7 minute read
FRENCH RIVIERA VILLA
Sean Connery's French Riviera Villa
Sir Sean Connery, who died on Halloween, was not only one of the most famous actors of the past 50 years, in 1999 he was named the “Sexiest Man of the Century” by People magazine. The screen’s original James Bond: smart, handsome, refined, debonair and by far the most popular of the nine actors who took on the classic-spy role created by British-naval-intelligence-officer Ian Fleming in 1953. One of the world's most cherished celebrities, the Scottish-born star won numerous American and British film awards including an Academy Award, three Golden Globes and an American Film Life Achievement Award. He was granted knighthood by Queen Elizabeth in 2000.
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Similar to 007, who enjoyed the best food, drinks, cars and girlfriends all over the world, Connery was able to live in some of the world's prime real estate spots with his ritzy homes in England, Spain, France and the Bahamas. His long-time house in the South of France was recently for sale at $33.87 million. Still referred to by locals as “Sean's place,” Connery's former home is one of the French
Riviera’s prettiest and well-located villas with views overlooking Nice and the Mediterranean Sea. Adding a touch of reality to his English-spy roles, the home was used in several scenes of his Bond-movie Never Say Never Again when it was filmed in Nice and Monaco.
Sited on over one acre, Connery’s home is located along a winding path at the edge of a cliff with views of the Promenade des Anglais and the Old Port. Behind an entrance gate providing privacy from over-zealous fans and paparazzi, the stone mansion is styled in the classic French architecture of the 1920s and dressed in colorful wisteria vines adding more romance to its already idyllic setting. Built on five levels with an elevator and rooftop terrace, its five bedrooms and baths are distributed between all the floors. The entrance opens into the grand hall with floorto-ceiling windows capturing more views of the mountains and sea. Wrap-around and garden terraces invite lounging and the home's period details such as wide-planked parquet floors run throughout the building. The main level also houses a family room and another room and kitchenette. The dining room and kitchen are located on the lower floor and open to a garden terrace. The upper-level master suite has his-and-her baths, a dressing room and private balcony. The bottom level has a fitness complex with gym and an indoor swimming pool that opens to the gardens, shower and dressing areas. Sean Connery died on October 31st surrounded by his family in the Bahamas where he lived in recent years.
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BY ANTHONY EWART
The great Sir Thomas Sean Connery has passed away. Where is Henry Purcell to write his funeral procession music as he did on the death of Queen Mary II. Where is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to write the Requiem for our beloved fallen Knight. Sir Sean Connery was our Last King of Scotland. There will never be another. The mold that made Sir Connery was not broken, it was flown back to Heaven to await him there upon his return. A return that has now left the world stunned.
Was there ever a time you didn't know who Sean Connery was? Was there ever a James Bond movie you didn't watch and measure the performance of the actor against the "real" James Bond. It's almost as if every actor who played James Bond after Sean Connery was basing their performance on a real man, not a fictional character. They were not playing James Bond, 007...they were playing Sean Connery. That is an amazing feat for an actor to accomplish. To leave such an indelible stamp on a character that no other actor can ever fully assume the role in the eyes of the public.
Frank Sinatra famously said the greatest thing he learned from Billie Holiday was how to make a song your own so no one else can sing it after without being compared to you... That is the musical equivalent to what Sir Sean Connery has done in the cinematic universe. There is another connection with Frank Sinatra and Sir Sean Connery, and it has to do with acting.
Sinatra hated doing more than one take when filming a scene. The reason has to do with being a performer. When Frank Sinatra sings a song he embodies that song. He lives those lyrics right there in front of you. It's real. Sinatra tried to apply this same method of artistic honesty to acting. So when he felt that he truly did the best he could do in a scene he was...done. The director of course has other reasons for Sinatra to do another take, or several. Camera angles, lighting, a myriad of things. Sinatra would essentially say to the director, "That's it, kid. I laid it all out. Let's knock out the next one." He didn't really say that verbatim; my version is probably a Disneyesque reenactment of the tensions that arose with Sinatra being reluctant to do take after take. The point is what Sinatra craved in acting was sincerity. Honesty. And most importantly, a level of believability in acting or he just didn't want do it. It became fake and silly to him. This even extended to doing his own stunts which is why he injured his hand in a fight scene while filming "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962). Frank Sinatra would have loved to have been the kind of actor that Sean Connery was. And that is an actor of believability.
Cubby Broccoli, Sean Connery, Ian Flemming, and Harry Saltzman look at a map of Jamaica, where filming of Dr. No will commence.
It is the believability in Sean Connery's acting that gives you such a visceral, emotional response to any role Sean Connery inhabits. As an actor Sean Connery was the beautiful fruition of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "suspension of disbelief" introduced in his "Biographia Literaria" (1817). Coleridge wrote that if art has enough "human interest and truth" the audience would essentially "suspend their disbelief" that what they are experiencing is art and believe it to be true. That fantastic description of art fits Sir Thomas Sean Connery, as an actor, to a tee.
In his life Sean Connery had many professions before he became an actor...and even after that as any struggling actor will tell you. But it is this real world experience that Sean Connery had that he could infuse into his roles. People he met. Funny situations. Sad moments. Remember Coleridge's "human interest and truth." This is no doubt where Sir Connery's reservoir of emotions were born. Where believability was molded. He worked as a truck driver. A lifeguard...where I imagine all the women conveniently forgot how to swim when he was on duty. He was an artist's model for the Edinburgh College of Art. And he was a bodybuilder. He started in his late teens and competed in a Mr. Universe competition. He served in the Royal Navy. He could have been a professional footballer with Manchester United but decided, to the joy of the world, to be an actor. My favorite Sean Connery movie is "Finding Forrester" (2000), which Connery also produced. I wish I could have been a young writer like Jamal Wallace (played by Rob Brown), mentored by the great writer William Forrester (Connery). They were friends. Jamal learned so much from Forrester and Forrester grew so much because of Jamal. The film also stars the fantastic Anna Paquin and the phenomenal F. Murray Abraham. A quiet movie that illustrated the sheer abundance of love Sean Connery had as a human being and an artist.
Like Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra songs in their later years meant even more to them. Their delivery of the lyrics grew more sincere. The culmination of Sir Sean Connery's believability as an actor was no doubt crystallized and exemplified in Brian de Palma's "The Untouchables" (1987). That is not method acting employed in that film, that is "Sir Sean Connery" acting based on a lifetime of experiences on and off screen. Sean Connery suspended our disbelief that we were in a dark movie theatre and he transported us back to 1930 and the war against prohibition and Al Capone. Sean Connery won an Academy Award for his performance as "Jimmy Malone." We all cried for Jimmy then. We all cry for Sean now. But we can learn something from Sean Connery's body of work, the same way we can learn from Hemingway's body of work. What authenticity looks like.
