Claude Laydu and Martine Lemaire in Diary of a Country Priest. Laydu and Bresson met every Sunday to discuss the film.
One of the greatest performances in the history of film was given by Claude Laydu, in the title role of Robert Bresson's Journal d'un Curé de Campagne (Diary of a Country Priest, 1951). As a young, sickly priest unable to resolve the problems of his small parish, and assailed by self-doubt, Laydu, who has died aged 84, brought his own spirituality, instinctive presence and intense ascetic looks to the role. His portrayal prompted Jean Tulard to write in his Dictionary of Film that "no other actor deserves to go to heaven as much as Laydu".
This is even more remarkable given that Bresson declared that "Art is transformation. Acting can only get in the way", and that he called his actors "models" whom he trained to remove all traces of theatricality and to speak in a monotonic manner. Bresson chose the 23-year-old from among many candidates, all practising Catholics.
Born in Brussels, Laydu went to Paris to study acting at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was a member of Madeleine Renaud and Jean-Louis Barrault's company at the Théâtre Marigny when he auditioned for Bresson. For over a year, Bresson and Laydu met each Sunday to discuss the role. In order to accustom himself to the holy life, Laydu spent some time in a monastery. He also fasted a great deal during the shooting, which helped give him the appearance of a man suffering both physically and spiritually.
Georges Bernanos's 1936 novel had seemed a most unlikely subject for the cinema, but Bresson, using natural sound, pared-down images and real locations, managed to convey the solitude and inner anguish of the priest through shots of him in isolation, and the literary device of the first-person narrative, spoken in Laydu's soft voice. Unlike the majority of Bresson's discoveries, Laydu decided to continue acting, though he was never again to work with a director of such stature, nor in a film of such significance.
In vast contrast to his first feature, Laydu's second, Le Voyage en Amérique (Trip to America, 1951), was a light comedy in which he supported Pierre Fresnay and Yvonne Printemps. However, an air of moral rectitude still clung to him in a number of later roles. In 1952, he appeared in Au Coeur de la Casbah (Heart of the Casbah), in which he is tormented by an affair with his stepmother (Viviane Romance); in Nous Sommes Tous des Assassins (We Are All Murderers), André Cayatte's condemnation of the death penalty, in which he played the lawyer of a condemned man; and in Le Chemin de Damas (The Road to Damascus), a religious sword-and-sandals epic, in which he was cast as Saint Etienne.
Laydu was back in a cassock for La Guerra de Dios (I Was a Parish Priest, 1953). Although not as anguished as his previous priestly incarnation, his character nevertheless had to fight to become accepted in a small mining town in Spain. Laydu then played a Russian orthodox priest in Rasputin (1954), opposite Pierre Brasseur, and he was the brother of a novice nun in Le Dialogue des Carmélites (The Carmelites, 1960), based on another work by Bernanos.
Much to his delight, Laydu was cast against type as the debauched and effeminate Valentiniano Caesar in Attila (1954) and in two fanciful musical biopics, as Franz Schubert in Sinfonia d'Amore (1956), and as Carlo Goldoni in Italienisches Capriccio (1961). In the latter, he starred opposite his wife, Christine Balli, with whom he had a son and a daughter.
In 1962, Laydu and his wife produced and wrote a puppet show for television called Bonne Nuit les Petits (Good Night, Little Ones), whose characters Nounours, Pimprenelle and Nicolas became household names for generations of French children. Laydu lent his voice to the Sandman, who spoke the title at the end of each five-minute show. Bonne Nuit les Petits was broadcast almost every evening and ran for more than a decade, returning in 1995 as Nounours, for another long run, having spawned scores of books, records, videos and dolls. Laydu is survived by his wife and children.
• Claude Laydu, actor, born 10 March 1927; died 29 July 2011
This is even more remarkable given that Bresson declared that "Art is transformation. Acting can only get in the way", and that he called his actors "models" whom he trained to remove all traces of theatricality and to speak in a monotonic manner. Bresson chose the 23-year-old from among many candidates, all practising Catholics.
Born in Brussels, Laydu went to Paris to study acting at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was a member of Madeleine Renaud and Jean-Louis Barrault's company at the Théâtre Marigny when he auditioned for Bresson. For over a year, Bresson and Laydu met each Sunday to discuss the role. In order to accustom himself to the holy life, Laydu spent some time in a monastery. He also fasted a great deal during the shooting, which helped give him the appearance of a man suffering both physically and spiritually.
Georges Bernanos's 1936 novel had seemed a most unlikely subject for the cinema, but Bresson, using natural sound, pared-down images and real locations, managed to convey the solitude and inner anguish of the priest through shots of him in isolation, and the literary device of the first-person narrative, spoken in Laydu's soft voice. Unlike the majority of Bresson's discoveries, Laydu decided to continue acting, though he was never again to work with a director of such stature, nor in a film of such significance.
In vast contrast to his first feature, Laydu's second, Le Voyage en Amérique (Trip to America, 1951), was a light comedy in which he supported Pierre Fresnay and Yvonne Printemps. However, an air of moral rectitude still clung to him in a number of later roles. In 1952, he appeared in Au Coeur de la Casbah (Heart of the Casbah), in which he is tormented by an affair with his stepmother (Viviane Romance); in Nous Sommes Tous des Assassins (We Are All Murderers), André Cayatte's condemnation of the death penalty, in which he played the lawyer of a condemned man; and in Le Chemin de Damas (The Road to Damascus), a religious sword-and-sandals epic, in which he was cast as Saint Etienne.
Laydu was back in a cassock for La Guerra de Dios (I Was a Parish Priest, 1953). Although not as anguished as his previous priestly incarnation, his character nevertheless had to fight to become accepted in a small mining town in Spain. Laydu then played a Russian orthodox priest in Rasputin (1954), opposite Pierre Brasseur, and he was the brother of a novice nun in Le Dialogue des Carmélites (The Carmelites, 1960), based on another work by Bernanos.
Much to his delight, Laydu was cast against type as the debauched and effeminate Valentiniano Caesar in Attila (1954) and in two fanciful musical biopics, as Franz Schubert in Sinfonia d'Amore (1956), and as Carlo Goldoni in Italienisches Capriccio (1961). In the latter, he starred opposite his wife, Christine Balli, with whom he had a son and a daughter.
In 1962, Laydu and his wife produced and wrote a puppet show for television called Bonne Nuit les Petits (Good Night, Little Ones), whose characters Nounours, Pimprenelle and Nicolas became household names for generations of French children. Laydu lent his voice to the Sandman, who spoke the title at the end of each five-minute show. Bonne Nuit les Petits was broadcast almost every evening and ran for more than a decade, returning in 1995 as Nounours, for another long run, having spawned scores of books, records, videos and dolls. Laydu is survived by his wife and children.
• Claude Laydu, actor, born 10 March 1927; died 29 July 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment