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Movie legend Alain Delon was buried on Saturday in a non-public funeral attended by his kids, family members and shut mates as followers mourned outdoors the gates of his nation property the place he was laid to relaxation close to his beloved canines.
The 88-year-old star of such classics as “Le Samourai” and “Purple Midday”, who was as soon as described as “Europe’s James Dean”, died on Sunday.
French police had arrange roadblocks close to the manor within the village of Douchy, with the airspace overhead additionally closed for your complete weekend.
The 50 or so mourners allowed into the property’s non-public chapel needed to depart their cell phones on the door to make sure strict privateness.
Veteran Italian actress Claudia Cardinale, 86, who starred reverse Delon in “The Leopard”, was “too unhappy” to return, her agent advised AFP.
“They ask me to place into phrases ,” she mentioned after his demise, “however the unhappiness is simply too intense”.
However Rosalie van Breemen, Delon’s ex-wife and mom of his kids Anouchka and Alain-Fabien, was current, sources near proceedings advised AFP.
Followers had left numerous floral tributes and playing cards on the manor gates all week, with round 100 folks gathered there on Saturday to say goodbye.
“I wished to pay him homage, even from behind the gates, on the day of the funeral, as a symbolic gesture,” Marie-Christine Guibert, a neighbour, advised AFP.
“I actually needed to be right here,” mentioned Maxime Ducharme, 28. “I inherited a ardour for Delon from my mother and father.”
Delon’s three kids who have been with him when he died advised AFP that they have been “extraordinarily touched by the zeal and affection proven by his followers in France and internationally.”
Since his demise, France has been paying homage to Delon, one of many nation’s largest however most divisive stars.
He was one of many final residing legends of a golden period of French cinema within the 1960s.
Whereas he had legions of followers around the globe, Delon’s relations with ladies brought on controversy. His sons accused him of home violence, which Delon denied whereas admitting to slapping ladies.
The actor additionally drew criticism for supporting Jean-Marie Le Pen, co-founder of the far-right Nationwide Entrance, and for his opposition to same-sex relationships.
Feminists have been appalled by the lifetime achievement award the Cannes Movie Competition gave him in 2019.
Delon lived his later years largely as a recluse, although his private life saved him within the headlines.
In 2023, his three kids filed a criticism in opposition to his live-in assistant Hiromi Rollin, accusing her of harassment and threatening behaviour.
The siblings went on to wage a public battle within the media and the courts, arguing over his well being, which worsened after a stroke in 2019.
Even in demise, he was nonetheless making headlines after it emerged that he requested for his favorite canine to be put down and buried with him.
However his longtime buddy and fellow 1960s display screen icon Brigitte Bardot mentioned the Belgian malinois referred to as Loubo could be spared.
“The household of Alain Delon have confirmed to us that they’ll care for him. Loubo will after all not be euthanised,” her basis mentioned on the X social media platform.
French TV presenter Stephane Bern mentioned Delon’s want to be buried along with his canines was very him, evaluating him to Frederick the Nice of Prussia who did the identical.
It was a gesture “of splendor and panache”, he mentioned, “very Delon, worthy of a Leopard who had grow to be a misanthrope.”
“I’ve completely no worry of demise,” the actor insisted in 2011, posing for pictures outdoors the tomb the place he meant to be buried.
Regardless of his fame as an inveterate womaniser each on and off the display screen, Delon, a Catholic, mentioned his “mad ardour” was for the Virgin Mary.
“She is the girl I really like most on the planet,” he mentioned, “the one I speak most to.”
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