French singer
Musical artist
Eugenie Buffet
(1866?1934) was a French singer who rose to fame in France just prior to World War I. She has been called one of the first,
[1]
if not
the
first,
[2]
performer of the
chanson realiste
(realist song) genre. She became a national sensation in France, performing in the fashionable
cafes-concerts
of Paris as well as embarking on both national and international tours.
[1]
[2]
[3]
Her biggest success is said to be her performance of the song "
La Serenade du Pave
" (Sidewalk Serenade), written by Jean Varney in 1895.
[2]
She was also known to perform in the street for charity in the poorer areas of Paris ? work for which she was awarded the
Legion d'honneur
.
[1]
[2]
[4]
Early life
[
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]
Born as
Marie Buffet
in
Tlemcen
,
Algeria
to a
French
family in 1866
[5]
[6]
(in an area that was then known as
French Algeria
), Eugenie Buffet was the daughter of a
seamstress
and a soldier.
[2]
When she was six months old, her father died in a military hospital in
Oran
; as a result her family was quite
poor
.
[2]
At the age of 17, Buffet started acting.
[2]
She struggled in her early years and was living in near poverty; she had moved to
Marseilles
in order to perform, but she was not very successful at first and was said to have been "booed and hissed off of the stage".
[2]
She worked mainly in the
cafes-concerts
of Marseilles, until 1886 when she became the
mistress
of comte Guillaume d'Oilliamson.
[3]
[7]
[8]
The wealthy French
count
brought Buffet with him to Paris to show off to his friends.
[2]
Buffet went from "near starvation" to living a fashionable Parisian life.
[3]
[8]
Career in music
[
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]
While in Paris, Buffet became involved in
right-wing politics
; she attended one of the founding rallies of the
Ligue des Patriotes
and sang "
La Marseillaise
" for the nationalists. As a result, she became the darling of such anti-
Dreyfusards
as
Paul Deroulede
.
[3]
In 1892 Buffet attended a performance at
Le Chat Noir
(the Black Cat) by the
cabaret
singer
Aristide Bruant
; Buffet found herself moved by his performance and approached him with the idea of her portraying one of the poor and unfortunate girls of whom Bruant would often sing.
[2]
Buffet had spent a short time in the
Prison Saint-Lazare
which had put her into direct contact with women of such description,
[1]
[9]
and she was also said to have followed prostitutes on their rounds at night in order to better emulate their dress and demeanor in her own performances.
[2]
Buffet would combine these experiences to create her famous performances as
la pierreuse
(the
streetwalker
) and she debuted her character in an 1882 performance at
La Cigale
, a famous nightclub in the
Quartier Pigalle
of Paris.
[2]
[3]
[9]
During performances Buffet wore a tattered apron and red scarf, a common costume of prostitutes at the time.
[2]
Soon Buffet became a national celebrity ? she performed at such famous
cafes-concerts
as the
Theatre de la Gaite-Montparnasse
, the
Theatre de la Gaite-
Rochechouart
, and
Les Ambassadeurs
.
[1]
[2]
She also sang in less conventional locations such as the streets of the poorer neighbourhoods of Paris, and even at coal mines, in order to raise money for the poor and homeless.
[1]
[2]
[3]
Buffet also performed daily at the
Exposition Universelle of 1900
, a
world's fair
held in Paris.
[3]
In the early 1900s Buffet tried her hand at managing her own cafes-concerts: From 1902?1903 Buffet ran a
cabaret
in
Montmartre
called the
Cabaret de la Puree
(Down-on-Your-Luck Cabaret) and later in 1903 she ran an establishment called
Folies-Pigalle
(Pigalle Follies) which was closed down that same year by the police because it was "a meeting-place for right-wing enemies of the regime."
[2]
[3]
[10]
In addition to performing in Paris, Buffet toured and performed for soldiers during World War I,
[2]
she performed at the
Royal Palace of Brussels
and in the early 1920s she toured the United States, Morocco and the
Antilles
.
[2]
[3]
[4]
[11]
The
film score
of the 1931
Jean Renoir
film
La Chienne
included a turn-of-the-century recording of Buffet singing "
Sois bonne o ma belle inconnue
" (Be good oh my beautiful unknown).
[12]
[13]
Other works
[
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]
In 1927 Buffet appeared in the
silent film
Napoleon
directed by French filmmaker
Abel Gance
; she played the role of
Laetizia Bonaparte
, Napoleon's mother.
[1]
[14]
In 1930 Buffet published her
ghostwritten
memoir
titled:
Ma Vie, Mes Amours, Mes Aventures: Confidences recueillies par Maurice Hamel
(My Life, My Loves, My Adventures: Confessions obtained by Maurice Hamel), published by writer, poet, journalist and editor
Eugene Figuiere
.
[2]
[8]
Death
[
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]
Suffering from illness as early as the late 1920s, Eugenie Buffet fell into poverty by the end of her life. She died in Paris in 1934.
[1]
[2]
Portrayal in film
[
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]
Eugenie Buffet was said to have inspired the character of Mademoiselle Amy Jolly,
Marlene Dietrich
's role in the 1930 film
Morocco
.
[5]
[15]
French signing icon
Edith Piaf
also portrayed Eugenie Buffet in the 1954 French musical film
French Cancan
.
[16]
[17]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
Frith, Simon (2004).
Chanteuse in the city: the realist singer in French film
, Routledge. pp. 219?220.
ISBN
0-415-29905-5
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r
s
t
Conway, Kelley (2004).
Chanteuse in the city: the realist singer in French film
, University of California Press. pp. 41?51.
ISBN
0-520-24407-9
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
Berlanstein, Lenard R. (2001).
Daughters of Eve: a cultural history of French theater women from the Old Regime to the fin de siecle
, Routledge. p. 203.
ISBN
0-674-00596-1
- ^
a
b
Dillaz, Serge (1991).
Chanson sous la 3. Republique
, Tallandier. p. 255.
ISBN
2-235-02055-0
(French text)
- ^
a
b
Baudelaire, Rene. (1996).
La chanson realiste...
, Editions L'Harmattan. pp. 49?50.
ISBN
2-7384-4831-3
(French and English text)
- ^
Leutrat, Jean-Louis (1994).
La chienne de Jean Renoir
, Editions Yellow now. p. 119.
ISBN
2-87340-095-1
(French text)
- ^
Friang, Michele (1998).
Femmes fin de siecle: 1870?1914 : Augusta Holmes et Aurelie Tidjani ou la gloire interdite
, Editions Autrement. p. 256.
ISBN
2-86260-821-1
(French text)
- ^
a
b
c
Laver, James (1966).
Manners and morals in the age of optimism, 1848?1914
, Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 240.
ASIN
B0006D6E6K
- ^
a
b
Moore Whiting, Steven (1999).
Satie the bohemian: from cabaret to concert hall
, Oxford University Press. p. 20.
ISBN
0-19-816458-0
- ^
Moore Whiting, Steven (1999).
Satie the bohemian: from cabaret to concert hall
, Oxford University Press. p. 176.
ISBN
0-19-816458-0
- ^
Dawbarn, Charles (2008).
Chanteuse in the city: the realist singer in French film
, BiblioBazaar, LLC. p. 150.
ISBN
0-554-61475-8
- ^
Renoir, Jean (1990).
Renoir on Renoir: interviews, essays, and remarks
, CUP Archive. p. 268.
ISBN
0-521-38593-8
- ^
Robertson Wojcik, Pamela (2001).
Soundtrack available: essays on film and popular music
, Duke University Press. p. 268.
ISBN
0-8223-2800-3
- ^
French Cancan
at
IMDb
- ^
Bret, David (2000).
Marlene Dietrich, my friend: an intimate biography
, Robson Books.
ISBN
1-86105-319-3
- ^
Robertson Wojcik, Pamela (2001).
Soundtrack available: essays on film and popular music
, Duke University Press. p. 137.
ISBN
0-8223-2800-3
- ^
Crosland, Margaret
(2002).
A cry from the heart: the life of Edith Piaf
, Arcadia.
ISBN
1-900850-50-8
External links
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