Out of My Father's Shadow: Sinatra of the Seine, My Dad Eddie Constantine

by Tanya Constantine, Tim Lucas (Introduction)

Overview

Though born in America, Eddie Constantine is perhaps best remembered as a film actor in France and Germany, playing the role of a hardboiled detective named "Lemmy Caution" and appearing in films by Jean-Luc Godard, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Lars von Trier. In the process of transitioning Constantine from the star of B-movies to the epicenter of the Nouvelle Vague, Jean-Luc Godard reconsecrated him as the solemn and impassive star of his extraordinary film, Alphaville. Eddie's unruffled charm, winning smile, and American credentials made him virtually untouchable. Europeans liked Constantine because he wasn't a pretty face-he had savoir faire.
Constantine's daughter Tanya traveled with him throughout much of his career, and this book comes from her perspective of their troubled familial relationship. It is a testament to his legend that Constantine emerges from the candor of his daughter's autobiography somehow strengthened by her revelations of the compulsions and insecurities he made those closest to him suffer. This book presents us with universal truths about the difficulties experienced within family relationships and takes us behind the curtain of celebrity and the fixed smiles of publicity photos in a way few books ever do.

I had a most unusual upbringing being the child of a celebrity. My childhood was a unique situation that only people who had experienced it could comprehend. My father was a superstar and singer in Europe in the 1950s and '60s. He and I recorded a song called "The Man and The Child" that sold over a million records in France alone, when I was just eleven years old, thus making me a celebrity too. When superstardom set in, a crazy atmosphere had overtaken our household, as fame creates pressure, fear of loss, and resentment. My father's estate became an open house to international celebrities who came to visit. Despite the fame and fortune that became part of my life, I ran away from home before the age of sixteen with the man who later became my first husband. I have spent my entire life attempting to release the pain of my upbringing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781627310888
Publisher:	Feral House
Publication date:	04/30/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

I was born in New York City in 1943 and when I was 3 ½ years old, my family moved to Paris, France, where I remained till I was in my 20s. My father and I recorded a song that sold two million records when I was just 11, which made me a child celebrity. I studied ballet, modern and jazz dance, piano, singing and acting, and of course classical literature. When I was 20, I married a Frenchman with whom I had two children, Jessica and Edwina. Later, we moved to Los Angeles where I divorced that first husband and met my current one. We have been living in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past 43 years. I promoted Artists United For Peace, setting up fundraising dance events. I was a stage director for a theatre in Santa Rosa (I LOVED directing The Time Of Your Life by William Saroyan). I co-wrote a manuscript with my husband entitled The Master in the Mirror (not published). Since 2001, I have been a commercial photographer, which I intend to be till I reach the end of my journey.
Daughter of Eddie Constantine, iconic star of Jon Luc Goddard's Alphaville. When only 11-years-old, Tanya and her father recorded a song that sold 2 million records, making her a child celebrity. She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area where she has been a commercial photographer since 2001.
With his wife Donna Lucas, Lucas launched Video Watchdog magazine in June 1990 with a focus on extremely detailed articles that made it a key source of serious film criticism. The magazine's unique approach to reviewing home video releases has since been widely adopted as the norm, especially by online critics. Video Watchdog won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award as Best Magazine every year from 2002 through 2006, the first five years the award was presented. Director Quentin Tarantino praised Video Watchdog in the pages of the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano as "l'unica rivista di cinema autorevole al mondo" ("the only reliable film magazine in the world") Video Watchdog ceased publication with its 184th issue in June 2017.

Table of Contents

Introduction Tim Lucas 7

Prologue 24

1 Cause Toujours, Mon Lapin ("Keep Talking, Baby") 27

2 L'Homme Et L'Enfant ("The Man and the Child") 33

3 Les Femmes S'en Balancent ("Dames Don't Care") 53

4 Folies-Bergère 69

5 Des Frissons Partout ("Goosebumps Everywhere") 115

6 Ça Va Barder ("All Hell Is Breaking Loose") 139

7 Me Faire Ça à Moi! ("How Could You Do This to Me?") 173

8 Alphaville 229

9 Get Homme Est Dangereux ("This Man Is Dangerous") 243

10 Lucky Jo 263

Acknowledgments 274

Interviews

Out of My Father’s Shadow is a depiction of the stormy relationship between my father and me. My dad was a singer and actor, and although he never made it in the United States, he DID make it big in France and became a superstar in 1949, thanks mostly to his love affair with Edith Piaf. He soon purchased an estate outside of Paris where he entertained international celebrities on weekends. When I turned 11, he and I recorded a duet that became a hit single and sold two million records on the Barclay label. The song’s title was The Man and the Child (L’homme et l’enfant) that had been sung by Frankie Laine and Jimmy Boyd in the US. It’s kind of ironic that the song was about love, because he and I had such a tumultuous relationship that at the age of 15 ½, I ran away from home with a 21 year old penniless Frenchman whom I later married and had two children with.