On November 8th 2010, the French cult actor Alain Delon became 75 years old. A milestone for the ultimate male sex symbol from France for more than 50 years since his debut on the silver screen at the age of 23. Alain Delon occupies a major place in the history of French and world cinema working with directors among others Luchino Visconti, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, Michelangelo Antonioni and Louis Malle. Contrary to other male sex symbols of that time like Rock Hudson, Richard Chamberlain, Helmut Berger, Jean Marais... Alain Delon was primarely straight loving the most beautiful women of his era. To mark his 75th anniversary Alain Delon has written a book about the 200 (!) most influentual women in his life!
About those women he says:"Je ne serais rien sans les femmes, les actrices, les personnages, les héroïnes qu’elles incarnent. Dans ma vie, comme au cinéma, nous nous sommes aimés. Elles m’ont fait pleurer, elles m’ont fait crier!" Of all those women there are 4 women who became very important. First of all there was the Austrian actress Romy Schneider. “Avec Romy, les souvenirs sont doux et chaleureux. Ce que je garde à jamais dans mon cœur, c’est son sourire. Quand elle souriait, tout s’éclairait, se métamorphosait. En 1958, je suis débutant. Elle est déjà Sissi, star européenne. Elle n’a que 20 ans. Moi, j’étais un jeune loup que l’Indochine avait durci. Tout nous séparait. J’ai fait des essais concluants, et elle m’a choisi pour être à ses côtés dans Christine. Et puis, avec la complicité de mon ami Jean-Claude Brialy qui me manque tant, nous sommes devenus amants.” Then there was the French actress Mireille Darc. “Elle occupe une place à part dans cet album. C’est sans doute, parmi toutes les femmes que j’ai aimées, celle qui me connaît le mieux. Nous nous sommes connus en 1968 pendant le tournage de La piscine. J’étais séparé de Nathalie et je traversais une période compliquée avec des soucis extraprofessionnels. Elle a été là, m’a aimé, m’a soutenu, et ça a duré quinze ans. Et je peux dire que ça dure toujours. Elle reste quelque part la femme de ma vie parce que nos liens, notre complicité, sont inoxydables. Nous avons vécu tant de choses ensemble.” 
Or other women like French sexy super star Brigitte Bardot or the Egyptian-French cult singer Dalida. "Nous nous sommes connus dans les années 50. Je vivotais, je travaillais la nuit et au petit matin je m’écroulais dans la petite chambre d’hôtel, rue Jean Mermoz, près des Champs-Élysées. Au même étage, dans une autre mansarde, habitait une certaine Yolanda Gigliotti. Elle venait du Proche-Orient avec, comme seul bagage, un titre de Miss Égypte 1954. Nous rêvions de gloire et de lumière. Dix ans plus tard, elle est devenue Dalida et moi Delon. Nous nous sommes retrouvés à Rome. Nous nous sommes aimés loin des regards et des paparazzis, et les rares témoins de notre liaison restèrent discrets pendant des années. Et quand Eddie Barclay et Orlando, le frère de Dalida, nous proposèrent d’enregistrer le fameux duo "Paroles", paroles, notre complicité était intacte. Je n’ai qu’un regret, qu’un remords, ne pas l’avoir eue au téléphone avant qu’elle ne décide d’en finir avec la vie.” And what about Marisa Mell?
In her own autobiograph "Coverlove" Marisa Mell opens her book with a long first chapter devoted to her liaison with Alain Delon which started in 1962 when both actors where on a plane to Belgrad, Yugoslavia she filming the movie "Dr." while he was on his way to film "La Fabuleuse Aventure de Marco Polo", a movie that he did not finish, and was recast with German actor Horst Bucholz, a main rival to Alain Delon in beefcake department at that time. On first sight Marisa Mell noticed the enormous sex appeal of the French actor and his iron will to seduce all the beautiful women around him. So she was also on his list! At first she tries to resist him but after five weeks even she could not and they became lovers. In her autobiography she then describes in detail her love affair with him, how passionate and animalistic he was in bed. But very soon Marisa Mell discovered that Alain Delon was not an one-women man. Very quickly she was replaced by other famous and non-famous beautiful women who adored him. During the next years they met occassionally during movie premières for movies he played in like "The Yellow Rolls-Royce" with Shirley McLaine in London. Marisa Mell even claims that Alain Delon was in her bed before and after he made a press-conference to announce his marriage to his fiancee Nathalie Barthélemy, later better known as Nathalie Delon. I wonder if there is a photo of Marisa Mell in this book among the 200 other women taken from his private photo archive?
UPDATE July 28th 2011: There are no photos of Marisa Mell in the book "Les femmes de ma vie" by Alain Delon.
Both ladies tried to write down their lives as seen through their eyes in a rather "Tell All" story. Again the difference in outcome could not have been greater between to two actresses. Marisa Mell tried to write an autobiography mostly based on her successes in the movies and theater, her past en present lovers by naming all the handsome and (very) rich man popular during her height in the movie business in the 70's and her glamorous life in Italy while Silvia Kristel tried to write a real honest account of her life as a "Memoir". She even did mention, although very brief, being abused as a child by a hotel guest which stayed at the hotel run by her family. The autobiography of Marisa Mell did not do much and disappreared in oblivion, Silvia Kristel's book was quite a success in Europe having translations from French into Dutch, German and English among others and is still in print.
But that was not enough to earn some decent income to keep up a good life. While Marisa Mell did not find true love during the harsh times of her life, Silvia Kristel did meet a nice man that truely loved her for who she was and not the "Emmanuelle" figure that so many men believed that she was. She left Amsterdam together with her lover and lived almost ten years in Brussels (Belgium) a very modest and simple life in a small apartment near the old city center. She went just like everybody else to the backery and grossery store to do her shoppings, standing in line to place an order, as often witnessed. A life so far away from Hollywood where everything is done for you and seeing movie stars only in restaurants like the Ivy or driving by in a limo. But tragic struck twice again for Silvia Kristel when her lover after a longer period of time being ill died from cancer. She was alone again. And then, as if regaining strenght after the death of a beloved one was not enough, just like Marisa Mell in her fifties, Silvia Kristel was diagnosed with throat cancer. Silvia Kristel decided to move back from Brussels to Amsterdam to be close to her family, especially her son Arthur and sister Marianne, while fighting this terrible disease. After her glamorous life in Italy Marisa Mell was not that lucky to have family around her to help her fight the cancer, she could only rely on her friend from theater school Erika Pluhar. In the end, it was not enough to help her and Marisa Mell died after a short but very painfull illness of the throat cancer. Silvia Kristel was luckier that she could beat the cancer. At the moment after 5 long and tension filled years she is cured from this terrible disease and is still living in Amsterdam. Her income is not that high, mostly coming from social wellfare, her art, some projects now and then and some very wealthy friends who support her with an allowance. But she is happy that she survived it all and still is alive to be with her son and her sister's family. 
Since the inception of this blog I have written several entries about the life and work of Marisa Mell that for me as an admirer and collector were also surprises, not only investigating these entries, but also discovering things that I didn't know about her like the ones about her artwork, her relationship with Pier Luigi Torri as the "Number One" couple, her lost movie "Dr" and seeing it after 45 years and the photo with her address in her handwriting on the back mentioning she was living in Vienna in the Biberstrasse before relocating to Italy in 1965. Writing for this blog gives you the eagerness to be always on the look out for new info regarding Marisa Mell. This info comes often through the traditional channels but sometimes it comes through channels you didn't expect! Several days ago I got my hands on an old copy of a local German newspaper called "Hambuger Abendblatt". The newspaper still exists today. It is a paper that mainly writes for the harbour region of Hamburg in the north of Germany. Writing about Marisa Mell at that time was not that interesting for their readers because a) she is not German but Austrian and b) not living in Germany but in Italy but nevertheless the Hamburger Abendblatt did it! Thank God for that otherwise we would never have known this info. This is the copy of the paper:
Next to pictures from the movie, a pressbook had often ads, texts and templates to promote a film in local newspapers and/or magazines with the name of the cinema at the bottom of the ad. Here are two examples for this movie together with the templates for the printers to use.
