NEWS:  OCTOBER-DECEMBER 2020

Home | Latest News | Biography | Filmography | Theatre | Articles/Interviews | Gallery

It must be that age has caught up with me because I just discovered that I neglected to post a photo gallery from April 2013 on the French Cinema Today Festival that took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan. You can view it at this link. Here's Vincent talking to the press.

The opening film at the festival was Vincent's romantic comedy "Un Prince presque Charmant", directed by Philippe Lellouche. Vincent had been a special guest at the Eurasia International Film Festival in Almaty the year before and was so fascinated by the audience that he promised to return. He kept his word and brought Lellouche with him the next year.

One of Vincent's newest projects in the works is a thriller that is presently titled "Elements of Fear". It's set at sea between a young couple and a stranger on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean off the Portuguese coast. Right away you have to think of the Australian 1989 thriller "Dead Calm".  Apparently it was written by Vincent from an original idea and will be rewritten by Scottish screenwriter John Collee. It will be directed by Vincent and produced by Jeremy Thomas, who will partner with a French co-producer. Thomas founded Recorded Picture Company in 1974 and has since produced over sixty films, including Bernardo Bertolucci’s nine-time Academy Award-winner "The Last Emperor". He is seen in the photo below at last year's Rencontres 7e Art Lausanne. He's standing third from the right next to Vincent.

I've added more photos to last year's Rencontres gallery that include Vincent and his daughter Iman posing with singer Alexiane, who happens to be the daughter of a Franco-Senegalese father and a Quebec mother. The fourth photo shows Vincent's son Pablo with his mother.

Alexiane was also a guest at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2017 when  "Hochelaga, Land of Souls" was screened. So adorable!

And finally, here's an undated photo by Carly Dame of Vincent's three children.

France24.com has reported that Vincent hooked up this month with his friend Sarah Poniatowski for a photo shoot for her sunglasses ad. After Sarah divorced Marc Lavoine, she returned to her maiden name on social networks but kept the Lavoine name for her company Maison Sarah Lavoine. Offering a new range of sunglasses for both men and women, Sarah had to find the perfect partner to pose beside so she chose her long-time friend Vincent. The center photo below shows the two of them at a 2016 event.

Back in June, Vincent expressed the sentiments of his daughter Tess on racism saying he was proud of her support for George Floyd. That shouldn't come as a surprise since she is the  daughter of a Franco-Senegalese mother. Vincent goes on to say that there is a serious need to change and denounce racism. Vincent adds that when Tess was born,  an astrologer told him that all her planets were aligned and that she would succeed in anything she decides to do with her life. The more he sees her becoming a young woman, the more he believes in what the astrologer told him.

Yesterday was the 22nd wedding anniversary of Vincent and Karine and these photos were posted by Vincent with the caption - "I am the luckiest man to be able to share my life with you!".

As previously reported, in 2018 Vincent joined the cast of a Chinese film. Directed by  Zheng Xiaolong, the film is an adaptation of Puccini's famous opera "Turandot". Set in China, it tells the story of Prince Calaf, who falls in love with the cold-hearted Princess Turandot. The prince must solve three riddles in order to marry her, with a single wrong answer punishable by death. The film remains in post-production and has been re-titled THE CURSE OF TURANDOT. In August the producers released three teaser posters showing giant bracelets of different colors circling ominously above a castle, demonstrating the production's magical and fantasy elements and a looming empire war. The film's cast also includes Guan Xiaotong, Jiang Wen, Hu Jun, Dylan Sprouse and Sophie Marceau. An official release date has yet to be announced.

In September, Vincent was in Switzerland at a special event for Scabal's, the Belgium textile company. In this photo, he poses with Eric Becker, head of Scabal Geneva. Vincent appears so much older but very distinguished.

Blast from the Past - At the French Film Trophies event in January 1994 in Paris looking so young and debonair. Not all men can wear long hair and look gorgeous. He caught my eye for the first time 22 years ago in the HBO film "Shot Through the Heart".

At the moment, it's a quiet time in Vincent's public life so there isn't much to report. I'm sure he's keeping busy in his usual creative manner. Considering this lull, I have reached into my extensive files I've kept over the past 20 years. Today I've posted a gallery on a Disneyland Paris visit that Vincent made with his mother, brother, sister-in-law and their three children back in February 1997.

On June 25, 1996, Vincent attended the 6th annual BAFTA awards at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. I have no information as to why he attended this event.

Every October Vincent and Karine attend the Grand Lyon Film Festival. Previously I had only these first two photos from Lumière 2017. On Saturday, October 21, the House of Books, Pictures and Sound hosted a master class with Vincent when he presented his photography book, "Un Voyage en Russie".
 

These new photos show the pair participating in Radio Lumière, the festival's radio station.
 

On October 17th during the festival, Vincent was invited for an open conversation at the Maison du livre, de l’image et du son of Villeurbanne. The event was called - "Vincent Perez: Confessions of a Voyager". It was said that the actor came to meet his audience with an open spirit and zero pretense.

Vincent spoke on several topics including these three:

On Vocation: "As a child, I spent my days drawing and playing soccer. A little later in school, I started the theater, directing my classmates in plays. At age 14, I acted in my first play. At the end of the show, I thought I was going to be yelled at. In fact, everyone congratulated me, and I knew I was going exactly in the right direction! I applied to the Conservatory of Geneva and then moved to Paris at age 17 to attend the Conservatory there: it was amazing to meet people who had the same passion I did."

On Patrice Chéreau: "I started working with Patrice Chéreau when I was a third-year student at the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Paris. It was extraordinary to film with him. He’s someone who pushed you to go beyond your comfort zone. He was my mentor, a master who helped me gain recognition. He had an incredible work ethic - Patrice never took vacations. My work with him helped define my approach to certain characters I played. Moreover, he also had me work a lot on my humor, especially for the character of Serge in 'Hotel de France'."

The above photo shows Bruno Todeschini, Laurent Grévill, Isabelle Renauld, Patrice and Vincent at the Théâtre des Amandiers in 1987.

On "Cyrano de Bergerac": "Filming 'Cyrano de Bergerac' was a tour de force for everyone: Jean-Paul Rappeneau was at the height of his glory. There were phenomenal actors like Gérard Depardieu and Anne Brochet and a role for me that corresponded well with the work I’d done with Patrice Chéreau. I have never experienced that since the film! And then, when one works with an actor like Depardieu, with a character that suits him so well... It was incredible. I was so impressed. To act with him, you have to let go. You cannot hide yourself away. Gérard lifts you up. He supports you." [Depardieu is the father of Karine's oldest daughter Roxanne]

Vincent's daughter Iman was featured in UK's Daily Mail on October 28th. They wrote - "Daughter of Swiss actor Vincent Perez and Senegalese model-actress Karine Silla, Iman Perez inherited her parents' good looks and ease in front of the camera. The 21-year-old is represented by Next Model Management and has already bagged campaigns with Hermes and Zadig & Voltaire. Away from modeling, Iman is an accomplished equestrian. She made her debut into society at the 2015 Bal des Débutantes. Before the pandemic struck, the model spent her time criss-crossing between Paris and New York, which she described as her 'second home'. Grounded in France for the foreseeable, Iman headed south to Saint Tropez over the summer but is now back in the city." The following two photos were included.

Iman also recently modeled for Harper's Bazaar in a photo shoot highlighting Louis Vuitton's Stellar Times High Jewelry Collection designed by Francesca Amfitheatrof. Love the first one!

For those who are not familiar with Iman's mother, Karine Silla, here is a mini-biography. She was born in 1965 in Dakar to a Catholic-French mother and a Muslim-Senegalese father, who was a United Nations diplomat. Karine lived most of her childhood and adolescence in Paris. She had a passion for dancing that was cut short in her teen years due to a knee injury. On her 18th birthday, she crossed the pond to take up modeling in New York. She then returned to Paris working as an actress and later became a screenwriter and director. In 2014 her first book was published called "Monsier et Mort". That was followed by "Autour du soleil" in 2016,  "L’absente de Noël in 2017, and her fourth novel "Aline et les hommes" was  published in August.

This last novel is biographical following a childhood memory. Her father had told her the story of this brave woman named Aline Sitoé Diatta, who was born in 1920 in the south of Senegal and became an icon of resistance against colonialism. Writing this story took three years, required a lot of research and was a plunge into the heart of her own origins. The first photo is from French Vogue magazine.

Flashback to 1989 - Vincent with Jacqueline Bisset at a London Party.

What a crazy year this has been with this horrid pandemic! It's been months since Vincent has shown his face but I do have an update today. Lo and behold, the organizers of the Lumière Festival, which takes place every October in Lyon, France, decided to hold their annual film event. This comes as a surprise since France is presently experiencing a dangerous surge. Yesterday the health ministry reported more than 32,000 new confirmed cases of Covid-19, the highest single-day tally since the start of the pandemic. A 9 pm to 6 am curfew has been issued in the Paris region and eight other large cities, affecting nearly a third of the country's population. At least most folks in the audience are wearing masks but, unfortunately, there's no social distancing in place.

Created in 2009 by the Institut Lumière, the festival has become one of the largest international festivals of classic cinema. This major 10-day festival involves 60 sites spread across Greater Lyon, including retrospectives and tributes presented by actors, filmmakers, etc. The program features major international classics with restored copies of everything from early silent movies to recent films. The 2020 Prix Lumière will be awarded at a gala ceremony to the Belgian directing brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, as recognition of their entire career.

The following photos were taken on Friday, October 16th. Note that Vincent is wearing brown, not his usual black. That loose tie (now fashionable) spoils the perfect look.