FashionState.Com salutes...

Gorgeous Gallic Gamine

Françoise Dorléac

1942 - 1967

If a fatal auto accident hadn't taken the life of Françoise Dorléac at the tragically young age of 25, there is no doubt she would have become at least a close-to-equal international sensation as her younger sister, Catherine Deneuve (née Dorléac).

The Dorléac sisters came from a family of actors, but it was Françoise, the free-spirited extrovert, who encouraged and inspired the woman who became France's most famous movie actress to get her start.

Catherine styled herself as "Deneuve" to distinguish herself from her already-active, highly-driven Dior-model sister Françoise, who knew she wanted to be in the spotlight even as a young girl.

Accordingly to "Look" magazine's 1965 article on both sisters: "As a little girl in ballet class, [Françoise] danced on and on, after blood oozed out of her toes."

Catherine and Françoise even appeared in films together ("Les Portes Claquent", "Male Hunt", and the Demy / Legrand musical masterpiece "The Young Girls of Rochefort" feature the beautiful siblings), and although both girls were extraordinarily lovely and extremely close as sisters, they were of different temperaments. Whereas Catherine was considered "sweet", Francoise was viewed as "soignée". Catherine was sugar; Françoise was spice.

And that spicy, passionate personality of Françoise, as well as her sophisticated sense of style and fashion, came blazing through in films such as "That Man from Rio", "The Soft Skin", "Genghis Khan", "Billion Dollar Brain", and Roman Polanski's Berlin Film Festival top prize-winner, "Cul de Sac".

The death of Françoise affected sensitive Catherine for many, many years afterward, and France's goddess of the screen released a book about her sister in 1996 entitled "Elle S'Appelait Françoise" ("Her Name Was Françoise"), which was turned into a French documentary.

And although Françoise Dorléac is not as well-known as Catherine Deneuve, Françoise's influence and affect upon her famous sister is evident in Deneuve's many fansites on the Internet, and those sites and photo collections, on-line and off-line, that focus on the beauty and talent of French actresses usually do not fail to present photos of both sisters - the fabled Catherine and her soul-twin, the fabulous and feisty Françoise.

FashionState.com's
Photos de Françoise

FRANÇOISE ON FILM
FRANÇOISE - FILLE FASHIONABLE, Pt. 1
FRANÇOISE - FILLE FASHIONABLE, Pt. 2
FRANÇOISE & CATHERINE

Site Links

Note: It is considered proper on-line protocol to ask the site owners for permission to copy and / or distribute photos from their sites. Be sure to set your browsers to support Javascript, etc., and avoid pop-ups, just in case!

BBC's "Hollywood on Tyne"
This section of the "Hollywood on Tyne" site presents information and trivia on the local shooting of "Cul de Sac". Fun!

Ciné Passion
A French language film site with a better-than-average bio of Françoise's career.

Clive's World
This fansite for Polanski's "Cul de Sac" features a very short bio on Françoise, mostly about her role as Teresa. If you love this film like Mad Molly does, you'll enjoy this site!

Ecrannoir
En français! Ecrannoir.fr bills Catherine Deneuve as "THE star of Ecrannoir", and this section focuses on Françoise! Biography, filmography, insightful reflections about Françoise, and a terrific write-up about her personality from her sister and those with whom Francoise worked!

En Souvenir de Françoise Dorleac
En français! This is the premiere website dedicated to Françoise Dorleac. Utilizing Flash Plug-In, this site features a bio, a filmography, beautiful photo galleries, a magazine cover section, and recollections from those who knew and worked with her. Formidable!

For the Love of Opera Gloves
This site has a special feature on "The Young Girls of Rochefort" with a still collection highlighting the red costumes (with opera gloves!) worn by Françoise and Catherine in their big musical number "La Chanson d'un Jour Eté".

Françoise Dorleac @ Idoneos.Com
Idoneos.Com is an Argentinian website that features this English-language subsite for Amazon.Com reviews of Françoise's movies.

ImTranslator @ Paralink
Here's the best site I've found to assist in translating the French language sites. Certainly not spot-on translations (no free translation site has them), but for those who know very little French, it is helpful in giving you an idea of what's being discussed.

Le Papier a Gaumet
This French language magazine and photo collectibles site has postcards and French magazines featuring Françoise that you can purchase.

Tout Sur Deneuve
En français! This section of Tout Sur Deneuve is entirely dedicated to Catherine's reflections on her sister, Françoise Dorléac. Features quotes by Françoise on Catherine, and a border gallery of wonderful little mini-photos of the sisters. This particular link will take you to another area of the site where Catherine talks about her early life with her family, with a special section on Francoise.

Ville Rochefort
A website focusing on the French city of Rochefort also features this special section on the musical "Les Demoiselles de Rochefort". It hasn't been updated since 1999, but it's still chock full of information on the history of the film, as well as song lyrics, cast list, plot layout...and the entire screenplay in French so you can sing along with the movie! (The screenplay is in French, but here's an English version of the rest of the website.)

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