Marie Laforet on the stage proved to be a versatile artist. She performed rock and folk, and pop songs.
The heroine of this article was born in Medoc on October 5, 1939. This region of France is known for its developed winemaking. The girl grew up in a villa, was named Rita-Rila, in honor of the aunt and mother of the future singer.
The turning point in the biography of Marie Laforet
During World War II, the girl's father, a former large businessman, was imprisoned in a German concentration camp. He remained there until May 1945.
Marie, her sister Alexandra and mother later recalled this time as one of the most difficult periods of her life. After the war, the family moved to another city, where his father became the director of the factory for the manufacture of railway supplies. They later settled in Paris. As a teenager, Marie Laforet (the photo of the singer can be seen in the article) dreamed of becoming a nurse and even entered special courses. During her studies, she began to show a talent for singing. People who managed to hear her then recall that the girl's voice produced a bewitching effect.
Unexpected success
Variety career Marie Laforet began by chance. In 1959, at the last minute, she had to replace her sister, a former participant in one of the television contests. During the performance, the young singer was noticed by Louis Mal, a famous French filmmaker who offered the girl a role in the film "Freedom." The heroine of this article happily agreed.
Unfortunately, this work of the director remained incomplete. However, the very next, in 1960, Louis Mal still shot Laforet in his film “In the Bright Sun”. Alain Delon, the future star of the French screen, also made his debut in this film.
"Girl with Golden Eyes"
After the first movie with the participation of the actress was released, numerous offers followed in other films.
One of the most famous works of Marie Laforet of that period is the role in the film "Girl with Golden Eyes", directed by Jean Gabriel Albicocco. The name of this film, based on the works of Honore de Balzac, was fixed for many years to the actress as her nickname.
Singer and actress
The film "St. Tropez Blues" revealed the multifaceted talent of the heroine of this article. She showed herself a brilliant actress and singer, performing the title song. This composition was released on the single, which sold a large circulation.
But the first real hit was the song Les vendages de l'amour. Works from the repertoire of Marie Laforet were very different from other French pop songs of the time. Their texts were more meaningful and intellectual than the words of youth hits, heard on the radio.
Musical addictions
The songs of Marie Laforet were often based on the melody of exotic musical genres of South America and Eastern Europe. Although many other French pop stars drew their inspiration mainly from contemporary European and American pop music.
Ethnic music
Marie Laforet has paid great attention to folk songs from the first years of her pop career. The beginning of her creative activity coincided with the release of Bob Dylan's early albums. The singer made her interpretation of the song Blowing in the wind of this author.
A record with this work was released in 1963 in France. On the second side of the disc was another song from Bob Dylan's repertoire - House of the rising sun. This American folk composition in a few years will be performed by the British team "The Immals" and will become one of its main hits.
On another mini-album by Marie Laforet, her fans heard a version of the African American church hymn Go tell it on the mountain, first recorded by the pop trio Peter, Paul and Mary in 1963, just a year before the release of the French treatment. From the repertoire of the same American group, the young star borrowed another piece of music - Coule doux, which in the original was called Hush-a-bye. Among the foreign idols of Marie Laforet was the American duet Simon and Garfunkel. In 1966, she performed two songs from the repertoire of this team: "Condor flew in" and their first hit, The sound of silence.
Rock music
Many of Marie Lafore’s songs were re-songs of Western rock bands. For example, in the mid-sixties, she created her version of the Rolling Stones collective Paint it black. The vocalist also included in her repertoire the hit of the English star Marianne Faithfull The sha la la song.
Mainstream
Marie Laforet during her many years of performing career sang a large number of works in the genre of pop music. Many of them were written and arranged by the French composer Andre Popp.
Most popular in the Soviet Union was his composition Manchester-Liverpool, which sounded as a musical accompaniment to each issue of the weather forecast on the first television channel from the late sixties to the early eighties. In this program, the instrumental version of the composition was performed.
In 1990, the melody returned to the screens. To her nostalgic sounds, the weather forecast began to be voiced again, however, a year later she was replaced by other music. The following is a translation of Marie Lafore’s Manchester-Liverpool song.
Manchester et liverpool
Manchester and Liverpool ...
I wander the streets again
Among this crowd
Among thousands of strangers.
Manchester and Liverpool ...
I have visited all the distant corners
In search of this beautiful love
What I learned next to you.
I love you, I love you
How i love your voice
That told me: "I love you, I love you."
And so I believed in it.
Manchester is sad, Liverpool has just shed tears over the sea.
I don’t know if I exist ...
White ships are afraid of winter.
Manchester gets wet in the rain
And Liverpool got lost
Today in the fog.
And love, too, was lost.
I love you, I love you
I listen to your voice
That told me: "I love you, I love you,"
But I will never believe it again.
Creative crisis
By the end of the sixties, Marie Laforet became one of the most popular singers in France. Representatives of the record company CBS Records considered her compositions too complex for the mass audience. They demanded new hits from her. Laforet was also interested in works that allowed her to reveal herself as a vocalist and a dramatic actress. Due to disagreements with the management of the company in the 70s, the artist almost lost interest in recording songs. In 1978, she moved to Switzerland, where she opened an art gallery.
Album and tour
In the 1980s, Marie concentrated on her acting career, starring in several French and Italian films. In parallel with this, she recorded a number of singles, which were inferior in popularity to her previous records. In 1993, Marie Laforet released the last album to date.
Lyrics for all the songs included in it, she wrote herself.
In 2005, a large concert tour of Lafore was held, which was the first since 1972.