October 12, 2009
Caron went from Parisian ballerina to Hollywood movie star at 17, when Gene Kelly tapped her for a co-starring role in the 1951 hit An American in Paris
. She became a star in the studio system of that era, and via her MGM contract shared billing with Fred Astaire and Cary Grant by day and socialized with Judy Garland and Lena Horne by night. It’s been a glamorous life, but, as Caron reveals, not without struggles. She grew up in occupied Paris, her father a French chemist, her American mother a former dancer. Caron never felt good enough for her parents: “The path to excellent was clearly indicated, and my insecurity became chronic.” Despite her success, she points to insecurity as the root of her decision to date or marry and divorce several controlling men, including meat-packing heir George Hormel II and actor Warren Beatty, with whom she had an affair in the 1960s. Caron provides countless dishy details about her exploits, which are sure to entertain film buffs, Caron fans and aspiring actors. Today, the 78-year-old two-time Academy Award nominee acts in the U.S. and Paris; in 2007, a role on Law and Order: SVU
garnered a prime-time Emmy. Caron also runs an auberge, or inn, in France and, she writes, intends to avoid fading into the background.
October 1, 2009
Caron (Vengeance, 1982) recounts her life and career as Hollywood's"little French girl" in chatty, charming style, revealing an often troubled woman behind the glamorous image of an international movie star.
The author writes movingly of her childhood in occupied France, peppering her memories of rationing and shortages with surprising insights into the psychology of the situation. She avers that the French grew increasingly savage under the yoke of their oppressors while the German soldiers took pains to be polite and courteous to their charges. Malnourished and high strung, Caron would have lifelong difficulties with food, her general health and crippling depression—an unhappy legacy from her eccentric, selfish mother, an American dancer who ultimately committed suicide. On the sunnier side, Caron triumphed in such international hits as An American in Paris (1951), Lili (1953) and Gigi (1958), and her orbit included many significant participants in the global arts scene. Director Jean Renoir and writer Christopher Isherwood were devoted mentors, and Caron alternately enjoyed and endured a complicated romance with Warren Beatty. The author is a diplomatic memoirist, with mostly good things to say about co-stars such as Cary Grant, Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, and she is frustratingly oblique about her displeasure with the likes of Kirk Douglas and David Niven. With her tumultuous marriages and chronic physical and mental-health problems, Caron can come off a bit like a Gallic Elizabeth Taylor, but her melodramatic personal life is tempered by good humor and a refreshing lack of pretension. The actress's fortunes fell when she aged out of leading-lady status, and her attempt to reinvent herself as a rustic Burgundy innkeeper reads like a perversely funny distaff Peter Mayle travelogue. Her spirits were revived, however, by a burgeoning writing career and late-in-the-day acting successes in films such as Chocolat (2000) and Le Divorce (2003), and an Emmy-winning turn on Law& Order: Special Victims Unit. Curiously, this famous dancer has more to say about camera angles than the mechanics of her Terpsichorean art.
The little French girl spins an engrossing yarn.
(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
October 15, 2009
Best known for "An American in Paris" and "Gigi", Caron has had a multifaceted career in dance, film, theater, and television, served on the jury of the Cannes Film Festival, authored short stories, and became an innkeeper in Burgundy. Her book, much more memoir than straight autobiography, gives one the feeling of being in the room with her as she reminisces selectively. She covers her early life, living through World War II in occupied Paris, joining the Ballets des Champs Elyses, and working with choreographer Roland Petit. Opportunity knocked with "An American in Paris", but the chapter on this is disappointingly brief. Caron was nominated for Oscars for "Lili" and "The L-Shaped Room" and won an Emmy in 2007 for a "Law and Order" performance. The sense of how fleeting fame and happiness are permeates the book. Married three times, she constantly reinvented herself in a variety of ways. VERDICT For those interested in Caron and her career or in general movie star biographies. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 8/09.]Barbara Kundanis, Longmont P.L., CO
Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
November 1, 2009
Carons first movie was An American in Paris. Twice nominated for Academy Awardsfor Lili and The L-Shaped Roomshe is a graceful and talented actress whos equally at home in musicals (a song from Gigi gives the book its title) and dramas (she recently won an Emmy for a guest appearance on Law & Order: SVU). But this is more than a typical Hollywood autobiography. Caron begins the book with a lengthy and moving portrait of herself as a girl living in occupied France during World War II, and when she makes the transition from girlhood during the war to young woman learning her craft, the books tone doesnt really change. Rather than approach her life in the public eye from a typically Hollywood angle, Caron writes seriously and passionately about her work, her craft, and her relationships with the people she met along the way. The book wont appeal to those who like their celebrity autobiographies full of gossip, but its sure to strike a chord with those who value classic movies and classic actresses.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)