Marlene Dietrich returns to Las Vegas
performed by Cyrielle CLAIR in “Marlene is back.”
published 12 July 2018 by
French Quarter Magazine |
by Isabelle Karamooz, Founder
of FQM
This article was translated in English by John
Wilmot.
Cyrielle Clair is magnificent in the role of Marlene.
Photo by Klaus Roethlisberger.
We had the opportunity to spend some time with Cyrielle
Clair while she was in Las Vegas acting in a theater
play produced by French fashion designer Pierre Cardin,
who also designed the sumptuous costumes for the show. A
very beautiful production for a superb evocation of
Marlene Dietrich, one of the most fascinating actresses
and singers of the 20th century. In this play, revealed
to the public, Cyrielle Clair is magnificent in the role
of Marlene. Her work as an actress is quite admirable.
In this interview she talks to us about this fabulous
figure of cinema with passion and reveals a Dietrich who
was, above all, a free and independent woman. She was
way ahead of her time and was a great lover!
Cyrielle Clair:
So Isabelle, I would first like to say that I am
delighted to do this interview here with you in “Paris,
Paris Las Vegas.” It really delights me to be on the
first floor of the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas with the
Bellagio out front. It’s awesome!
French Quarter Magazine:
It’s an honor for me and for French Quarter Magazine to
interview you and I must say, it’s true that we have a
great view of the Las Vegas strip from the “Paris”
hotel. There’s one question I’ve had on my mind: Why did
you choose the United States and mainly Miami last year
and Las Vegas this year to present the show, “Marlene is
back?”
Cyrielle Clair:
We started this show in Paris, then brought it to the
Lacoste Festival, then to Miami and finally to Las
Vegas. Las Vegas really has an important significance as
Marlene Dietrich started her second career here in Las
Vegas. It was important to return to the place that
Marlene had started her international career for the
first time.
French Quarter Magazine:
And so why Miami?
Cyrielle Clair:
Because there is a large French community in Miami.
Since I’m acting out the majority of the play, roughly
two-thirds in French, a third in English and some
snippets in German. Marlene was absolutely trilingual.
She was German and very early on in her childhood, she
learned French. She loved to speak French and she
mastered it very well.
French Quarter Magazine:
We can see that the French, German and English languages
play important roles in this play. Do you speak these
three languages yourself?
Cyrielle Clair:
I speak French and English fluently. I’ve mastered
English fairly well and I’m managing in German. If I had
to act in German, I could get there with a coach. I sang
two songs in German including a little nursery rhyme
that was quite funny and also “Lili Marlene” in German.
I’ll try to speak more German when we tour Germany
because that obviously represents what Marlene was.
Moreover, in this completely cosmopolitan world, it is a
tremendous asset and is extremely advantageous to be
able to express oneself in several languages.
French Quarter Magazine:
For you, the theater is a little bit like going back to
your first love, isn’t it?
Cyrielle Clair:
I’ve never separated
from the theater. In fact, I started with the theater
and very quickly afterwards I started doing films and
television. It turns out that I’ve actually done more
theater these past few years. For the past five years,
I’ve been doing several plays, several projects, but
these are the circumstances. It suits me fine. I like to
change it up, a little theater, a little cinema.
French Quarter Magazine:
What do you particularly like in “Marlene is back,” a
play about the legendary movie star Marlene Dietrich and
why did you accept this challenge by immersing yourself
in Marlene’s captivating world?
Cyrielle Clair:
It was
Pierre Cardin who told me, “I’d really like you to
play Marlene Dietrich.” I was surprised at first because
I only knew Marlene through her films. With a proposal
such as this, it was an offer I could not refuse,
especially since I really like Pierre Cardin and I
admire him enormously, with whom I have already worked
with. I had already done two shows with him, one where I
played Lou Andreas Salome and another very beautiful
play by Pirandello called “Se trouver,” so he knows my
work. He likes what I do. I accepted and he gave me
carte blanche. It was awesome. I plunged myself into the
world of Marlene and I discovered an absolutely
fascinating woman. She was a liberated woman on so many
levels. It must be said that in the 20 and 30s in
Berlin, where she was from, the cabarets of Berlin were
way ahead of their time artistically and creatively. We
see it elsewhere in the film “Cabaret” by Bob Fosse.
There were homosexuals, transsexuals, all cohabiting.
Nobody was surprised about anything. There was a certain
kind of extraordinary creativity and it all took shape
in the spirit of great originality. It seemed as if
there was no censorship. This surely shaped some of what
Marlene became.
She started out as a musician when she was 20 years old.
She was a good violinist but also a very good pianist.
During this period, she was also working as a chorus
girl in one cabaret, reading a couple of lines in
another, and doing high kicks in a third cabaret. She
could do three shows in the same evening. It was Berlin.
There was a sense of community and team spirit. They
were young and beautiful. These were truly the early
stages of her career. In 1929, she meets Sternberg, who,
of course, falls madly in love with her. He already had
a career in America and quickly fell under the charm of
this humble, intelligent, and luminous woman. Sternberg
selected her even though other women had already been
chosen. Nobody knew little Maria Magdalena except for a
small community of artists. He knew how to see
potential.
Sometimes it’s just the encounters made and the stories
swapped between a director and an artist. It can be
something fabulous. She had the opportunity to meet her
mentor. Marlene accepted, she immediately saw and
understood his interest. It was he, who took her to
Hollywood after all. He showed her the ropes too. She
was brave and tireless in her work.
Despite being a huge international star, it became
difficult in Hollywood for Marlene after she turned 50.
There were fewer and fewer proposals for her. One day,
she went to a gala for the artists union and someone
proposed for her to do a flying trapeze act or an act
with some show dogs. She replies “I don’t do all this,
I’m doing Madame Loyal,” and in she walks with a pair of
short shorts, a tail coat that accentuates her beautiful
legs, and a top hat. She is Madame Loyal.
That night she provided a wonderful evening, that was
masterly done. It turns out that Bill Miller, the owner
of the Sahara Palace, was there, and after noticing
this, offers her an exceptional contract for the time.
It was $ 30,000 a week. Nobody was paid that well back
then. She had to make three movies that year to get paid
so handsomely. She had a three-week contract where all
she would do was sing for 20 minutes. There, something
happened. She actually had this talent, this presence on
stage. She wasn’t a great singer, but she was a fabulous
performer and with her beautiful voice, she could really
captivate. For the Sahara Palace, she came up with an
extraordinary dress that was like being nude but just
decorated with diamonds, sequins and feathers. She was
53 years old and she was like that. She was sublime. It
was an apparition. She liked to please. She adored men,
intelligent and cultured men.
French Quarter Magazine:
“Marlene is back,” which you have co-written with Gérard
Chambre, is a play produced by French fashion designer
Pierre Cardin, as we said earlier…
Cyrielle Clair:
And patron of the arts, let’s not forget. He isn’t only
the creator, he is a patron. He had his theater and
always produced on stage. He was the first to produce
Bob Wilson in the “Regard du Sourd” at Espace Cardin. I
love Pierre Cardin. He’s a great creator and since it
was his idea I accepted the challenge. I started
writing. Then I asked Gérard Chambre because he had
experience making musical shows that have a lot of
pizzazz. We started writing together.
French Quarter Magazine:
Can you tell us what the pitch of this show is for our
readers?
Cyrielle Clair:
There’s one thing that
really grabs ahold of me, it’s in the introductory
scene, it’s quite delicate but it assumes that Marlene’s
a legend but it’s all an illusion because it’s
fabricated. She made her image as a Hollywood actress
but what I love and what was very nice is that she left
the studio where she had worked for 12 hours. She
arrived, she was swinging her shoes, she was always very
elegant, she put on a little kitchen apron and made the
broth for everyone… Dos Passos said of her “it’s the
good little German housewife.” In life, she was like
that. When she arrived in Hollywood, the first film she
made was “Morocco.” It was a huge international success.
The second film that was distributed was “The Blue
Angel.” In 1973, she made the last recital at the Cardin
space in Paris and met Pierre Cardin. He was fascinated
by her and if he wanted to do this show it was because
he knew her. He designed all the costumes for the show.
French Quarter Magazine:
Can you tell us about his stage costumes, one of which
you’re wearing so elegantly today?
Cyrielle Clair:
My favorite costume is when I’m in a “tuxedo” with the
top hat in black frac (tailcoat), the white vest and the
white bow tie, I love wearing this costume. Moreover,
it’s the one that we chose for the scene in Las Vegas. I
also like the final dress “à la Marlene,” a pure Pierre
Cardin creation. He chose this dress with pale blue
embroidery. Very pretty. Marlene often wore pale blue
and that sort of big coat that she swung across the
stage. I reproduced what she was doing on stage because
it was quite fascinating. I have never seen it on stage
but Pierre Cardin told me anecdotes of Marlene that were
extraordinary. It’s also a privilege to be dressed by
Pierre Cardin. In Pirandello’s play I had acted in his
theater, he had also created those costumes for me.
French Quarter Magazine:
Throughout your career you’ve worked on several
Anglo-Saxon productions including “Control” with Burt
Lancaster and Ben Gazzara. Being perfectly bilingual has
probably opened other doors for you?
Cyrielle Clair:
That’s right, I’ve always had a rather international
career. There were times that I disappeared from Paris
for a little while because I ended up settling down in
New York for ten years. I did an American series called
Counterstrike with Christophe Plummer and also made an
American movie for MGM with Ed Harris called “Code Name
Emerald” where Harris played a triple agent. I was his
French contact during the resistance. I loved doing this
very beautiful movie. Being perfectly bilingual has
allowed me to make an international career. I shot
several times in Italy, in English most of the time
except the last film I did with Lina Wertmüller where I
spoke in French but did it with a Marseillan accent
because I played a hairdresser with little gingham
shorts like Brigitte Bardot. I had Italian peers who
were extraordinary. They mainly came from the theater. I
loved shooting with Lina Wertmüller. She’s a brilliant
director, a very intelligent woman. She isn’t well known
in France but she still had two Oscar nominations. She
asked me to act in French because she speaks perfect
French too.
French Quarter Magazine:
You have a knack with accents … When you speak English
or German, I noticed a certain fluidity.
Cyrielle Clair:
It was a big challenge because I had already acted in
productions but never live in English. That’s why Miami
was a little trial run. I’d always done entire movies in
English and in Miami I had to switch from French to
English. I was very very scared but I said to myself,
I’ll take the challenge, I thought it was so Marlene, I
thought I’ll just try to do it.
French Quarter Magazine:
Do you have a ritual before going on stage? I often ask
this question to the artists I interview.
Cyrielle Clair:
Absolutely. In my dressing room, I usually have “my
theater angels,” my guardian angels: there is Jean Louis
Barrault, Arletty, who I had the honor to meet and to
know, but also Edwige Feuillère and of course Pierre
Cardin. It’s important to get in touch with these people
who, I know love me, protect me, send me good vibes and
most importantly, I do a little meditation and
breathing. I was a very nervous girl but now I can
channel this energy and I realize that I have resistance
to physical fatigue. I believe that yoga has helped me
channel these energies and to use them when I need them
the most. This show is very difficult because I go from
one time period to another period of time and I quickly
change costumes. I only have a few seconds time to tell
me that it’s now 1930, then I’m in 1938, after which I’m
in Paris in 1950. It requires an immense amount of
concentration.
French Quarter Magazine:
Now to wrap up our interview, you’ll be going back to
Paris, by way of New York, what will follow, a few more
events with the play?
Cyrielle Clair:
I will continue to play Marlene.
French Quarter Magazine:
Where will it be played?
Cyrielle Clair:
That’s the big question. We are working on it.
French Quarter Magazine:
It remains to be a surprise, we stay tuned…
Marlene Dietrich in: No Highway 1951 - source Wikipedia
Cyrielle Clair:
There is a place that I would love to see in Paris and
that I find very ideal to play Marlene after the Espace
Cardin. We’ll continue to take Marlene everywhere to
make her better known. Her intelligence allowed her to
get out of very delicate situations, especially when
Hitler asked her to carry the values of the Third
Reich which were still horrible Nazi values. It was then
that she immediately understood. It was in 1933. That’s
when she asked for US citizenship.
A few years later, she said to herself “I can not stay
in Hollywood making movies while there is a World War.”
She had that intelligence, that lucidity, that
generosity of singing songs to prisoners, to the
wounded, to those young soldiers who were all 20 to 25
years old and who gave their lives. We see old photos
that are fascinating, where she kisses all of them
because tomorrow she may be saying that they’ll have
died. For me, it really symbolizes all the qualities of
Marlene, I find it very beautiful. This is where I feel
close to Marlene. I love the side of her that goes
beyond the circumstances of life; which goes beyond
pettiness and goes beyond the absurdity of war.
That’s why afterwards, I wrote at the end of the play
this little song “Lili Marlene,” a song against hate and
barbarism and for all freedom lovers! I find it
extraordinary. The song was composed in 1913. Initially
it was a love song and in World War I the GI’s and all
those who were in the barracks had chosen this love song
because they were so far from their fiancées . It
reminded them that, “yes, my fiancée, you’ll wait for me
at the exit of the barracks in front of the lantern”…,
but in 1939, the Germans made it into a military song.
In 1944, Marlene tells herself how this song that bears
her name “Lili Marlene.” That’s where she’s great, she
made rewrite lyrics in English. She, a German. She sang
this song for the allies. For me, I’m telling you that
she amazes me. She fascinates me, I find her amazing.
this article was
translated in English by John Wilmot.
