Once upon a time there were four sisters, two of whom would grow up to become stars of French cinema: Françoise, the eldest, and Catherine, born a year and a half later. In the Dorléac family they laughed and teased one another, and refused to take life too seriously. Their upbringing was steeped in the colours of cinema and the oratory of French theatre: Maurice Dorléac, their father, was head of dubbing at Paramount Pictures, and Renée Simonot, their mother, was a leading lady at the Odéon theatre. Their family meals had the feel of a performance – the four girls would enter the dining room twirling in their flowing robes, each more beautiful than the last, before sitting around the table. Their apartment in the 16th arrondissement of Paris bore witness to their friendships, their first loves, their private laughter and their earliest rehearsals.
Françoise started her career dubbing children’s roles in Paramount pictures, practicing her intonation while sitting on the edge of her bunk bed. She was the French voice of none other than Heidi, the sweet child enamoured with Pierre the goatherd. Still, the character did not have quite enough bite for Françoise, who felt nothing in common with Heidi’s saccharine nature. Françoise was brash in her insistence that she would become a star, the French Greta Garbo, and she talked back most insolently to her teachers. School was only good for boredom, and Françoise was even expelled for her lack of discipline. ‘So what?’, she thought – she would simply enrol in the Conservatoire, France’s premier performing arts school. In any case, her future was laid out before her: she had everything needed to embody the ultimate femme fatale on the big screen. Her deep voice, russet hair, the perfect oval of her face and her voluptuous lips turned many a man’s head. On stage she played Gigi, a Colette character embodied by Audrey Hepburn ten years previously. Then she began to get noticed in cinema castings, and her ultimate dream began to take shape. She had a powerful screen presence, and even got a chance to model for Christian Dior – a rare privilege even for the biggest stars. But nothing in her career came without effort; Françoise could not abide imperfection, and her endless sophistication was made possible only by her infinite patience for make-up, wardrobe and backstage formalities.
Catherine was much more timid than her older sister, and did not dream of any grandiose career. She was reserved; she observed, she looked on, and she ruminated. Acting in movies seemed a ludicrous idea, for she did not love the spotlight. Her dream was to experience a great love, but one day Françoise offered Catherine a role: playing her sister in a film by Jacques Poitrenaud and Michel Fermaud named Les Portes Claquent. Catherine was hesitant, but in the end she accepted. “You’re so beautiful! You belong on the big screen!” Françoise insisted.
As time went on, Françoise and Catherine went on to star in Demoiselles de Rochefort by Jacques Demy, and the musical would seal their rapport forever. “We’re two twin sisters, born under the sign of Gemini, mi fa sol la mi ré, ré mi fa sol sol sol ré do…”
Alan Alfredo Geday