Latest News - The Vincent Perez Archives

21 June 2018

Last week Vincent's wife Karine participated in the Cabourg Film Festival as a jury member. The first two photos show her with daughter Tess on the red carpet during the closing ceremony on June 16.

Another family member has come to my attention recently. I had no knowledge of Alexiane Silla until this week. Karine's Franco-Senegalese brother fathered her in 1992. Her mother is white, the daughter of a Canadian diplomat. Alexiane is a singer-musician and last year one of her songs made it to the soundtrack of uncle Luc Besson's film "Valerian". She spent her childhood in Dakar and has lived in Quebec since she was 9. These photos show her and her mother at the Montreal premiere of "Hochelaga" in September.

Following two highly successful previous events, the VR Arles Festival returns to Couvent Saint-Césaire in Arles between July 2 and August 26 for its third year. The festival aims to bring virtual reality cinema, documentary film and artistic creation into the spotlight. The opening week from July 2-8 will be devoted to a competition judged by a jury presided over by Actress Marie Gillain. Sitting on the jury will be Vincent joined by Charlotte Abramow, Christopher Miles, Christophe Ono-dit-Bio, Marie Guillaumont and James Thierrée.stant Editorial Director at Le Point political and news magazine), Marie Guillaumont (Director of Content at TF1 and formerly the group’s Drama Commissioner) and James Thierrée (actor, theatre director, acrobat). 17 films will compete in four categories.

From November 8 to 12, 2018, Paris Salon de la Photo will be back at the Parc des Expositions in Porte de Versailles. This year Vincent has the honor to host the ceremony. The fair features most of the biggest brands of the picture world with over 180 brands represented. For five days, they reveal their novelties as well as their originalities. The Salon de la Photo will also award two photographers with the ZOOM du Public award and ZOOM de la Presse Photo award.

Blast from the Past: I've never seen this photo which was featured in a 1995 edition of El Pais. How do you like the cigarette? Smoking is such a nasty habit. The article describes Vincent as "The Great European Seducer". The caption reads, "To Vincent Perez, love scenes seem simpler than drinking a cup of coffee. This actor displays a catalog of seductive tricks in Queen Margot. In Tentaciones, the magazine that is offered with EL PAÍS, he bares his feelings and confesses his difficult coexistence with beauty.

31 May 2018

While I was on holiday this month, I see that Vincent made his annual appearance at the Cannes Film Festival. The 2018 Cannes Classics lineup included the restored version of Cyrano de Bergerac and, on hand, to represent the film was the director Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Vincent and co-star Jacques Weber. The film's star, Gerard Depardieu, was not in attendance. Rappeneau was not the first to take up the challenge of adapting Edmond Rostand's masterpiece, but he did a superior job with much panache. Vincent recalled the 1990 premiere at Cannes in a Renault video. Click on the photo below to view the clip. He shares how it was one of his most incredible moments at Cannes. There was applause at the end of several scenes, just like at the Opera and before the movie even ended, the whole audience stood up for a standing ovation. The applause continued outside the theater as well. An amazing experience for the young Vincent.

Flashback - 1990 Cannes premiere:

Here are some snapshots of Vincent at the film festival. You can check out more photos in the Cannes 2018 Gallery.

On May 21, Vincent's wife Karine was present at the Atelier Lejeusne in Paris attending the launch of the brand New Era by her 26-year-old daughter Roxane Depardieu. A line of T-shirts and sweaters was unveiled featuring her artwork. Roxane is a graduate of the Los Angeles Institute of Art.

As you may have noticed, Roxane's appearance in the past year or two has greatly changed. In the more recent photos, she looks rather Mexican or Native American. The braids need to go! She was once a very glamorous Afro-French young woman as seen in the first photo below. The second photo shows a more recent photo of her with her half-sister, Tess Perez.

Back in November, Roxane launched her collaboration with TheFrenchKiss, which features a Parisian brand of bamboo and organic cotton clothing for men & women. Attending were her mother, her half-brother Pablo Perez and her aunt Virginie's stepdaughter, Juliette Besson. FYI, Juliette is Luc Besson's daughter by his first marriage to Anne Parillard. He is now married for the fourth time to Karine's sister Virginie. Life can get fairly complicated in the fast lane.

Noticeably absent in all of Roxane's art exhibitions and clothing launches is her stepfather although her biological father did make one appearance. About her affair with Gerard, Karine recently told a French magazine, "Roxane was legitimized by Gerard well before she was born. We met in New York and I followed him to Paris, where I discovered that he was a little less separated than he claimed. That his life was tangled." Indeed, he was still married to Élisabeth Guignot and four year later, after 26 years of marriage, they did divorce. However, he never married Karine and took up with actress Carole Bouquet. When Karine became pregnant again in the summer of 1998, Vincent, her boyfriend at the time, legalized their union in December that year.

I note that Karine is occasionally referred to as "writer Karine Silla". Though she has made her mark as a model, actress, screenwriter, director and novelist, she seems to most often be recognized as simply Vincent Perez's wife. She would be rightly recognized here in America for her own accomplishments.

In an Austrian interview in April, while Roxane was promoting the Culinary & Art Festival, of which Gerard is a patron, she described her relationship with her father as very good and said, "We often talk on the phone." When asked if it was true that her famous dad drank ten bottles of wine a day in the wild times, she responded, "Yes, that was the case. Maybe that's why I do not like alcohol. On special occasions, I sip a glass of champagne." Good for her!

US movie-goers are still awaiting the theatrical release of HOCHELAGA, LAND OF SOULS, while it continues to be featured at international film festivals. On June 21 it will be headed to Edinburgh. French-Canadian writer-director François Girard’s ambitious and beautifully sprawling film spans three centuries of Quebecois history. Starting out with an archaeological dig in a contemporary sports stadium, the film soon spirals back to the 17th century and a romance between a young Algonquin woman and a French trapper, before merging into the rebellions of 1837, when French patriots fought to escape the English redcoats. Vincent has the role of French explorer Jacques Cartier. New photo!

Sony Pictures Releasing have shared the first images of LADIES IN BLACK, the new comedy drama from director Bruce Beresford. Based on Madeleine St John’s best-selling novel, the film is due for release in Australian cinemas on October 18, 2018. The story is set in 1959 and tells the coming-of-age story of a suburban schoolgirl, who, while waiting for her final high school exam results, takes a summer job at a large department store. The film features a massive ensemble cast that includes Julia Ormond, Angourie Rice, Rachael Taylor, Alison McGirr, Ryan Corr, Shane Jacobson, Noni Hazlehurst, Susie Porter, Luke Pegler, Nicholas Hammond and, of course, Vincent. Production began in October last year with shooting taking place in Sydney and the Blue Mountains.

Sorry, no photos of Vincent. He has the role of Magda's (Julia Ormond) Hungarian husband Stefan. You may have noticed that it has been several years since Vincent starred in a major theatrical release though he continues to acquire supporting roles which, unfortunately, are neither in wide release or successful films. I don't know how lucrative his acting contracts are so perhaps he'll eventually drop acting and stick with his photography. With the disappointing reviews of "Alone in Berlin", it is doubtful he will be asked to direct again.

I've added these photos from the Schoko & Fashion party held in January:

09 May 2018

Some of Vincent's photography work can be seen in the latest edition of Normal magazine. Normal is a French high end quarterly magazine devoted to art photography, fashion and nude oriented. Between the art book and the magazine, it features series, interviews and portfolios mixing fashion and art together on 250 pages. You can view Vincent's photo session at this vimeo link. Since he was working with nudes, I put in some white circles.

Here's an interesting photograph by Derek Hudson of Vincent's wife Karine with their daughter Iman on the right and his stepdaughter Roxane on the left.

The following photos were taken for the first publication of "Vincent" magazine. I don't care for them at all.

13 April 2018

On April 5, Vincent and his wife attended the Madame Figaro dinner at Automobile Club de France. Certainly the men at this affair were more appropriately dressed than some of the women. Surprising to see some very unattractive outfits. Marion Cotillard, Camélia Jordana, and even Karine were on that list.

It appears that both Vincent and Karine are into hats these days. Here's a recent photo of the two of them about to jet off to another destination.

Though it was announced a year ago that Sony Pictures Classics had bought the North American rights to Roman Polanski's "D'après une histoire vraie" (Based on a True Story), the film still has not received a release date in the US or Canada. The film continues to open this spring in several other countries. Here are some new screen shots of Vincent:

What do you think of this caricature of Vincent? It certainly captures some of his features though I would have done more with his nose.

Blast from the past - a photo of Vincent from a 1992 edition of Japanese magazine "Switch".

01 April 2018

Easter Sunday Blessings!

In my last post, I discussed "The Crow: City of Angels" unaware that there was another Tim Pope/Vincent Perez collaboration going on. Pope, best known for directing music videos and documentaries is to direct "Drone", his first narrative feature film in more than 20 years. Pope describes the story - "It's about a 22-year-old boy, who looks after his mother and finds freedom with his drone. He forms a relationship [through the drone] with a woman who believes she is Marilyn Monroe." This synopsis sounds dreadful but evidently Pope developed this script with Vincent. The pair spent a weekend together at the director's home in England working on the screenplay and then Pope finished developing it. He says it will be shot on a "relatively small budget" but it will be "very cinematic".

Over the past several years, Vincent has been seen at several Renault events, perhaps there's a financial connection, but I came across Vincent in a recent Renault ad in a Japanese edition of Esquire magazine. The second photo shows him looking youthful and suave at Cannes in 2010 and the third photo was also at Cannes the following year. Being a partner at Cannes, Renaults are used by celebrities at the annual film festival.