The popularity of the singer realistic
Freels based primarily on the sincerity and raw talent of stripping: without any artifice, without mannerism, this massive and ageless woman looking like a drunkard, knew no difficulty communicating emotions more intense or more intense fun with tunes from the sidewalk as she sang well in the larger music halls in the fairs neighborhood. In the 30s, French cinema was filled with "faces" of eccentrics and character actors to the overwhelming presence was very well able to exploit the talents of this singer character larger than life.
Born in 1891, Margaret Boulch has had a miserable childhood. After the accidental death of his father, an employee of the railroad (Not a sailor as she claimed at times), the girl was forced early on to support his family, singing in the streets. Teenager
became demonstrator in cosmetics, she meets the beautiful Otero, the most famous courtesan prewar, known for his connections with George VII of England, Leopold II of Belgium and Aristide Briand. Captivated by her beauty and her beautiful blue eyes, she renamed Margarita Periwinkle, and uses his connections to introduce her protegee in all of Paris. By 1906, the same Periwinkle sings at the brewery of the universe. With his voice rough and broken Breton accent and his impudent, the young singer was spotted immediately. It seems that by 1908 the young singer has a little extra in the films of Max Linder, one of the early stars of world cinema which was then much inspired Chaplin. Probably intoxicated by the easy life of a microcosm of Paris, the young singer who has now adopted the stage name of Freels (like the famous Cape Breton) leads a dissolute life, alternating lovers (especially boxers) and mistresses with a Bulimia incredible. She fell in love
beginner Maurice Chevalier, who leaves her for the famous most famous Mistinguett and therefore p
read helpful for his career. Extremely hurt by this betrayal, the fiery Frehel thought of suicide and even murder his ex-lover. Finally, at the beginning of the war 14, she chose to flee Paris and take one of his wanderings in his new conquests, the Grand Duchess Anastasia, cousin of Nicolas II. The eternal party girl before she sank in luxury and debauchery nights of St Petersburg, pursuing an adventurous life and turbulent in Central Europe. Drugged and desperate, the artist is rescued by her ex-husband who convinced her to return to France in 1922.
Abuse of any kind (including cocaine, which damaged his nasal cavities) were transformed into the pretty matron Periwinkle puffy flat nose. Talent is thankfully intact and with a new repertoire of songs composed realistic quality as "gray" the unforgettable unforgotten "made a successful comeback in the world of vaudeville. The
talkies will use many services of the singer in a
long series of realistic dramas of uneven quality: if its unattractive forbade her first roles (one critic described the same in 1931 as "a woman at night his life, " when she was only 40 years!), its verve, its presence makes a character dreamed of composition for scenes of squalid cabarets and other dens of Paris. In the heart of lilac (31), she sings with Jean Gabin (poor boy), a java full of banter and vulgarity that plant from the outset the decoration of a popular Paris today that with great relish nostalgia. The qualities of the singer actresses (in Mom of a scoundrel) are very noticeable in the street with no name (33), very successful adaptation of a novel by Marcel Ayme, qualify for some precursor opens neo realism, as in Amok (34), exotic melodrama scenario bold. If
Frehel brand in the minds of its various realistic films, not only by its undeniable vocal qualities, but also by a natural game and also measured which contrasts with the exaggeration of certain of the main entry and gives As modern, nobody has forgotten his
shattering performance in the masterpiece of Duvivier Pepe le Moko (36), when she sings the wistful "So where are they" in the Casbah, listening to his disc the phonograph. The scene is even more she movingly recalls own downfall of the launch (with a wall, a picture pinned to the Periwinkle same time its beauty). To sad songs, Freels alternates in its repertoire pieces over gays and truculent as priceless as it is (36) she sings in a short film with accordionist Alexander, or the catchy Java Blue (39) (his last and most famous disc from the movie a Java). A review of women râblée drunkard-like in his films of the 30s, it's hard to imagine that the singer was hanging
still behind a cohort of gigolos profited its seals. A colorful character that the young Serge Gainsbourg who often encountered in childhood is remembered as a woman "dirtier than him! "*, Or whose Arletty remembered with amusement flatulence and attitude" very nature "in an elevator at the Carlton.
the street without joy (38) Freels this incredible chorus sings "Men do not like us for us but for them it is all the same jaded, of the vicious .. "With an emotion that brings the truth and the more raw emotion to the words. With a text as more commonplace "in heaven there is a star," she manages to even make miracles with an intensity hard to match (what a pity, however, if known, taken from a movie starring Fernandel, was never recorded on disc by the singer).
During the war, Freels going to sing for the prisoners in Germany, believing with a disarming naivete bring s
upport for our brave soldiers while participating without realizing the cooperation (it will be to also severely burned in a bombing in Germany). But it was more mode changes and the decline of the realistic range, the treatment that will remove Frehel of the limelight. If we still believe in spite of his thick outline in two or three films, the singer of the java blue is ill, alcoholic and ruined. Housed in a brothel, she survives on charity galas that friends are organizing in his honor.
Died in 1951 in poverty, Freels scored his time and inspired many artists both in kind el realistic as Rosalie Dubois rockers, struck by the authenticity of the artist, his lived his crudeness and his talent without manners . Although the singer has never made much of his many appearances at the seventh art Yet it is this that has shaped and remembered this uncompromising artist, in any auond 1990tant that his music (although his complete discography is only just over two CDs!). A bio
was dedicated to my lady of the popular song by N and A Belfond Lacombe in 1990.
* In the movie about the life of Serge Gainsbourg, Frehel is embodied by Yolande Moreau 
If you read the article about the four seasons of color, you probably know that held your face is a determining factor in choosing your color palette ideal. What happens when you tan in the sun that is held in your skin becomes darker and the appearance of your face becomes less concordant with the dominant colors in your wardrobe, which is not great. 
