- Title: Jean-Paul Belmondo honoured with Venice Golden Lion career award
- Date: 8th September 2016
- Summary: VENICE, ITALY (SEPTEMBER 8, 2016) (REUTERS) ****WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF ACTOR AND VENICE FILM FESTIVAL LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT GOLDEN LION AWARD RECIPIENT, JEAN-PAUL BELMONDO, ARRIVING BY RED CARPET IN CAR ACTRESS SOPHIE MARCEAU AND BELMONDO ARRIVING BY RED CARPET CROWDS ALONG RED CARPET APPLAUDING AS BELMONDO AND MARCEAU ARRIVE ON RED CARPET BELMONDO
- Embargoed: 23rd September 2016 18:03
- Keywords: Jean-Paul Belmondo Golden Lion lifetime achievement award Venice Film Festival
- Location: VENICE, ITALY
- City: VENICE, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Film
- Reuters ID: LVA0014YPGZF1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Veteran French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo said on Thursday (September 8) he had done everything he wanted in life as he accepted the Venice film festival's Golden Lion for lifetime achievement.
The charismatic 83-year-old star, best known for movies such as the 1964 hit "L'Homme de Rio" (That Man from Rio), received a long standing ovation as he walked on stage, leaning on a cane, to receive the coveted award.
"I'm very proud to receive the Venice Golden Lion. When I was young, I was 18 years old, I went to Rome. I was looked for Cinecitta. I searched and I searched and I searched but I could not find it. I went back home and then Vittorio De Sica, aaah! He sent me a telegram asking me to work with Sophia Lorean, oooh!" he said, prompting laughter from the festival's organisers and the audience.
Asked before the ceremony whether there was anything else he wanted to have experimented with, Belmondo smiled and said wistfully:
"Yes, I understand. I would say I've done everything I wanted to. I love the sun. I love the sea, voila," he told reporters."
Belmondo said he hadn't always known he wanted to be an actor. As a young man, the Frenchman trained to become a professional boxer, but then got involved in theatre from where his acting career took off, lasting more than half a century.
While he has done a lot of work in French auteur cinema, many think of him today as a star of action films, where he almost always insisted on doing his own stunts.
Asked which of the two he preferred, he said there was time for both.
"I had fun doing both types of roles. Both are good. One day you laugh, and the next day you cry and that's how it is," he said.
The actor added it was important to keep smiling in tough times.
"It is somewhat complicated to explain what is happiness nowadays. There is too much violence. It's difficult to be happy but we seek happiness anyway, we try to forget about wars and things. Smiling is important," he said.
Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski was also honoured with the lifetime achievement Golden Lion award at the 73rd Venice Film Festival. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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