In the part of the interview, Carole Amiel talks about the singer Yves Montand, the great artist's relationships with his colleagues, actors and singers, the Montand man and their own love story and life together.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Yves Montand - born Ivo Livi - a wonderful book / album was published a few months ago in France about his life story. A destiny out of the ordinary for the sacred monster of song and cinema that still embodies a certain image of France around the world.
The son of poor Italian immigrants who settled in Marseilles in the early 1920s, he manages to become one of the most emblematic personalities of the 20s.ου century.
Simone Signoret, Edith Piath, Marilyn Monroe… were some of the women of his life.
Carole Amiel, who co-authored the book with Luc Larriba, was Yves Montand's partner for the last decade of her life and the mother of his only child, Valentin.
Carole and I are friends and she gladly accepted the proposal to discuss all the material on the occasion of the publication of the book, with personal stories and anecdotal incidents of Yves Montand and their life together.
Interview with Giannis Achyropoulos
Our conversation took place at their home in Paris in May 2022. I thank her warmly for the trust she has shown me.
Let's talk about the song now. His greatest success was "Les feuilles mortes". Very often we associate it with this. Did he like this identification?
Yes sure. He loved it very much and knew that everyone in all countries loved this song. There was no way he could give a concert and not sing it…
Which other songs did he consider very important?
When he resumed singing in 1981 after an absence of 13 years he liked to sing more politicized songs. He liked to say, for example, "Les bijous" in Baudelaire's poetry.
I do not know, this is the first time I hear the title…
Yes it is not common. He liked to say it a capella, it was essentially like a recitation of the poem. I remember him singing it in front of 17,000 Brazilians, with such intensity in the interpretation, that while they did not understand a word of French, everyone looked at him with their mouths open .. It was the apotheosis every time.
He loved "L'étrangère", "Luna Park", "La bicyclette", "Le chat de la voisine", "C'est si Bon", "A Paris". Montan was a true one man show, each of his songs was like a short movie, you lived what was narrated by interpreting… Of course he always finished his concerts with "Les feuilles mortes".
What is not well known is that he was the first to record the Italian anti-fascist partisan song "Bella Ciao". I recently watched an English documentary about the story of this song and it referred to the recording of Yves Montand in 1951.
Did he sing it in Italian? Did he speak Italian well?
Yes he spoke, of course not perfectly. He was only 3 years old when the family left Tuscany and settled in Marseille. At home they spoke Italian and French… mixed.
Were there any songs of his that were established with difficulty?
Sure. And first of all "Les feuilles mortes". You know the story I guess… Well this song sounded like background music in the movie "Les portes de la nuit". Only music without lyrics can be heard. The film was a complete failure on all levels.
Yves Montand asked his friend Jacques Prevert to write lyrics on this musical theme. I must say he was the first to sing Prevert on stage. But nobody liked the song. He tried persistently for more than two years to impose it on his audience. At first no one applauded. He sang it every night, without any response or acceptance from his audience. While at the end of the other songs there was prolonged applause to that nothing. Fortunately, he believed in his worth and eventually became a world-famous success.
Were there any songs he did not believe in and in the end they became big hits?
I do not think so, of course I do not have an example in mind. He was 17 years old in singing and if he did not like something he just did not sing it I imagine…
Let me tell you a story that not many people know, about the song "A Paris", one of his greatest hits. This song as you know it is by Francis Lemarque. Francis' dream was to become a singer. One night Jacques Prevert, with whom he was very good friends, took him to a cabaret to listen to Montan. He was impressed and told Prevert "this means being a singer… he also moves perfectly on stage, he is tall, with a nice presence τά I give up I will never do so well in singing" and added "I would love to write songs for ΄ him. So Jacques Prevert, who was a good friend of both of them, arranged a meeting between them at the house of Yves Montand, who was excited when he heard the song "A paris". He took it immediately and it became a huge success. He even said to Lemarque: "Do you have any other such songs? "From now on, whatever you write, you will show it first to me and to no one else." Thus began their wonderful collaboration and a close friendship…
They were also united by the fact that they had the same political views. As far as I know Francis Lemarque was in the Communist Party…
Yes that's how it is. I do not know if Francis was a member, but Montan, as I told you, was not.
Your personal story begins in the early 80's. It was a fruitful artistic period for Yves Montand the decade you lived together?
Yes of course very fertile. It never stopped…
In 1982 he made a multi-month world tour. A total of over 180 concerts. It started first in France ending with a concert at the Olympia which filled the month of August (which is rare because all of Paris is missing for holidays) and then Brazil, USA -East and west coast-, Canada, Japan…
The highlight of this tour was his one-week appearances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
I think it was the most important moment of his career…
Sinatra did not sing there either. It was the absolute recognition and in addition a justification of his family history, he felt that he was realizing his father's unfulfilled dream… He sang for his father! He was thinking… (he was already dead, of course). He had an awesome track, he was telling me that his legs were shaking on stage. He was forced to stand…
To better understand the family history and his strong feelings on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, his father wanted to go to America. He left Italy, living in a small village in Tuscany, to escape Mussolini. He was an active member of the KKI and was pulling the strings after the rise of fascism in Italy. Pressure, persecution, intimidation, beatings… until one day he could not stand it, he was afraid that after the continuous beatings he might be killed, they left on foot (!) To Marseilles and settled there. But it was just a stopover. He wanted to go to America. When he went to apply for the visa he learned that from the very previous day, the entry permit to America for the Italians had been banned! So he stayed with his family in Marseille and with his dream unfulfilled.
He was thinking about all this on the Metropolitan stage. Great emotional charge…
I imagine how proud his parents were of him. Did you tell me that they had died in 1982 but did they manage to see it acclaimed and famous in the USA?
Yes, ΄59 who had already done concerts in New York, the film he made with Monroe… his parents were still alive; they saw him conquer America…
Yves Montand helped the whole family financially… he bought a house for everyone… They were very close as I told you. It was a pity that at some point he and his older brother quarreled for political reasons. One day they got into such a quarrel that Montan almost destroyed his vocal cords; for months he could not sing. The brother left the place Dauphine (lived on the fifth floor of the same building as Montan and Signore) never spoke again for many years, booze… drama .. Very bad situations… Luckily the parents had died and did not live; no they could bear to see their children fighting. It was also very difficult for his sister, he was trying to find a balance between the two brothers and reconcile them σαν They spoke again shortly before the death of Yves Montand, thanks to the arrival of Valentine. Usually the birth of a child brings the family back together ξαν They exchanged some letters…
My dream was to organize a meal at home with the whole family re-established as before, leaving the various policies on the doorstep. This did not happen… I did not catch .. C'est la vie…
So you left for the multi-month world tour together…
Yes, Yves Montand needed a person with complete confidence in him during this tour, who has organizational skills and speaks foreign languages.
I was 21 years old looking for a job then. He has known me since I was 14 years old, we saw each other constantly in the village in Saint Paul de Vence, he knew my parents. I spoke 4 foreign languages, I had the qualifications for what he needed and most of all he had complete confidence in me. So we came close… After the end of the tour you were seen more and more often. Our relationship became apparent after Simon's death in 1985. It was the normal course of events… He formalized it with a statement to the press in 1987.
Was Yves Montand your idol?
No. I would say he was the idol of my parents. I belonged to another generation. I listened to Rolling Stones, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Supertramp… things like that of my generation. I remember he was impressed that I knew all the songs of the time…
But the age difference between us never created a problem. For me, living next to him was a lifelong lesson, for him I was a source of youth and freshness. Sometimes he was my father, sometimes I was his mother, we were friends, lovers, all this together; we were very close. It was a very beautiful story.
Often after his death when I had to make important decisions on my own I thought… what would he tell me now? What would he think? What would he do? How would he react? And that helped me make the right decision I think.
What were his core values as a human being?
Honesty and justice.
He did not want to violate his principles. I remember one time a very serious airline, Japan Airlines, offered him a million dollars for an ad. The same goes for Swiss Air. He said no to both. "How can I talk about politics afterwards?" He would tell me. "With what face?" He had such social sensitivities. Who today would say no to such a proposal?
He had a very strict code of values, which had taken shape within his family and during the time he still believed in communism.
On the other hand, of course, it was unreal. He was a star, he was always accompanied, everywhere, he was usually with his right hand Bob Castella, his pianist.
That is, he was not the man who would go out shopping alone…
You're kidding; Never. At first it would be impossible. There was always a crowd around him. Of course, there was a respect on his face; they did not touch him or pull his jacket or I do not know what else…
I will tell you a scene… One day he tells me to go to the cinema, he wanted to see a new movie. I thought we would go here opposite the Odeon. He tells me "no, let's go to the Champs Elysees, the screens are bigger there… I tell him" are you sure? "Okay, I'll call a taxi." "No" he replies "let's go by subway" (who never took it). I look at him in surprise, do I tell him "are you serious"?
I was a little scared; we got on the meter, he was wearing a beret lowered on his face, he also lifted the trench coat collar, he got a very blushing style… It was very funny, everyone was looking at him wondering if it was Montan… Nobody bothered us. Arriving at the stop where we were going to get off and before the doors closed, he got a charming smile addressing the passengers… "Good morning to all of you…". The doors were closed until there was the slightest reaction. That was fun.
The daily life of a man like Yves Montand was definitely different from that of most people.
When we went to the cottage in Normandy he never went out. We had an area of 130 acres, all day was in the garden… In Saint Paul de Vence it was different. He was out all day with his friends, playing boules, playing cards, discussing politics…
Has he always had the same appetite for creation, for new experiences, over time?
Sure. But look… he "left" during the shooting of a movie, he was preparing the concerts in Bercy, he had suggestions for new movies. He was constantly active.
And it all stopped so suddenly…
Yes. He was in shape, full of strength and liveliness, happy for the concerts he was preparing. He wanted to dedicate them to our son. Pity…
It was at the end of filming. It is emotionally difficult for all actors to finish filming. You are together for 3 months from morning to night and suddenly everything stops. As if a family were leaving… For Montan there was only one side scene to do. In fact, the director Jean Jacques Beineix had told him "Yves, there is no need to do the last scene; your lifeguard can do it" - since it was a shot where we could see his back.
But he insisted on playing the last scene himself, to be present until the end, to say goodbye to everyone. He called me at 9 pm telling me that it would not be long before I waited for him. I fell asleep waiting for him and the driver called me at one after midnight to let me know that he had suffered a heart attack and was in the hospital of Senlis (50km from Paris). I went immediately, he was in the intensive care unit but he was talking, he was joking, he seemed fine; everything seemed to be under control. I suggested that I contact two very good family friends who were ministers to take him to a large hospital in Paris, to mobilize people to have the best care, not to stay in a small hospital. He forbade me to do anything.
"You will not tell anyone anything," he told me. To absolutely no one. "And especially not to let the press know"… he was very afraid of that.
Director David Lynn had suggested they do it right after a movie together, he had the gigs. If he learned that he had a health problem, everything would become very problematic afterwards for his work .. Do you understand… With the insurance… He had a second heart attack 12 hours after the first, which was fatal unfortunately… What can we say?
Did he read books? What kind of books did he like?
Yes, mainly politically. He also really liked astronomy books. I think that if he had the opportunity to study, he would definitely study in such a direction, he would become a scientist in this field.
Did the fact that he had not finished school and had not studied bother him?
Yes, he was thinking, I could say that he had a small complex that he had not studied. Of course, at the end of his life he had managed to have a very high level of culture and knowledge. He met and socialized with very important people of letters and art.
Besides, this is how we met when I was still 14 years old… He asked me what we do at school, he told me read this .., watch that movie…, listen to the other. I remember being suggested to read Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago" by various writers and poets. These were our first conversations since I was in high school and we met in the village of Saint Paul de Vence. We had a lot of discussions, I listened to him advise me, I was sometimes reading whole volumes… (laughs)
Did he have personal relationships with any of them?
Yes, he knew all of them. Jacques Prevert was his really close friend. Costas Gavras is also very close; George Semprun.
What relations did he have with his fellow actors? Did he have close ties to any of them?
Relationships have not always been easy; in this area you know there is intense competition! It is a very special place and there is often jealousy between them. For example, when he met Lino Ventura in the square in Saint Paul de Vence, of course they exchanged a good morning with politeness, but you felt the competition.
I once said to him, "Oh, you know, I really like Noiret (Phillipe Noiret, one of the most important French actors in the movie Cinéma Paradiso). He looks at me saying "Noiret? But what do you like about him? Yeah right…". Another time I say to him "Oh, you know I really like Cary Grand". "What;!! Cary Grand? Wow… You know Cary Grand not only liked women, he liked more… ". He would always find something negative. He was very jealous!
I remember one time when I was three months pregnant shooting a film by Jacques Demy - with Michel Legrand in the music composition - a young actor came and sat next to me (in Montan's armchair playing at the time) and we chatted, so just without any inclination to flirt with me. It made me jealous at night… you can not imagine! The next day, at a time when we were eating in the canteen, the same young actor -all kindly- came and sat next to me again. Needless to say, I turned my back on him, constantly looking at the opposite wall without exchanging words with him (laughs…)
Did he have the same reaction as his fellow singers?
It was not different with the singers. Many young singers felt that he supported them, that he took them in some way under his protection. He would have loved to have sung Michel Jonasz's "La boite de jazz" or Serge Lama's "Les pétites femmes de Pigalle" ζε He publicly supported Michel Sardou, especially at a time when everyone was accusing him of being politically right-wing . Sardou had given him the idea to decide to do the concerts in Bercy a space of 11000.sighters! We had gone to listen to him at Bercy and seeing the success of his concerts and his contact with the public despite the huge space, he decided to do the same. He also liked Patric Bruel.
In relation to other art spaces? He had imagined contacts with great artists…
Of course, he knew this whole world.
It had some Picasso pottery, some Giacometti pottery, some Cesar pottery. I do not know if you noticed at home in Saint Paul de Vence in the bathroom, in the kitchen, there were many things by Cesar. He liked Cesar as much as I did. However, he was never in the mood to become a collector of works of art. Cinema, song, politics were already enough.
Did he know music? Did he play an instrument?
No, but he never had a problem or the will to write his own songs. He knew how to choose songs and interpret them properly. This was the most important thing for him and he did not need to write his own songs. But he wrote stories, scripts that at some point he thought of using.
What was his flaw? The jealousy;
No, being jealous was not annoying, it never got bigger; I would say I liked it (laughs). Let's take a break to drink a glass of champagne what do you say? (laughs)
With pleasure. We continue the conversation while drinking.
So his fault was that he was in bad faith. For example, when we played cards with friends, if we won it was thanks to him, if we lost it was always my fault! Of course, all this in a cute way, but if sometimes the situation got out of hand, I made a face, and after two or three hours everything went back to normal. Sometimes it could be shady with some partners, but never with me.
My last question. If you do not want to, do not answer. Were you jealous of him? He was a charming star… how do you experience this situation?
When we started living together, I confess that I had to put things in order… (laughs).
When I returned home from time to time, I would see notes, gifts, or letters from his admirers at the entrance; But in the period of his life when I met him he needed other things, I think I offered him peace and stability as his close friends told me. He had lived an intense life until then anyway. They had lived ten years of passion with Simone Signori, then their relationship was different. Especially after Valentine's birth, the only thing that did not interest him were the events of his admirers.
Thank you very much Carole.
It was my pleasure. It's time to go to dinner, the restaurant is waiting for us!