- Sylvia Kristel, Emmanuelle, 1974. Barely known outside Montreal, Carole arrived at Cannes, 1973, where her performance in her lover Gilles Carle’s La Mort d’un bucheron/Death of a Lumberjack led to numerous offers, easily refused. “All they considered me was as a beautiful erotic animal they could exploit in a lot of outrageous films. I went back to Quebec, working with Gilles on editing, writing – to learn all the jobs in the profession. I preferred this apprenticeship instead of making Emmanuelle.” She caused a sex-scandal at the next Cannes in (and moaning about) Dusan Makavejev’s Sweet Movie. So, Just Jaeckin tried her again…
- Corinne Clery, Histoire d’O (UK/US: The Story of O), France-West Germany-Canada, 1975. One by one the chosen few said No to O… as if the (in)famous erotic novel by “Pauline Réage” could be filmed without nudity. Carole was avoiding French sex-movies (Hollywood’s too) before going all the way with real fellatio the following year in Carle’s L’ange et la femme (The Angel and the Woman) in 1976. Lancashire’s Dziubinska passed despite (or because of) having been extremely naked in Vampyres, 1974. Brigitte Fossey, former child star from the French classic, Jeux interdits (Forbidden Games), 1951 (when she was six), also said No to O despite being topless in Les valseuses, 1973.
- Marie-France Pisier,The Other Side of Midnight, 1976. “I refused. So they say: You’re not very ambitious. I say: I don’t want to be manipulated.” Oh no? She shook Cannes again that same year for going considerably further than Emmanuelle, O or Pisier, when she felated her new lover, musician Lewis Feury, when directed by her ex, Gilles Carle, in L’Ange et la femme/The Angel and the Woman, Canada, 1977.
- Catherine Deveuve, La Sauvage, France, 1978. Alain Delon did not want to know. “Comedies don’t work with me.” Exactly why, auteur Jean-Paul Rappenau wanted him. Jean-Paul Belmondo was keen – three Rappenau movies had helped make him #1 in France. But he insisted on his current lover, Italian star Laura Antonelli as his co-star. Rappeneau did not agree (Claude Chabrol did for Docteur Popaul, 1972) being more keen on the lively, lovely Canadian newcomer. Or better still, and finally, Catherine Deneuve. “Can she run more slowly?” complained co-star Yves Montand. ”Otherwise, I can’t catch her and we’ll have to change the ending.” He never did catch her. Deneuve being among the very few leading ladies he was never able to seduce.
- Catherine Alric, Clash, France-Yugoslavia, 1983. Paris horrorsmith Raphaël Delpard wanted Laure as his heroine, Martine. She declined. Not because she didn’t like his script – there didn’t appear to be one – but she wasn’t into horror. The Catherine Denueve clone took over.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 5