much of her remarkable career, with the American director Robert Altman bringing her out of retirement to rekindle her old spark with Marcello Mastroianni in the acclaimed "Pret a Porter" in 1994. Born Francoise Dreyfus in Paris on April 27, 1932, Aimee was the scion of a theatrical family. Her life was turned upside down when German troops marched into the city when she was eight. Her father was Jewish, putting the family in mortal danger, even though she was raised a Catholic. "We moved all the time. We hid... But then the Germans turned up and took over the apartment downstairs," she recalled. The family sent her to the countryside where they hoped she would be safer, changing her name so she would not have to wear a yellow star. Her lifelong love of animals was born from the comfort they gave her during her time in hiding, she later said. The war over, her career began at the age of 13 when she was picked from the street to play in a Marcel Carne film that was never finished for lack of money. She finally made her screen debut the following year and adopted her character's name, Anouk, as her own. It would become popular in France thanks to her. It was French poet and screenwriter Jacques Prevert who convinced her to also change her surname to Aimee, meaning "loved". Her career took off in 1949 with Andre Cayatte's "The Lovers of Verona". Her class and beauty brought her a string of roles including in "Montparnasse 19" by Jacques Becker before she began to work with Demy and Fellini. In 2002 she was awarded an honorary Cesar – France's Oscars – and Cannes paid tribute to her four years later. (Reuters/AFP)