The Complicated Stardom of Alain Delon

When I first saw Purple Noon, French actor Alain Delon instantly became my style god. As Tom Ripley, he is effortlessly cool. It didn't matter that the character was cold and evil because he made you root for him. As an impressionable early 20-something, I wanted to be just like him. I asked my barber to cut my hair like his, many of my social media accounts had him as my avatar, and when I started earning my own money, I splurged just to have his filmography on Blu-ray. As the years went by, I was sure he was my favorite actor ever. However, in 2019, it was announced that Alain Delon would receive an honorary Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his contributions to cinema. To my surprise, people were extremely pissed. Why? I thought. He's the ultimate star. Surely, the quality of his films has earned him the right to receive French cinema's highest honor, right? I quickly got to reading and found out that Beyond the Superstar's piercing blue eyes and perfect filmography is a mountain of scandal. In this video, I'll be contextualizing Delon's career, star persona, and personal history. While I'll talk about the Cannes controversy at the end, it's also important to touch upon everything before that. I'll talk about his accidental start in European cinema, his meteoric rise to superstardom, the factors that made him such an iconic actor, the controversial Markovic murder case of the 1960s, his slow decline in popularity during the late 1970s, and his problematic actions that later tarnished his glistening resume. Hopefully, this video will help you understand the complicated stardom of one of cinema's brightest stars. Alain Delon was born on November 8, 1935, in a middle-class suburb south of Paris. After his parents divorced in 1939, Delon was placed with foster parents who sent him to Catholic boarding schools. He became a juvenile delinquent and was expelled by every institution he enrolled in. By age 14, young Alain left school and decided to work at his stepfather's butcher shop. Three years later, he enlisted into the French Navy, where he was stationed in Saigon during the First Indochina War. However, Delon's stint in the army was turbulent. He spent most of his time in and out of jail for disciplinary reasons. Eventually, the Navy discharged him and he made his way to Paris. Back in the city, Delon lived a simple existence. In a 1962 interview, he talks about that period in his life where he had no money, was living on cheap hot dogs, and sometimes had no place to sleep. Yet, he was content and very happy. The prospect of movie stardom was far from his mind as he enjoyed the city with old army buddies, working odd jobs to help him scrape by. In 1957, Delon made friends with young actors Brigitte Aubert and Jean-Claude Breilly, who invited him to join them on a trip to the Cannes Film Festival. Aubert also introduced Delon to film director Yves Allegret, who saw something special in the young man. While at the film festival, Delon's striking good looks caught the eye of Henry Wilson, the notorious talent agent responsible for discovering Hollywood heartthrobs like Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter. By this time, Wilson was working as a talent scout for hotshot producer David O. Selznick of Gone With the Wind fame. Wilson flew Delon to Rome for a screen test, and after liking what he saw, offered the young man a golden seven-year contract with provisions that he improve his spoken English. In a surprising move, Delon rejected the Selznick offer and chose to stay in France instead. Things get a little bit murky at this point, with different sources citing various reasons as to why Delon made that career defining decision. One writer states Yves Allegret told Delon that he'd be more famous in his native country rather than America. Another source says that he met Allegret while struggling to learn English, while another writer brought up a rumored affair with the director's wife. Whatever the real reason might be, Allegret always comes up during this period of Delon's career. I got into film completely by chance, Delon said in an interview on November of 1962. I'd just finished my military service and I had no plans, no prospects. I also had no skills, no profession, no special training. I'll spare you the details, but one lucky day I met some people in the film industry and they introduced me to a director who was about to shoot a film. Shooting began in eight days. His name was Yves Allegret. Yves was seeking an actor to play one of the leads, a young man, about 20, a bit of a hoodlum. I met Yves and he asked me to talk about myself, my life, where I was from, which I did. When I finished, he said, you're exactly what I'm looking for. Will you accept the role? I said, no, I'm not interested. I knew nothing about acting and it never attracted me. I'm fine as I am. Eventually, Delon caved in, later saying, honestly, I only did it to make him happy. This man really wanted me to be in his film. I didn't want to, but I agreed to make him happy. That's how I started. Allegret's 1957 film Send a Woman When the Devil Fails became Alain Delon's feature film debut. The movie was a modest hit in France and producers took notice of him. That following year, Delon appeared opposite popular German actress Romy Schneider and Christine. His off-screen relationship with her would fuel gossip magazines for years to come and Delon considered her the love of his life. But that's for another video. Delon followed up Christine with The Women Are Weak, a 1959 romantic comedy that proved to be a major success in France, solidifying his status as a new matinee idol. That same year, iconic French director René Clamant was preparing his next film, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, which tells the story of Tom Ripley, a young psychopath who was seduced by the lifestyle of a This puts him on a dangerous and immortal path that includes lying, murder, stealing, and taking Greenleaf's identity. Robert and Raymond Hakim, who were brothers and producing partners, gave Clamant the book and he absolutely loved it. He was enthralled by the slave master dynamic between Ripley and Greenleaf and that would completely flips throughout the course of the story. The Talented Mr. Ripley, which was to be renamed Purple Noon for the screen, was a high-stakes project for Clamant, who was going to a low point in his career. Despite being a pioneering figure in European cinema, having already won awards at Cannes, Venice, and the Oscars, Clamant was struggling to stay relevant among the young directors who ushered in the French New Wave. In his famous manifesto, A Certain Tendency of French Cinema, François Truffaut wrote, Clamant was wary while working on Purple Noon, aware that the film might end his career. He went as far as hiring artists affiliated with the French New Wave such as cinematographer Henri Decay and screenwriter Paul Gigoff to show that there was no antagonism between him and the younger generation. As for the leading man, the Hakim brothers strongly suggested they cast rising star Jacques Chariot to give the film commercial appeal. However, it was famed agent Algo Horstig who suggested Alain Delon to Clamant. The director, who hadn't heard much about Delon, went to see Women Are Weak and he wasn't impressed with what he saw. Still, he knew the movie's subject matter wasn't exactly the appropriate preview to showcase Delon's acting talents. He thought, instead, to cast Delon in the supporting role of Greenleaf. He then set up a rehearsal session with the actor at his home. At the other end of the room, Bella, Clamant's wife, said, Purple Noon was embraced by critics, was a box office hit in France, and made Delon an overnight sensation. While he was already enjoying popularity in France due to his previous films, it was Tom Ripley that propelled him into international superstardom. And honestly, if you watch the film, you can see why. His performance is really quite astonishing. He is playing a truly disturbed individual living behind the veil of a pretty face. Yet, the audience truly roots for him to get away with his crimes. Delon's Ripley is a detailed portrait of a young psychopath longing to be accepted in a world that keeps rejecting him. He is selfish, desperate, sinister, ruthless, self-assured, charming, seductive, and ambitious, sometimes all at the same time. The actor plays the role with such ease that it's a little bit unsettling to watch at times. René Clamant was so impressed by Delon's work that he would go on to cast him in three other features. In fact, while working with him on Purple Noon, he realized what he hadn't expected at the beginning, that Delon possessed practically unlimited potential. Said film historian, Denise Banceva, in a 2012 interview for the Criterion Collection, that is to say, not only a very strong dramatic potential, and very subtle, extremely refined, and complex capacity to act, but also a comic potential, and a potential for ambivalence, and therefore extremely different types of roles. Even Patricia Highsmith, an author very vocal about the adaptations of her work, co-signed that Delon did the role justice. Of course, it's hard to deny that Delon's physical beauty didn't play a big role in the success of Purple Noon in France and abroad. In fact, scholars have noted Delon's appearance in the film was considered to be one of the first male heroes to be stripped and fetishized on screen. For example, most of Purple Noon's marketing materials and movie posters feature a bare-chested Delon. However, it isn't fair to say that this is the only thing that made him a massive star. In my opinion, it was the combination of his killer good looks, the right director who took a chance on a virtual unknown, and his great ability to carry such a complex role that made him the sensation that he is. Bonchieva pinpoints the exact instance all these elements came together in Purple Noon. She says, And a lot of critics have said, from the mid-1960s to this day, that this is the moment when Alain Delon became a star. Delon would follow up the success of Purple Noon with another triumphant performance in the very same year. This time, he appeared as the titular character in Italian auteur Lucino Visconti's sweeping melodrama, Rocco and His Brothers, as a saint-like Rocco navigating love, poverty, and familial drama in metropolitan Italy. Delon plays the polar opposite of his star-making turn of Tom Ripley. If Purple Noon introduced him to the world, Rocco and His Brothers solidified his place as a cinematic force to be reckoned with. 1960 was truly his year. The one-two punch of both these films didn't only showcase his star power, but also his great versatility. Rocco and Ripley couldn't be more different. Yet, Delon easily slips into these roles. In one hand, he plays a confident conniving psycho living life in the fast lane, and on the other, a subtle nuanced angel rotting in the underbelly of Milan. The years that followed found Delon teaming up with Europe's greatest filmmakers. Some notable roles include his performance as the materialistic stockbroker in Antonioni's L'Eclisse, the cunning Prince in Visconti's period epic The Leopard, and the delinquent-turned-smooth criminal in Henri Renoir's caper adventure Any Number Can Win. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, he was working with legendary filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville, most notably in the crime thriller Les Samourais, which is often hailed as Delon's best and most culturally impactful role. This decade was widely considered to be the actor's golden years. His stardom during this period in European cinema was truly defined by three things. His beauty, ideal masculinity, and style. Film scholars Nick Reese Roberts and Darren Waldron edited a fascinating collection of articles for the Bloomsbury Academic called Alain Delon Style, Stardom, and Masculinity, which does a deep dive on these particular topics. I'll do my best to summarize what they say and add a few more sources that I found in other academic journals or contemporary articles. Reese Roberts and Waldron first cite Delon's obvious beauty as the main factor of his stardom. The young actor became a movie star because he was seen as naturally beautiful. His smooth skin, piercing blue eyes, symmetrical face, and delicate nose, luscious hair, and slim torso, all visually embellished by they write. The early 1960s was a time when European cinema saw the importance of selling beauty to a post-war world. This saw a rise in glamorous actors who could embody the European ideal. Actresses like Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, and Claudia Cardenale rose to prominence in this era. On the male side, there was only Alain Delon. This collection of gorgeous young stars controlled a lot of power in the industry. They were so popular, critically and financially, that they were able to dictate which roles they wanted to play. They could easily do popular entertainment genres one minute, then contemporary auteur cinema the next. However, Delon was in a league of his own. Eventually, he would surpass his peers, becoming the highest paid actor in France. The second aspect in his stardom is that Alain Delon embodied an ideal masculinity that men admired and longed to imitate. Before Delon's debut in 1957, leading men of French cinema were often in the image of Jean Gabin and André Vidal, imposingly built men with boxy features. This is in contrast to Delon's slender body type, sharp face, and naturally graceful glide. The way he carried himself redefined how the modern European man of the 1960s should act and behave. Not to mention, his choice of roles as the brooding rebel, the ladies' man, or the quiet killer truly struck a chord with fans. Women wanted him. Men idolized him. In articles of the period, Delon was often compared to the likes of Marlon Brando and James Dean, Hollywood's idea of what a man should be. The last factor is his imitable style, which, I would argue, is what Delon is most remembered for today. While researching this episode, I literally found three articles about this one shirt he wore in Purple Noon. Delon's style, which has been described as simple, well-tailored, timeless, and carefree, revolutionized menswear in the 1960s and continues to be influential today. Mark Gallagher notes that Delon could be idolized by men and women alike because he is easily detached from exclusively French contexts. He writes, This statement reminds me a lot of Audrey Hepburn's image in pop culture. She too was a Her impact on style is undeniable, and I would argue Delon's is too. He, in terms of fashion, is the male counterpart of Audrey Hepburn. Just go to Instagram and search his hashtag, and you'll find hundreds of thousands of posts about him. Not bad for a French actor who started his career 66 years ago. Apart from the enduring status of his filmography and the large online discourse about his clothing and style, many big fashion brands have used Delon's image to sell their products. The most notable being Dior, who rejuvenated their classic fragrance Eau Sauvage in 2009 by using clips of Delon from 1969's La Piscine. The actor also has a huge following in East Asia, where he is still considered one of the biggest Western stars. 90% of the turnover of Delon's current fashion label comes from Asian markets such as Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, while the brand continues to be virtually unknown in Europe. Rhys Roberts writes that Asian fans are said to idolize the star and emulate his various looks from the 1960s and 1970s, essentially becoming Delon by consuming his branded merchandise. In addition, his place in pop culture has been cemented by other great artists. John Woo pays homage to his image and The Smiths have put him on an album cover, and Madonna even wrote a song about him called Beautiful Killer. This is only scratching the surface on Delon's impact on style, fashion, and pop culture, because if I continued, this video would be longer than it already is. Whole scholarly journals have been written about it, and you can easily find them online. Despite massive stardom in Europe and Asia, Delon never made it big in America. He made a few films with MGM in the mid-1960s, most of which were shot in Europe. The studio believed in his star power, but for one reason or another, he just really never clicked with American audiences. Many scholars cite different reasons for Delon's failure to cross over. Some mention how his beauty just didn't appeal to the mass market, and that his English wasn't good enough. I've seen films from this period, and to be honest, Delon isn't bad at English at all. In my opinion, he probably never became a star in America because MGM simply didn't know what to do with him. The roles he was given weren't very substantial, therefore never allowing him to show his versatility. He was often cast in small roles in big ensemble pictures, never outshining the big American movie star lead, or was boxed as the Latin lover stereotype. For instance, his part in 1964's The Yellow Rolls Royce is embarrassingly thankless. All he does is stand around, look pretty, and woo Shirley MacLaine with random musical numbers. There are some gems in Delon's English language career, but none of them hold the candle to his golden years in European cinema. After his failed attempt at Tinseltown, he would try again in the early 1970s, he moved back to France with his wife Natalie and continued to make films on his home Then 1968 rolled along, a scandal was about to begin, and it would rock France and Alain Delon forever. On October 1, 1968, the body of Stéphane Markovic, a young Yukoslav, was found in a public dump west of Paris. When it was discovered that Markovic was Alain Delon's private secretary and bodyguard, although he would deny it, the media went into a frenzy. What would later be known as the Markovic affair became one of France's most shocking political scandals. The case, which was never solved, exposed many things, particularly Delon's ties with European gangsters and sexual liaisons with prominent figures in Parisian café society. Although I won't go through every single detail of the affair, it is important to know about it when understanding Delon's career and complicated stardom. In 1962, Delon arrived in Belgrade, which was then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, to begin work on a proposed film about the life of Marco Polo. There, he met Nikola Milinkovic, better known as Milos Milos, a Serbian gangster whom he hired as a bodyguard. Milos and Delon became quick friends, with Milos even introducing him to his eventual wife Natalie. In 1964, Milos left for Hollywood to seek out fame and fortune. To replace him, he suggested that the actor hire Stevan Markovic, whom he remembered in Belgrade as a notorious street fighter and petty criminal. As he and Delon became close, Markovic was exposed to the world of money and glamour. He became a frequent gambler and began throwing sex-fueled parties for the French elite. Eventually, Delon became concerned about Markovic's lifestyle because there were rumors that he was severely in debt and was having an affair with Natalie. Although it isn't 100% confirmed, it is strongly believed that Markovic was blackmailing his high-profile party guests with revealing pictures of them participating in orgies. These rumored photos included Alain Delon, mobster Francois Marcatoni, whom Delon was close friends with, as well as future President Pompidou and his wife Claude. An article published by The Guardian on January 25, 1969 sums it up best. Early inquiries revealed that Markovic was involved in a drug ring and that he organized parties at which the entertainment catered for somewhat specialized tastes. Paris has been seething with rumors about the public figures, including leading politicians, who are said to have been involved in these parties, to have been photographed in compromising situations, or to have been threatened by Markovic, whose subsidiary activities were understood to have included blackmail. On September 22, 1968, Markovic left his Paris apartment and was never to be seen alive again. Days later, his body was discovered, wrapped in a sheet, tied at the arms and legs, and shot at the back of his head. Delon was busy filming La Messine in Saint-Tropez when Markovic's body was found. He was quickly asked to return to Paris for questioning. Initially, Delon declined knowing Markovic at all, but it was soon revealed by authorities that Markovic's brother sent him a letter that said, if I get killed, it's 100% the fault of Alain Delon and his godfather Francois Marcopone. Delon was then interrogated for 48 hours. When he returned home, he participated in this BBC interview. my wife. Then, after that, she became his mistress. But it's normal. She was free. And, well, it's maybe bad that she picked my friend. But she had a life, I had mine, and that's all normal. You have a lot of toughs among your friends, haven't you? Yeah, why? Well, you do. You have. Yes, I do. Why and why not? I think it's my privilege to choose my friend and to be chosen by my friends. Doesn't matter if they're gangsters, tough guy, priest, monks, anything you want. Could you kill a man or have a man killed? Here's a fair question in the middle of the Markovic affair. If I answer yes, people would do. And let's say I answer no, they would do. Alexander Markovic, Stefan's brother, claims that he met Mr. Pompidou at your home. He's a liar. He's a liar. Well, he claims that he met Mr. Pompidou. But there's a vague suggestion going around Paris that, you know, you and Mr. Pompidou or people close to him were mixed up in orgies. You know, people say, you know, they don't like that sort of thing. Well, that's what I call a novel. It's an old invention. It was proved by the police. It never existed. But it was part of that, it's one of the reasons why Mr. Pompidou's name was mixed with that affair. But those orgies never exist. For me personally, I think that the best orgy is the orgy between two people. People, once more, don't say it straight to your face, but they suggest very, very strongly that you have homosexual tastes. So what's wrong if I had, or if I did, would I be guilty of something? If I like it, I'll do it. We have a great actor in France named Michel Simon. And Michel Simon said once, if you like your goat, make love with your goat. But the only matter is to love. Rumors swirled of various different possibilities in why Markovic was killed. Many believed that Markovic had in possession photos of DeLonge engaging in gay sex, which would effectively end his career as a sex symbol. This gave authorities reason to believe that he had a motive. Eventually, it was gangster Marco Toni who was arrested, spending 11 months in custody, before being released on December of 1969 for lack of evidence. I won't get too much into this because there's a lot of other details that are too complicated to discuss. There's even a conspiracy theory that the French intelligence service in Charles de Gaulle's inner circle fabricated the photos by hiring a prostitute that looked like Claude Pompidou to ruin the former prime minister's presidential chances. Meanwhile, DeLonge was on a public manhunt against the police, whom he said was harassing him and was trying to implicate innocent people. It's all very messy and truly shook up DeLonge's life. What he would do next in his film career was key to his public image. While DeLonge would forever be associated with the Markovic affair, he bounced back in true movie star fashion. Capitalizing on his newly gained infamy, DeLonge entered the 1970s with a string of gangster-themed films. This includes Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Cercle Rouge from 1970, which portrays the star as a heartless criminal. This intrigued fans and it was a major box office success. There was also Jacques Deray's Porcelino, the very same year, which teamed him up with Jean-Paul Belmundo, the other massive French actor of the time. The picture broke box office records and was the fourth most watched movie of the year, edging out Le Cercle Rouge, which was at fifth place. Both films are strongly believed to have gotten a boost in popularity due to the Markovic affair, which was still being heavily discussed in the media. Despite being embroidered in a massive scandal, DeLonge was able to win the back of the public the best way he could, through his movie stardom. on tv and was not that kind of show unfortunately it wasn't not that funny i had sort of a relation with the audience and i had to explain myself and to talk to them and it was in france so it was much simpler and probably the way i talked to them i got them back in a way yeah on my side yeah and fortunately they were the only one i had on my side but when you got the audience on your side you just can't lose yeah despite beginning the decade strong the late 1970s is often considered the decline of Alain DeLonge's career. While he continued to work steadily, many scholars have pointed that the star dug his own grave. Now middle-aged, DeLonge wanted to take things into his own hands. He opened his own production company and was part of every artistic decision on his films. Isabel van der Sheldren writes, as a producer, DeLonge had more power to influence the casting but also the filmmaking process and artistic decisions, including those concerning Miss Ansan. Significantly, he stayed away from a new generation of emerging stars and directors, increasingly cutting himself off from the cinema of his time. He even tended to cast himself as sole star, playing an isolated protagonist and teaming up with relatively unknown actors and secondary roles. In this respect, his production practices sought to boost his star status. In short, the movie star just couldn't get with the times. He wanted to do the same old formula of what initially made him famous, but audiences were clamoring for something new and modern. Of course, there were some exemptions. In 1976, he made the which features some of his very best dramatic work. In 1985, he won the César Award for Best Actor, which is the French equivalent to an Oscar, for his work in Our History. In the next few decades, he appeared in films and on television on a regular basis, but none of them made the same impact as his early work. When he had a stroke in 2019, he decided to end his film career. He now lives in his estate in Switzerland, where he has gained citizenship. This brings us to the where Delon received an honorary Palme d'Or for his remarkable career. It was the height of the MeToo movement, and activist groups thought it extremely inappropriate to honor the actor with such a prestigious award. Melissa Silverstein, founder of Women in Hollywood, expressed her disappointment in a series of tweets that pointed out Delon's controversial support of France's his alleged abuse of women, and his homophobic comments about same-sex adoption. Days later, an online petition was launched, asking the festival not to honor him. 26,000 people signed it. Despite the backlash, CanSlow decided to move forward with the awarding ceremony, where Delon was greeted with a standing ovation. Festival director Thierry Fermao said that they He also said, Delon, too, made a statement, saying, While many people were against the celebration, Delon also had a legion of fans who defended his honor. Many people claimed that the arguments and quotes used to dismiss the actor were used out of context, was hearsay, or simply wasn't true. Lisa Nesselson, a writer for RogerEbert.com, was quick to contextualize and defend Delon in her May 2019 article. She points out that, as a public figure in a free society, the actor has the right to express his opinions. She also notes Delon's lifelong friendship with his mentor, the openigay Lucino Visconti, who was instrumental in making him a star in Rocco and His Brothers. Furthermore, she also referenced the 1969 BBC interview, which I showed earlier in this video essay. When asked if he had homosexual tastes, Delon replied that if he had, it was nobody's business but his, and that it was okay to do things if he liked it. That was a spectacularly brave pronouncement for an incandescent international star to make at the time, when gay bashing was considered sport, she writes. Other arguments Nesselson made included Delon's decision to hire blacklisted director Joseph Lousey for Mr. Klein while he was in exile in England. The film, which was artistically spearheaded by the actor, a star, and producer, talks about the horrors of antisemitism in Nazi-occupied France. Look, I'm not trying to defend Alain Delon, but I do think it's important to understand the context of everything before making a stance. For instance, in my research, I found an interview from Italian Vanity Fair in which Delon's youngest son, Alain Fabian, said his father had a violent temper but was never abusive with his children. However, he did reveal that Delon had assaulted his mother and broken her ribs and her nose twice. Delon's senior made a statement saying that his son's story is completely fabricated and sued the magazine for slander. While other publications were quick to quote the younger Delon to grab headlines, what they never mention is that the two had an estranged and bitter relationship during this time. Alain Fabian would later admit that their falling out wasn't even about his mother's abuse but about his father's non-confidence in his career as an actor and model. Still, I don't dismiss these claims at all. It could be true. Do I believe Alain Delon is an abusive partner? It is very possible. We will never know what happens behind closed doors. But while he isn't convicted of anything, it's also easy for me to separate the man from his art. Although this video essay barely scratches the surface on Delon's fascinating life and career, I hope I've provided enough context to help you better understand him. There are so many other things I had to exclude, like the terrible relationships he had with his sons, legitimate and illegitimate, his participation in Gaullist politics, and his involvement in some of the most highly publicized romantic relationships in celebrity history. But there are also some good things I wasn't able to mention too. For instance, his commitment to animal rights, his successful musical career, and his never-ending devotion to Romy Schneider, who unexpectedly died in her early 40s. If you're not too familiar with Alain Delon's work, I truly recommend that you seek him out. His early pictures are truly masterpieces of cinema and shouldn't be missed. However, take a chance on the hidden gems too. As a big fan of his filmography, I thought I had seen most of the required viewing. But while writing this essay, I decided to immerse myself in as many Delon films as I possibly could. In the process, I was introduced to many great films I've never heard of before. 1963's Any Number Can Win is now in my top 5 favorite movies of his. It's such a fun, stylish heist movie and I've never seen the star cheekier than he is in it. I also really enjoyed the anthology film Spirits of the Dead, an episodic Twilight Zone-esque movie that features twin Alain's dueling to the death. The Criterion Channel is a great place to get started for your Alain Delon introduction. The streaming service has many of his greatest hits as well as some lesser-known pictures. If I've made you even remotely curious to watch a Delon film, then I think I've done my job. But remember, there is a complicated man behind those piercing blue eyes and perfectly styled hair. He's more than a pretty face.