L'Inoubliable Inoubliée Box Set

Description

Chez cette tragédienne tout concours au drame, d’une manière inévitable et sans le moindre artifice. Sa vie, sa voix, sa dégaine, ses amours tumultueuses et cette déchéance physique qui fera d’une beauté adulée, couverte de fleurs et de bijoux par les têtes couronnées de l’époque, cette matrone sans formes ni âge, à laquelle Gabin ira jusqu'à dire: «T’as été une femme», au terme d’une scène particulièrement intense de Pépé le Moko.
Born in Paris on Friday, July 13, 1891, to a father – a former sailor – who became disabled, and a mother bringing her numerous lovers under the family roof, little Marguerite Boulc’h is very early left to her own devices and begins to sing in the courtyards, from the age of five, accompanied by an old blind man who plays the barrel organ. After various jobs, she finds herself employed by a cosmetics manufacturer who one day sends her to deliver a “facial renovator” to La Belle Otéro; struck by the beauty and liveliness of this 14-year-old girl, she takes her under her wing and helps her debut at the Univers, under the name of Pervenche.
Success is swift and, while reaching a wide popular audience, thanks to her warm voice and unpretentious diction. Pervenche soon becomes the darling of all Paris nightlife. She indulges in party after party, experiments with alcohol and drugs, and her multiple affairs make headlines: until a disastrous affair with Maurice Chevalier drives her to disappear from the Parisian stage for nearly eleven years.
We then follow her trail throughout Europe, from Saint Petersburg to Constantinople.
When she returns to France in 1923, Pervenche has faded behind Fréhel and her repertoire has considerably darkened. But the voice is warmer than ever and now conveys each word to the peak of emotion. This marks the beginning of a second career, far more accomplished than the first, which will see the one whom Édith Piaf never referred to as anything other than “La Grande Fréhel” headline the biggest music halls for over twenty years, record nearly a hundred titles, and act in about fifteen films.
Yet, as if she had to remain true to her legend, it is in misery and solitude that Fréhel, on February 3, 1951, in a grim hotel room in Pigalle. Marc Robine