Last surviving Casablanca actress Madeleine Lebeau dies
Source: BBC
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36295621
Last surviving Casablanca actress Madeleine Lebeau dies
25 minutes ago
French actress Madeleine Lebeau, the last surviving cast member of the classic 1942 film Casablanca, has died at the age of 92, her family says. Her stepson, filmmaker Carlo Alberto Pinelli, told the Hollywood Reporter that she had died on 1 May in Spain.
In Casablanca, Lebeau plays Humphrey Bogart's spurned lover. In a famous scene, she tearfully shouts "Vive La France", after the clientele in Rick's Café sing La Marseillaise to drown out singing by German soldiers.
Born in 1923 near Paris, she fled Nazi-occupied France with her then husband, prominent actor Marcel Dalio, in 1940. The couple ended up in Hollywood, and both played in Casablanca.
Her subsequent work includes the role of a temperamental French actress in Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963).
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Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36295621
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She sings La Marseillaise in the bar.
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Response to nitpicker (Original post)
Madeleine was married to a Jewish actor. They managed to leave France in 1940, shortly before the Nazis invaded France. This scene always gets to me, it was not acting for Madeleine, she cried for the loss of her nation.
Rest in peace, Madeleine.
It was not really meant to be the national anthem of France. It was written to urge the citizens of France to rise against the foreign invasion (Austria had invaded Strasbourg). It is a call to war, for freedom and self identity.
As for Casablanca, the actors were a hodgepodge from various countries. Several of them were Europeans whose nations were fighting the Nazis. That's why that scene is so impactful, it was real life for some of those on that sound stage. It wasn't just an acting job. I can't help it, I cry every time I watch that scene.
and, musically, it's an elegant song.
But it was written during the Revolution and, in total, is extremely martial, bloody, and even a bit racist.
Here's a standard English translation of the refrain from the current official version:
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions,
Let's march, let's march!
Let an impure blood
Soak our fields!
But, what the hell, it's nothing to argue about
I was in a beer garden in Prague in May 1991, and a group of German tourists had broke out in song. Perfectly innocuous, just maybe 15-20 people enjoying a bit of good cheer in a place where you'd expect people to cut loose a bit.
In every direction, as far as I could see, people were just barely holding back their rage. The few Czechs I managed to catch the eyes of directly were staring daggers.
And the most prominent thought I had was 'good god, haven't these Germans seen Casablanca?'
Thankfully, the singing did end without incident...
No one was PC back then. The "impure blood" in this case were the invading forces, so one can't blame them too much for the choice in words.
Interesting anecdote. I'm sure that the Germans were having fun and weren't even born when the war was going on, they probably didn't realize that the wound is still oozing. It must have brought back bad memories for those in attendance. Far too many Europeans were affected by the Nazi invasion of their nations. I have family in Spain, France and Belgium. One thing that has stayed in my mind about Belgium is that when you travel through the smaller towns there's always a WWII memorial. I saw many Sherman tanks left behind by the American troops in these towns. They are now markers and part of war memorials.
so I know a bit about the song too.
The "impure blood" might be more of a nationalist reference than racist, as the song was originally sung by the Army of the Rhine who were fighting an Austrian invasion.
In addition, the French Queen (Marie Antoinette) at the time was the youngest child of the emperor and empress of Austria, and she was known, at first by her enemies at the court and then by the people, as L'Autrichienne, a clever play on words because while it means the Austrian woman, the second half of the word "chienne" is the French word for a female dog or bitch.
I like to translate "sang impur" as "filthy blood". I think it's more in keeping with the spirit of the lyric.
I always show the clip of Casablanca when I teach the anthem, and I inevitably get complaints that it's not in color.
Kids today, I tell ya...
