Two more French articles have been added to the Archives, both translated by Janette Sylvian, who continues to do a top notch job for us. Merci beaucoup! The first one is from the Version Femme magazine dated March 15, 2000 and includes an interview in regard to his film Le Libertin. I was pleased to discover his fav female singer is the same as mine - Barbra, and being a pacifist, I respect him for choosing his fav film as "Paths of Glory", a superb film on the insanity of war.

The second article is also an interview from the February 13, 1997 issue of Paris Match magazine, which highlights his trip to Disneyland Paris with his family (we finally get to see a photo of his mom), and also his desire for a wife and family of his own.

New additions! From the May 1992 issue of French Premiere magazine comes a great article about Vincent's experience in making Indochine (generously translated by Cinzia Masina). In this lushly photographed film, Vincent plays a handsome French naval officer. It ranks high on my list of romantic Perez roles. Just his name - Jean-Baptiste - will melt your heart! If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend heading to your nearest Blockbuster to rent it.

Vincent comments on this scene - "We walked this distance dressed in our costumes, hand in hand, without speaking. Then we layed down in this fragile boat while the technicians stayed on another boat a distance from us. I was alone driving the sampan, Linh Dan sleeping close to me. I could see the boat with the camera far away, tiny. I was alone. I wanted to shout from happiness and I should have done it. It was wonderful like living in a legend."

The second article is from the May 2000 issue of Star Inc, and hats off to Janette Sylvian again for doing the French translation. We both agree that the writer is incorrect in stating that Americans refer to him as "Vince Perez". Next time it might be "Vinnie"! Heavens, no! It shall remain "Vah-cent". The article ends with comments in regard to I Dreamed of Africa - "One will have reasons to dream of him for a long time. . . ." How true!

Summer is upon us and soon I'll become a beach bum as I head for the coast of Maine. Because there will be few, if any, updates during the summer, I'm planning to post several new articles and photos very shortly for you to savor! As a preview, I've featured the photo below from the February 1997 issue of Paris Match magazine. I'm sure you'll agree that this pose in leather (a la Crow) definitely evokes a range of sexual fantasies!

I've also added another article regarding Vincent's marriage to Karine Silla. It's from the December 1998 issue of Voici magazine and has some interesting details on how their romance fared over ten years. Special thanks go to Janette Sylvian of Massachusetts for her generosity in doing the French translation and to Cody Sian-Michel of Colorado for sharing this article with us.

For those of you residing in the NYC area, Le Temps Retrouve (Time Regained) is now playing (in French with English subtitles) at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, Broadway at 63rd Street, and Cinema Village, 12th Street near University Place, Manhattan. John Anderson of Newsday describes it as a "Gloriously ambitious, radiant translation of Marcel Proust's last book into a gilded visual poetry...The characters parade out of Proust's novel in all their intrigues, romantic entanglements, embodied by some of France's more spectacular vessels: Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Beart, Vincent Perez, Chiara Mastroianni."

It looks like good news for those of you who missed I Dreamed of Africa at the theater -  According to Upcomingmovies.com, the DVD/video release date has been set for August 29th. Amazon.com will be selling the DVD at $20.96 and the video at $104.76! Guess you'll probably want to head to your nearest video rental store until the price goes down.

Variety reports that "Bruce Beresford is in Austria directing Bride of the Wind starring Sarah Wynter, Jonathan Pryce and Vincent Perez...Wynter plays Alma Schindler Mahler, considered the most beautiful woman in turn-of-the-century Vienna. Yes, there are many love scenes in the film, and Wynter is to be seen nude, but Beresford promises, 'It will be in reasonably good taste.'" If Sarah is nude, we can surmise that Vincent may appear nude once more since he's one of her lovers. For more information on this film, check out the May newsletter.

With the first anniversary of this web site this month, I am pleased to announce that the Vincent Perez Archives now has 150 pages with over 500 photos! And there's still much more to come... By the way, I added Vincent's photo from July's issue of Movieline under the June 9 update below.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY VINCENT!

THIS DATE ALSO MARKS THE FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF THE VINCENT PEREZ ARCHIVES!

[Photo contributed by Andrea of Brazil]

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The book Toxic Fame: Celebrities Speak on Stardom by Joey Berlin (published in '96) has a few quotes from Vincent -

Close Encounters with Fans:
"I always get asked, 'May I see you in your room' or 'Could you kiss me?' which is quite strange. Sometimes in letters people ask me to give them money. I'm always amazed by that."

Jackals of the Press:
"I'm in the gossip magazines these days and I hate that. They really give me a hard time, following me. I was in Spain, so suddenly I catch one at the airport. I was so happy and I took everything, the cameras, the films. The guy was trembling. He was shaking. I said, 'Goodbye, thank you.' I didn't hurt him. I just took his work with me. I was in a killing mood and he just let me do what I wanted to do."

Weird Rumors:
"With Isabelle Adjani, that was awful. Everybody ws saying in the press that she died. She was at home, very quiet, watching TV, and suddenly she sees this on TV because of a gossip magazine that started to create that. What about her friends and everybody surrounding her?"

Isolation/Alienation/Sex Symbolism:
"Love scenes are not my favorite scenes. You feel like a piece of meat at the end of the day. It's a bit depressing, in fact. You can't touch. You can't do anything. I'm always behaving like a gentleman, covering my partner and just trying to make her relax. Everything is so precise when you do a love scene. There is no improvisation. The camera is following your hand and your movements."

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Speaking of love scenes, in the July issue of Movieline magazine, celebrities were asked what their favorite love scene was. Vincent responded, "I'd have to say The Postman Always Rings Twice, where Jack Nicholson puts Jessica Lange on the table. I'm glad you're not asking about a sex scene I was in because I hate my sex scenes - oh God!"

University Wire carried a very enlightening article from the Daily Bruin (UCLA) on May 31 written by Laura Loh. It was a commentary (that I think you'll agree with) on foreign actors and Hollywood. Laura is Chinese and when she was backpacking in Morocco last summer, a young boy said to her, "Jackie Chan!" She writes, "That was my first indication of how universal Jackie Chan has become. Even in the desert of Morocco, which seemed a haven free of outside influences, Jackie Chan was known and loved as he is in Asia and America."

"Recently I've become interested in the role foreign actors play in Hollywood, so I've been dutifully watching lots of Hong Kong films with Jet Lie and Chow-Yun Fat and French films with Gerard Depardieu and Vincent Perez. The tie that binds them is that they are all superstars who have been lured away from their native lands by Hollywood. But their common fate has been a failure to cross over to an international audience the way Jackie Chan has. Hollywood is eager to cash in on actors who have enjoyed successful careers overseas, but judging by some of the recent American vehicles for these actors, it seems like Hollywood doesn't have a clue how to use this foreign talent."

Ms. Loh goes on to say that "a crime was committed against Vincent Perez by the makers of I Dreamed of Africa. Did they never see him in Indochine? Was there nothing in the quasi-divinity of his good looks and performance to study and replicate? Africa certainly managed to nearly extinguish his charm and reduce him to a dusty pedestal for Kim Basinger's glowing beauty..."

"For Hollywood filmmakers who want to use popular foreign actors, I have this piece of advice: Take half as much care filming them as you do of your middle-aged actresses and our foreign men will hold their own. But beyond this merely cosmetic concern is a worrisome lack of understanding about how to make a foreign actor fit into a Hollywood-style film. Just as Harrison Ford is good at playing a certain type of character, these foreign actors also have certain roles that help them shine, but no effort is made in Hollywood to study their previous work and to learn what these roles are..."

"My biggest worry is that Americans who have only seen these wonderful actors in their miscalculated Hollywood ventures will wonder what all the hoopla is about. To these people, I urge and plead with them to endure the subtitles and to judge foreign actors by some of their own countries' films."

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You can read a brief interview that Kim Basinger did with Vincent for the June issue of Interview magazine. Many thanks to the nameless fan who alerted me to this! The photo of Vincent is, of course, very intriguing because it's taken by famed photographer Bruce Weber. I have a few Bruce Weber photos of actor/playwright Sam Shepard, and they're all beautiful works of art. Wish I could buy the original glossy of this photo of Vincent. 

While Vincent was attending the Paris Film Festival in late March, he did an interview for World Online, in which he mentions past and present films that have touched him. Merci beaucoup, Janette Sylvian, for your French translation!

As I mentioned previously, Vincent was interviewed on a segment of Starz's Hollywood One on One in connection with I Dreamed of Africa. It ran several times and may even be repeated this week. I was able to tape it on Friday. As usual, he was very sweet and spoke affectionately about fatherhood. I especially enjoyed the host's introduction - "He is considered to be one of the leading, leading men in Europe. Vincent Perez. Yet in Hollywood, he's best known for his work in the sequel to The Crow. Many women dream of Vincent Perez. Many men dream of being Vincent Perez. After all, he's worked with some of the most beautiful actresses in the world." It's interesting that these comments reflect the above commentary by Laura Loh.

Now it's become Sognando L'Africa in Italy with its premiere this past weekend. Andrea Contucci of Italy reports that the film is doing very well. It is #2 at the box office making 800.000.000 lire in the first three days. Great news! Vincent was in Rome last week to promote the film and did some television interviews.