Françoise Sagan
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Françoise Sagan (June 21, 1935–September 24, 2004), real name Françoise Quoirez, was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Nicknamed “the charming little monster” by François Mauriac,[1] Sagan was best known for strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois characters.
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[edit] Biography
Sagan was born in Cajarc (Lot), and spent her early childhood in Lot, surrounded by animals, a passion that stayed with her throughout her life. Nicknamed 'Kiki', she was the spoilt youngest child of bourgeois parents - her father a company director, and her mother the daughter of landowners. Her family spent the war in the Dauphiné, then in the Vercors. [2]She failed entrance examinations to the Sorbonne in 1953. Though notorious all her life for her extravagant lifestyle, she would later attend school there but without graduating.
Her first novel, Bonjour Tristesse ("Hello, Sadness"), was published in 1954, when she was 18 years old, and it was an immediate international success. It concerns the life of pleasure-driven 17-year-old Cécile, in particular her relationship with her boyfriend and her adulterous, playboy father. The novel allegedly influenced the Simon & Garfunkel song The Sounds of Silence[citation needed]. Her pseudonym was taken from a character ("Princesse de Sagan") in Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time).
Sagan's characters became something of an icon for disillusioned teenagers, in some ways similar to those of J.D. Salinger. She produced dozens of works during a career lasting until 1996, many of which have been filmed. Sporting the austere style of the French psychological novel even while nouveaux romans became popular, the conversations between her characters are often considered to contain existential undertones. In addition to novels, plays, and autobiography, she also wrote song lyrics and screenplays.
In the 1960s, Sagan became more devoted to writing plays, which, though lauded for excellent dialogue, were only moderately successful. Afterwards, she resumed her career as a novelist.
[edit] Personal life
Sagan was married twice; to Guy Schoeller ( married 13 March 1958, an editor with Hachette, 20 years older than Sagan, divorced June 1960), and to Bob Westhof ( a young American playboy and would-be ceramist, married 10 January 1962, divorced 1963. Their son Denis was born in June 1963.)[3] She took a lesbian longer term lover in fashion stylist Peggy Roche; and had a male lover Bernard Frank, a married essayist obsessed with reading and eating. She added to her self-styled "family" by beginning a long-term lesbian affair with the French Playboy magazine editor Annick Geille, after she approached Sagan for an article for her magazine.[1]
Fond of travelling in the United States, she was often seen with Truman Capote and Ava Gardner. She was once involved in a car accident in her Aston Martin sports car - (14 April 1957) - which left her in a coma for some time. She also loved driving her Jaguar automobile to Monte Carlo for gambling sessions.
Also, in the 1990s, Sagan was charged with and convicted of possession of cocaine.
Sagan was, at various times of her life, addicted to a number of drugs. She was a long-term user of prescription pills, amphetamines, cocaine, morphine, and alcohol.When police came for inspection in her house her dog called Banko showed cocaine to them and also licks cocaine. Sagan told police " Look! he likes it too."
[edit] Death
Her health was reported to be poor in the decade of the 2000s. In 2002 she was unable to appear at a trial that convicted her of tax fraud in a case involving the former French President François Mitterrand, and she received a suspended sentence. Françoise Sagan died of a pulmonary embolism in Honfleur, Calvados, on 24 September 2004 at the age of 69.
In his memorial statement, the French President Jacques Chirac said: "With her death, France loses one of its most brilliant and sensitive writers - an eminent figure of our literary life."
[edit] Film
Sagan's life was dramatized in a biographic film, Sagan directed by Diane Kurys, released in France on 11 June 2008. The French actress, Sylvie Testud, played the title role.
[edit] Quotes
- "To jealousy, nothing is more frightful than laughter."
- When asked if she believed in love: "Are you joking? I believe in passion. Nothing else. Two years, no more. All right, then: three.”
- "A dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to want to take it off you."
- "I have loved to the point of madness; that which is called madness, that which to me, is the only sensible way to love."
[edit] Works
[edit] Novels
- Bonjour Tristesse (1954)
- Un certain sourire (1955, A Certain Smile)
- Dans un mois, dans un an (1957, Those without shadows)
- Aimez-vous Brahms? (1959, Goodbye Again, translated 1960)
- Les Merveilleux Nuages (1961, "Wonderful Clouds")
- Toxique (1964)
- La Chamade (1965)
- Le Garde du cœur (1968, The Heart-Keeper)
- Un peu de soleil dans l'eau froide (1969, Sunlight on Cold Water)
- Des bleus à l'âme (Scars on The Soul) (1972, translated 1974)
- Un profil perdu (1974, Lost Profile)
- Brigitte Bardot (1975)
- Le lit défait (1977, The Unmade Bed)
- Le Chien couchant (1980)
- La femme fardée (1981, The Painted Lady)
- Un orage immobile (1983)
- De guerre lasse (1985)
- La Maison de Raquel Vega (1985)
- Sarah Bernhardt, ou le rire incassable (1987)
- Un sang d'aquarelle (1987)
- La Laisse (1989)
- Les Faux-Fuyants (1991)
- Chagrin de passage (1994)
- Le Miroir égaré (1996)
[edit] Short story collections
- Les yeux de soie (1975, Silken Eyes)
- Musiques de scène (1981)
[edit] Plays
- Château en Suède (Château in Sweden) (1960)
- Les Violons parfois (1961)
- La Robe mauve de Valentine (1963)
- Bonheur, impair et passe (1964)
- L'Écharde (1966)
- Le Cheval évanoui (1966)
- Un piano dans l'herbe (1970)
- Il fait beau jour et nuit (1978)
- L'Excès contraire (1987)
[edit] Autobiographical works
- Toxique (1964)
- Réponses (1975, interviews)
- Avec mon meilleur souvenir (With Fondest Regards) (1984, translated 1985)
- Répliques (1992, interviews)
- ...Et toute ma sympathie (1993, a sequel to Avec mon meilleur souvenir)
- Derrière l'épaule (1998, autobiography)
[edit] References
- ^ a b Campbell, Matthew (16 December 2007), "Lesbian love tangle stirs Paris literati", The Sunday Times, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article3056419.ece, retrieved on 2007-12-16
- ^ Paris Match 2889 29 Sep 2004
- ^ Paris Match 2889 29 Sep 2004
