Ukrainian Frenchwoman Mylene Demongeot: The idol of the Soviet audience, who traded a brilliant career for family happiness

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

This beautiful blonde was known throughout the Soviet Union. Milady from the French "Three Musketeers", Helene from the trilogy about Fantômas - she was much closer and dearer to the domestic audience than Brigitte Bardot, the main sex symbol of France at that time. Half Ukrainian by birth, by nature - an ugly duckling turned into a beautiful swan, Mylene Demonjo flew to the heights of the film industry, then to leave them for the sake of her beloved.

Childhood: war and complexes

Marie-Helene Demongeot was born on September 29, 1935 in Nice. His father was half French, half Italian, and his mother, Claudia Trubnikova, was born and spent her childhood in Kharkov. In 1918, her family emigrated from military Russia, first to Shanghai and then to France. The early childhood of the future actress was spent mostly in the villa of her grandmother, whom Mylene called Nonna. Soon after the outbreak of World War II, his father moved the family to Paris, where he managed to find work. In his autobiography, Demonjo recalls how in 1944 they were summoned to a dying grandmother in Nice, how they were traveling on a crowded train, but they did not have time to find Nonna alive.

After the war, the Demongeot family settled in Montpellier, another city in the south of France. And Mylene found herself in the grip of two passions that will become decisive in her fate and career. The first passion was music. There was a piano in the new house, and the girl began to study - first, playing with two fingers, choosing a melody on her own, then with the help of a teacher who came three times a week and over time began to pin serious hopes on the aspiring pianist. My father got a box at the local opera - and he and Mylene enjoyed spending evenings there, enjoying La Traviata, Rigoletto, Faust, Carmen …

Mylene not only loved music with all her heart, but also had good abilities - moreover, it was almost the only way for her to prove herself. She did not study well - the subjects in which Mademoiselle Demongeot was successful, were perhaps French and Latin - everything else, mathematics, and especially physical education, she hated. This was due to both being overweight, and with the awkwardness that Mylene was distinguished from childhood. Already at an early age, she was found to have a visual defect, strabismus, due to which the girl had to wear glasses and "constantly look down." She had neither close friends, let alone fans, but she had a hobby that captured Mylene entirely and, perhaps, competed with music - this hobby was cinema.

Mylene Demonjo in front of the screen and on the screen

As Demonjo later recalled, before she knew the magical world that opened with the entrance to the cinema, she had only been to the show - in Paris, at the age of five, when she watched Snow White there. Now, without leaving the cinema for hours, she watched the images created by Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh, Humphrey Bogart, Gary Cooper, Charlie Chaplin, Rita Hayworth live on the screen. When there was not enough money for a ticket, she secretly dragged coins from her mother's purse. The main dream of Mylène Demongeot was a meeting with the idol - Gerard Philippe.

Another dream was to get rid of my defect and the habit of looking down, and not at others. This could only be helped by an operation - and by hook or by crook the girl achieved it, eventually forcing her parents to fork out for expensive treatment. After everything was corrected, literally a new life began - Mylene realized that she could be beautiful. Already in Paris, where Demongeau moved again, something happened that millions of girls around the world dreamed and are dreaming of: a photographer approached her on the street and asked if she wanted to become a model …

Starting work with Pierre Cardin, and then in other fashion houses, gave Mylene the opportunity to start moving towards her old dream, she enrolled in acting classes and already in 1953 got her first role in the film "Children of Love". Several years later, Demonjo received her first nominations and awards for her role as Abigail in The Salem Witches. Further film works raised her to the level of those idols whom she once idolized: now it was an honor for Jean Mare, Alain Delon, and Jean-Paul Belmondo to star in the same film with Mylene Demongeot. And acquaintance with the idol - Gerard Philip - was also not long in coming.

It was said that her success was partly due to the resemblance to Brigitte Bardot. Yes, and Mylene herself does not deny that they have a lot in common - in addition to external features, this is love for animals, and even birthdays: Brigitte was born on September 28, Mylene - 29. Since childhood, Mylene herself tried to imitate Dina Durbin.

Sooner or later, French cinema could not avoid the adaptation of Dumas's Three Musketeers. The dazzling blonde Mylene Demonjo got the role of Milady in her. “I like playing bitches,” she later explained her desire to play Lady Winter.

Collaborating with the Unifrance company, the actress starred not only in France, but also abroad: in Italy, Yugoslavia, Brazil. However, abroad she was noticed at the beginning of her career: in 1958, while working in the United States, she played the role of Elsa in the film adaptation of Françoise Sagan's cult book Hello, Sadness. Of particular importance in the career of an actress was a series of films about Fantômas - in any case, it was thanks to her that Demonjo gained incredible popularity in the Soviet Union. The haircut of the “bride of Fandor”, her style of dress, her demeanor have become a reference point for millions of spectators. Together with Jean Marais and Louis de Funes, Demongeot visited the USSR, arriving at the Moscow Film Festival.

After marriage

In 1966, the actress met with Mark Simenon, the son of the famous writer. The meeting was a "thunderbolt" for both. Both Simenon and Demongeot terminated the marriage relationship that existed at that time - Mylène was married to the photographer Henri Coste - and got married in 1968. The younger Simenon worked in the film industry, was a screenwriter and director, and Mylene devoted herself to her family and supporting her husband's projects, refusing to further develop her career.

She will still have roles in films - mainly films, television films and mini-series, which was filmed by Simenon. But the main meaning of Demonjo's life for several decades will be family happiness, and Mylene claims that it was a couple. In the eighties, the couple moved to the island of Porquerolles in the Mediterranean Sea, near Toulon, and there in 1990 the second wedding was played - this time in a Catholic church, with a long dress and everything that is required for a solemn ceremony. the work of Simenon. In 1999, their last trip took place - to Japan.

Shortly after returning to France, Marc Simenon was killed in an accident. The French movie star met the new millennium as a widow. After the death of her husband, Demongeot began to return to roles - not only in the cinema, but also in the theater. In addition, she began to write books in which she turned to her own biography and the life story of her mother.

Now Milen Demonjo, despite his age, continues to act in films, write books, attend film festivals, including "Kharkov Lilac", which was established in 2009 and whose honorary president was the actress. She continues to inspire with her example those who see and appreciate the beauty and strength of French women - even, and maybe especially - those who are much closer to us in origin than it seems when looking at the screen.

Among the works of Mylene Demonjo - a role in the film "Twelve Plus One", based on "The Twelve Chairs," a novel that generates controversy about its author.