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31 December 2020 |
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.

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19 December 2020 |
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".
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08 November 2020 |
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]
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05 November 2020 |
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.
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18 October 2020 |
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.
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