Leslie Caron: Dancing From WWII Paris To Hollywood

In 1955's Daddy Long Legs, Leslie Caron plays a French orphan who goes to college thanks to help from an anonymous, American benefactor (Fred Astaire).

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 RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: In the 1950s, America fell in love with a young French ballerina and actress named Leslie Caron. She brightened the silver screen in the musicals "An American in Paris" and "Gigi." Over the years, Caron made more than 40 movies.

And on a recent visit to Paris, NPR special correspondent Susan Stamberg found the actress as lively and charming as ever.

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SUSAN STAMBERG, BYLINE: In "Gigi," Leslie Caron played an adorable young girl in 1900s Paris; the age of long gowns, feathered hats, morning coats. Gigi was being raised to become a courtesan. A tall, rich, handsome suitor comes to call.

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LOUIS JOURDAN: (as Gaston Lachaille) You know why I'm here?

LESLIE CARON: (as Gigi) You told grandmamma that you wanted to take care of me.

JOURDAN: (as Gaston Lachaille) To take care of you beautifully.

CARON: (as Gigi) To take care of you beautifully means that I should go away from here with you and that I should sleep in your bed.

STAMBERG: When she played Gigi, in 1958, Leslie Caron was a big star. Today, in her comfortable apartment near the Musee d'Orsay, full of photos, paintings, assorted personal treasures, and Tchi-Tchi, a small Tibetan dog...

CARON: Tchi-Tchi, (French spoken) Come on.

STAMBERG: ...clearly the love of her life, Caron recalls her arrival in Hollywood eight years before "Gigi," summoned by dancer Gene Kelly. He'd seen her in a ballet in Paris and cast her in his MGM musical extravaganza "An American in Paris." If these films are way before your time, it is really worth renting them for the sheer joy of it. Kelly had a nickname for his 18-year-old French co-star.

CARON: Gene called me Lester the Pester.

(LAUGHTER)

CARON: I think he was very fond of me, but he liked the rhyme, and he was not sentimental and he always teased me. So I was Lester the Pester or just plain Lester.

STAMBERG: Malnourished and anemic after spending World War II in Occupied Paris, Hollywood was a revelation to the young ballerina. Sunshine all the time. Soap, alarm clocks for sale in drugstores, even shoes - and so much food.

CARON: Too much. I thought I'd never seen plates so full of food. It was awful. I couldn't finish a plate, ever.

STAMBERG: Caron marveled at how nice everybody was.

CARON: During the war, people had become very bitter and very suspicious of each other. Men beating up women and beating up children, and that was quite a normal sight. This is the sort of thing that despair, and fear and poverty brings to people. It breaks down civilization, breaks down the manners of people and their ways of behavior.

STAMBERG: Civilization re-appeared, on the sound stages of 1950s Hollywood. Fred Astaire, her partner in "Daddy Long Legs," was the epitome of elegance, and what a dancer.

CARON: Fred was just the most skillful person you could imagine.

STAMBERG: Astaire had a complicated, belly-flopping scene for which the director had scheduled an entire day to shoot.

CARON: He did it in one take. One take only. They didn't know what else to do for the rest of the day.

(LAUGHTER)

CARON: So the first assistant said, quick, quick - go to makeup. I said what? What are we going to shoot? I have nothing else rehearsed. And he answered, oh, Mr. Astaire says you can do it without rehearsing.

(LAUGHTER)

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STAMBERG: They were to dance in front of a quickly changing montage of night clubs. They're out on the town, constantly dancing - no rehearsal.

CARON: Oh, my God.

STAMBERG: Caron raced to makeup, grabbed her white evening dress, and arrived on the set.

CARON: And Fred said, Oh, don't' worry, just let me lead you and here we go - one, two. And we went through it once and we shot, and that was it.

STAMBERG: He just guided you through it all?

CARON: Yes. Yes. That was Fred. He was that good.

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STAMBERG: In Leslie Caron's most recent film, "Le Divorce," from 2003 she plays a wealthy French matriarch.

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CARON: (as Suzanne de Persand) (French spoken)

STAMBERG: "Le Divorce" was shot in Paris in various historic mansions. One evening, at quitting time, the second assistant handed Caron the address for her 8 AM call the next morning. She read the address, puzzled.

CARON: I think you're making a mistake. I live across the street. And he says, no, no, no, it's this house. I'm absolutely sure.

STAMBERG: She'd been looking out her window at that house for years, peered down into its garden, tried peeking through the windows. Now she was actually going to get inside, although she didn't get dolled up to go across the street to work.

CARON: Yes. I said, well, in that case, I'm not going to bother to get dressed. I'll come in my curlers and with my slippers, and then they can dress me and comb my hair in the house.

STAMBERG: Perfectly coiffed and groomed in designer clothes, in "Le Divorce," Leslie Caron plays a mother-in-law from hell.

CARON: At a certain age, somehow you get given only parts of nasty women, as if it was finished. You could not have a lovely thought, or love anymore or feel love. It's absolutely funny about American films. So that was it, I was playing the matriarch with a hand of iron and a will.

STAMBERG: But it's clear she could do any part - sweet, light, sour, whatever - at her certain age. And Leslie Caron doesn't mind telling her age.

CARON: Everybody can read Wikipedia.

(LAUGHTER)

STAMBERG: But, you know, I think women should tell their age. I think we should tell the truth.

CARON: Well, of course. And you really can't hide anything anymore. People do admire you if you look good for 80, and that's good enough.

STAMBERG: She looks great for 81, Wikipedia says. Limber, lithe she bends like a kid to pick up a piece of paper. For her fans, Leslie Caron is eternally 20-something - all cheekbones and those huge dark eyes, marvelous in the old movies as in today's Paris, all these years later. Thank heaven...

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "GIGI")

MAURICE CHEVALIER: (as Honore Lachaille) (Singing) For little girls, for little girls get bigger every day...

STAMBERG: I'm Susan Stamberg, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "GIGI")

CHEVALIER: (as Honore Lachaille) (Singing) Thank heaven, for little girls...

MONTAGNE: And you can watch some clips of Leslie Caron at .

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

DAVID GREENE, HOST: And I'm David Greene.

(SOUNDBITE OF MOVIE, "GIGI")

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) One day will flash and send you crashing through the ceiling. Thank heaven...

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