Madame Depardieu and the Beautiful Strangers

Madame Depardieu and the Beautiful Strangers
Antonia Quirke

A razor-sharp and achingly funny memoir of the men and movies that shaped one woman’s life…A unique memoir, ‘Madame Depardieu and the Beautiful Strangers’ is the story of how a young female film critic’s love-life is affected and nearly ruined by her obsession with male movie stars. As her increasingly hapless hunt for the right man unfolds and her television and newspaper career unravels, our heroine finally begins to understand that difficult truth: that life is not like the movies.Entwined with the narrative of her real-life love affairs is a kaleidoscope of digressions on great screen actors – her dream-life with Gerard Depardieu, a personal ad seeking out Tom Cruise, a disastrous climactic encounter with Jeff Bridges. It’s a helter skelter ride through love and the movies which reads like a screwball comedy. And the screwball is our heroine, who seems to know everything about movies and the human heart, and nothing about anything else.Written in a fresh and utterly engaging voice, ‘Madame Depardieu and the Beautiful Strangers’ is both moving and hilarious, a bittersweet and endearingly honest one-off.

Madame Depardieu and the

Beautiful Strangers

ANTONIA QUIRKE

For Ilana Bryant, best girl in New Jersey

‘You live in a dream and the dream is a cage,’

Said the girl, ‘And the bars nestle closer with age

Your shadow burned white by invisible fire

You will learn how it rankles to die of desire

As you long for the beautiful stranger,’

Said the vanishing beautiful stranger

PETE ATKIN AND CLIVE JAMES,

Beware of the Beautiful Stranger

‘You have to have a little faith in people’

MARIEL HEMINGWAY, Manhattan

Table of Contents

Epigraph (#u056f9398-d29d-5c3e-a975-db6d40299335)

PART ONE: Mademoiselle Depardieu (#u714092e3-3fdd-5ba1-b6ae-fad7c59bdd86)

Chapter 1 (#u88b92eb4-355d-50af-94bd-6479617e070e)

Chapter 2 (#u74d82b62-191d-579b-a394-329cedda7cd2)

Chapter 3 (#u7fb9f245-8ab7-5d57-a8c7-321689f24543)

Chapter 4 (#ue580fe68-3a59-54ee-aab7-cdcf4d7795ab)

Chapter 5 (#u4da47ffd-92ca-51b8-b0d8-2238af22ddd9)

Chapter 6 (#u352edb5c-e84f-586b-af27-0ffb1155ee64)

Chapter 7 (#ue2d517af-f3d1-53de-97f3-f1d45c060942)

Chapter 8 (#u46d1a7a9-23b1-58d6-b22d-b180deffaedd)

Chapter 9 (#ua9b59d6f-0dae-516f-801d-e172b65e756b)

Chapter 10 (#ua85136b5-e571-5859-bc0e-d7240dac480a)

Chapter 11 (#u73258934-33da-545e-8798-c80463a0779f)

Chapter 12 (#u0458efd7-ac50-5dc2-8fd4-bc94c3b0ff10)

Chapter 13 (#ud0c87ab5-65e0-545f-813c-5768ef2c77a8)

Chapter 14 (#u65b44ff7-e913-5f02-9453-529fd7c1b443)

Chapter 15 (#u0e1b66a0-7114-537e-a38b-e91bb8e356b5)

Chapter 16 (#u83b688e3-920b-5dde-92f5-afc6519bcef7)

Chapter 17 (#u74a9f7f8-5288-5925-98bf-940a912891f9)

Chapter 18 (#u97c97461-91dd-5d84-92e8-de512e42dc56)

Chapter 19 (#u5dce701c-99ef-5266-845b-31f823f89731)

Chapter 20 (#ufbc7b930-019c-5d64-a75d-baf401fa7b05)

Chapter 21 (#uaa0da53e-4de4-5ee1-9104-e0e84a8ddd52)

Chapter 22 (#u61d9c18a-9802-5085-bbad-15729f6e2cff)

Chapter 23 (#ua748ce0e-5950-50e8-a7cf-7a326f9cc46b)

Chapter 24 (#uf51c0ed7-2718-53c8-9db7-2606d29049b4)

Chapter 25 (#u69ab3990-cd9d-50a6-9860-89edaf313b54)

Chapter 26 (#u89352630-d226-5129-8779-fbc38cfca2ae)

Chapter 27 (#ue125e6a5-c22b-5f46-a93a-b100793ccc3e)

Chapter 28 (#u377f06b7-2573-55c3-8daf-f134d996282e)

Chapter 29 (#u1d641861-f97c-598f-8daa-8434c115d658)

Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)