'YOU SEE, I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN'

by Yves Montand

Yves Montand was one of our century's greatest entertainers - consummate music-hall performer, singer, dancer, star of stage and screen. His extraordinary life story is captivatingly told for the first time in this unusual book - part memoir, part biography - a unique collaboration between Montand and two writers. Born to Italian Communist peasants who fled Mussolini's Italy, Montand grew up in the seething port city of Marseilles, where he worked in his sister's hairdressing salon and dreamed of the movies. By the age of seventeen he had sung his first song in a music hall. The rest is the stuff of legend, re-created here in fascinating and vivid detail: the fantastic successes on the Riviera; the endless, obsessive rehearsals to refine every aspect of his performances; the wartime crises during the German Occupation; Montand's triumphant conquest of Paris, as the city opened its arms to the "singing prole" from the Midi whose every appearance was a glamorous, sold-out event. Adding to the legend, of course, were his engrossing liaison with Edith Piaf and his introduction to the luminaries of Parisian cultural life, including Jacques Prevert, Marcel Carne, Pablo Picasso, and dozens more. By the time of his brutally affective starring performance in Henri-Georges Clouzot's chilling The Wages of Fear, he had achieved unimaginable celebrity and was married to the charismatic Simone Signoret. The story of the intense but sometimes turbulent love between these two magnetic, highly competitive, and extremely political artists is a central part of the book. Despite his limitless success in France, Montand had longed from the start to go to Hollywood, and perhaps the most riveting chapters of his life story focus on his coming to America to make movies. The description of his rehearsals and eventual love affair with Marilyn Monroe is, of course, required reading, but there is much more - Montand's perfectionist dedication to every aspect of filmmaking; his friendship

Genres: Biography, Music

388 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1991

About the author

Ivo Livi, better known as Yves Montand (13 October 1921 – 9 November 1991), was an Italian-French actor and singer.

Reviews

[Annette Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I became fascinated with Montand after watching "Let's Make Love." This led me ino his filmography and thence to autobiography. What a life! Poverty, fascism, Simone Signoret. There's history, romance, and the movies. American men can never match Europeans,, sorry.

[Darla Ebert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many parts where somewhat muddied by too much detail, however some people would appreciate this. I had to read around the details to get to the "meat" of the book which was and is a compelling story. Rags-to-riches, beginning at the inception of World War2.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

never heard of this person before this. historical parts were of interest but he was not

[Caryatid · Rating 1 out of 5]

Trivial nonsense. Floating around from subject to subject, very little meat to this book. He may not have forgotten but he makes sure not to remember in print the uncomfortable parts of his life. Their politic involvement is particularly boring and amateurish. Strange that, they sound so fervent but then many actors lend their names to different political ideologies but should have stuck to their craft where an education in unnecessary.