HASn the mid-1950s, Alain Delon and Dalida were still unknown, two ambitious young people who dreamed of breaking into the capital of all possibilities… The brunette Iolanda Gigliotti left Egypt with a few meager luggage, a title of Miss Egypt, a few small roles in films, and the firm intention of imposing its oriental charm on French cinema. In reality, she is struggling to make ends meet, living in a maid’s room on rue Jean-Mermoz, in the 8and district of Paris, and never stops running the castings with the rage to succeed. We advise him to try the song, we love warm voices, Gloria Lasso is in the firmament, and with her oriental style, Iolanda could find a niche. Why not, if glory is at the end of the tunnel…
It was at this time that she crossed paths with a handsome boy with insolent charm, steely blue eyes and monster nerves. In 1956, Delon returned from Indochina, where he stood out for insubordination – he celebrated his 20th birthday alone, at the bottom of the mitard. He had joined the flag to escape the profession of butcher, but ended up being fired after three years and three months. Here he is free and left to his own devices in Pigalle, a dive without a net into a shady neighborhood and the middle of thugs where he almost ends up a pimp…
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Chances of life mean that he also nurses in an attic room next to the young Dalida. He then earns three sous by working at Les Halles or in bars. “I lived, I worked at night and, in the early morning, I collapsed in the small room of a hotel, rue Jean-Mermoz, near the Champs-Élysées, the star told Michel Drucker one day. On the same floor, in another attic, lived a certain Iolanda Gigliotti. She came from the Middle East with, as only baggage, a title of Miss Egypt 1954. We dreamed of glory and light…”
Welded from the start
They sympathize, remake the world, when the morale of one fails, on returning from a casting, the other is there to support him. It sometimes happens that Alain accompanies Dalida to an audition, to a cabaret, in search of a stage and a cachet – she begins to sing at the Drap d’or and at the Villa d’Este, very close to the Champs . And in the evening, when there is nothing left to eat, we settle for a hard-boiled egg under the roofs of Paris. Nothing better than months of bohemianism to weld a friendship for life…
We know the rest: both will quickly break through and follow an exceptional career. The young Delon takes his first steps in the cinema in When the woman gets involved, by Yves Allégret, and won his first big role at 22 in Christina, alongside Romy Schneider with whom he forged a romance as legendary as it was in the media – they were nicknamed the “fiancés of Europe”. At the same time, Dalida enjoyed dazzling success with her hits “Bambino”, “Gondolier » then “Come Prima”, and continues the tours in Europe…
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Their paths end up crossing again a few years later, when they finally touch glory: Delon triumphs in Cheetah, Palme d’Or at Cannes, while Dalida is considered one of France’s most popular singers. They are barely in their thirties and their private life is as stirring as their career: the singer leaves her mentor Lucien Morisse to live an idyll with the painter Jean Sobieski, while Delon breaks up with Romy for Nathalie… It was then that they will live a brief affair, under the Italian sun, a few nights of love and carelessness torn from tours and filming, and above all well hidden from the paparazzi, as confirmed recently to the Point Orlando, Dalida’s brother: “It was in 1963, in Rome. I didn’t know it at the time… My life ended at my sister’s bedroom door. But it made me happy… He’s almost part of the family. »
Words, words…
Ten years later, their bond was intact when they recorded a hit that shook the whole of France: “Paroles, Paroles”, the adaptation of an Italian song that has since become a cult duet between the two stars… Dalida thinks immediately to Alain to give him the cue, who immediately accepts. When he arrives at the studio des Dames, in the 17and district of Paris, she has already recorded her voice. “More words, always words, the same words”, says the song… Delon sits down, takes a glass of cognac, changes three words, asks for the lights to be extinguished and unrolls his text in two takes. When he shouts “That you are beautiful, that you are beautiful” in his cavernous voice, Dalida bursts out laughing behind the studio window… Their respective schedules will prevent them from singing this song live once. on stage or on a television set.
Three years ago, on the set of CNews, the last big beast of cinema could not hold back his tears when he heard this duet once again with his lifelong friend, who disappeared one spring evening in 1987, swallowing tubes of barbiturates. “Dali, she upsets me, because I loved this woman, terribly, and I suffered so much when she was made to leave… And I would have liked to be there to prevent her from leaving like that. But she had made her decision, she didn’t want to go back, she wanted to leave, she left very quickly. And I know why…”
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Alain Delon and Dalida: story of a hidden love