“The ball is over. Tancredi has gone to dance with the stars…”, her partner in “The Leopard” reacted to AFP. “I am asked to put it into words… but the sadness is much too intense,” she added. “Per sempre tua (Yours forever), Angelica,” the actress concluded, signing with the name of her character in the film.
Paul Belmondo
On Instagram, the son of actor Jean-Paul Belmondo posted a photo of his father alongside Alain Delon, accompanied by a short message: “Alain, one day you told me that you missed my father, today it is you who will be greatly missed.”
Asked on BFMTV, he also felt that “it’s a page of cinema that is turning”.
Brigitte Bardot
The death of Alain Delon “creates an abysmal void that nothing, and no one, can fill,” Brigitte Bardot said on Sunday in a handwritten message sent to AFP.
“He represented the best of French prestige cinema. An ambassador of elegance, talent, and beauty,” wrote the woman who now remains the last living legend of the French 7th art. “I am losing a friend, an alter ego, an accomplice.”
Antonio Banderas
“Goodbye #ALAINDELON RIP,” he wrote on X, along with three photos of the actor.
Carla Brown
“Goodbye Alain Delon… We will not forget all the talent, all the grace and all the beauty that you brought to this world. We will not forget this charisma, this voice, this silhouette, this face and this melancholy, this deep and strange sadness that emanated from you and that imprinted the film and the atmosphere. It is rare to find so much grace and so much sadness mixed in the same human being,” wrote the singer on Instagram.
Antonio Barbera, director of the Venice Film Festival
“Alain Delon succeeded where most of his colleagues failed: to be considered the most handsome man in the world and at the same time an extraordinary actor. If he leaves his mortal remains today, it is to ascend to the Olympus of the Immortals that we will remember forever,” Alberto Barbera said in a statement.
Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival
“It is with the same sadness felt by film lovers around the world that we learned of the passing of Alain Delon. He embodied French cinema far beyond its borders, he was the image of the triumphant thirty glorious years, he was one of those personalities who spoke to both the general public and specialists, working for commercial cinema as well as for auteur cinema,” Mr. Frémaux told AFP.
Jack Lang
“The most beautiful face of French cinema has gone to join the stars. With his metallic gaze and his feline smile, he will have bewitched entire generations of spectators,” the former Minister of Culture wrote to AFP.
“The Cheetah will no longer roar, but its Botticellian face, its charming smile and its magnetic eyes will continue to haunt us for a long time to come.”
Gilles Jacob
“A lion in majesty, an actor with a steely gaze, of insolent beauty, an unforgettable samurai combining sobriety, control, a presence that is both gentle and carnivorous, lucidity, a triumphant career, such beautiful loves. A loner in a trench coat and soft felt hat serving Visconti, Melville, Losey, Zurlini… He will have conceived everything with and controlled everything except his end,” reacted to the AFP the former president of the Cannes Festival Gilles Jacob.
Producer Orlando
“With him, it is the last giant, perhaps the greatest of French and European cinema who leaves us. Above all, he was a man with a capital H who was not afraid to always say what he thought. Faithful, upright and elegant, he hated mediocrity,” he told AFP. He had produced the duo +Paroles, paroles+, bringing together his sister Dalida and Delon.
Mireille Mathieu
“The Leopard has just bowed out,” singer Mireille Mathieu posted on Instagram.
“In the full summer sun, a monument of France, the Samurai joins the paradise of the stars.”
Academy of Caesars
“Alain Delon brought this inimitable talent and irresistible elegance to each of his roles. Many of his films, shot under the camera of the greatest, have become classics,” said the Academy on X, about the actor who was awarded only one César (best actor for “Notre histoire” by Bertrand Blier) in his career.
Fondation Brigitte Bardot
Alain was “a close friend of our president Brigitte Bardot, who is devastated by his passing. Their friendship, based on a shared love of animals and a shared commitment to their well-being, was precious and sincere,” the foundation said on X. He “understood the deep bond between man and animal. Throughout his life, he was surrounded by his faithful four-legged companions, dogs who brought him love and comfort, and whom he loved with infinite tenderness, like Loubo, his last companion whom he leaves behind.”
