Leslie Caron, one of the most admired international film stars of our time, was recently in Paris for a special evening at the American Library where she spoke before an audience with John Baxter about her new autobiography "Thank Heaven." Baxter is a journalist and author of several books dealing with movies including such film personalities as Federico Fellini, Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allen. Included here are quotes by Caron from that conversation.

Leslie Caron made her film debut with Gene Kelly in the classic MGM musical "An American in Paris," created one of the most enduring roles in American musicals as "Gigi," danced with Fred Astaire in "Daddy Long Legs" and starred with Cary Grant in "Father Goose." 
 
In "Thank Heaven" (an homage to "Thank Heaven for Little Girls," the song Maurice Chevalier sings about her in "Gigi") she shares her remarkable life story. From her childhood with her American mother and French father in occupied France to her early success as a young ballerina; to her meeting Gene Kelly and her years in Hollywood; to her love affairs (including a very funny and very public one with Warren Beatty) and motherhood; to her alcoholism and depression; and finally her recovery and continuing success in film and television, Caron offers an illuminating account of her career. 
 
"Thank Heaven" is filled with reminiscences of MGM at the end of its Golden Era, of the great stars with whom Caron worked and of her own struggles as an actress, including the frustration of forever being the ‘French girl' in Hollywood and the ‘American' in France and accepted by the French as long as she ‘played the American'.   

Caron was just 18 when she arrived in Hollywood to star in ‘An American in Paris' after being spotted by Gene Kelly. "Well Gene Kelly saw me dance, with Roland Petit at au Théâtre de Champs Elysées," said Caron. "When he needed a partner, he remembered me and came to Paris to test me. And that seemed to be conclusive for Arthur Freed and the (MGM) studio. I got a phone call; ‘You're hired. In 3 days you take the plane for Hollywood'. ‘With your Mother' (laughs) I remember how difficult it was, because it's so restrained (that famous dance sequence by the Seine with Gene Kelly). It's so difficult to dance very slowly like this. More difficult than running around."

A star was born and Caron went on to establish her career in Hollywood. She became friends with Jean Renoir, son of Auguste Renoir. "We became very close friends. He was a bit my surrogate father and taught me a lot about life. He was a wonderful conversationalist and I adored going to his house where the paintings by his father were all around and there was a sort of warm, friendly French atmosphere there and you were given salami and white wine immediately and always in a silver goblet..."

"They didn't really know what to do with me because I wasn't really the Hollywood type. After "An American in Paris'" (and some other films) I was given "Lili." They suddenly realised ‘Ah, she can play a little orphan. She'd be good at that!' So I did that...They wanted, a would-be orphan. But I knew what an orphan was like. I'd gone through the war in Paris! I knew what it was not to have any parents, not to have any home, any food, to be desperate and I saw the pictures of devastation during the war. I was in Paris at that time, so I wanted to reflect that in this part and that's not at all what MGM was about... Arthur Freed, my Producer came to see me on the set and he told me; ‘Leslie they're ruining the image that I worked so hard at building up. I mean, look at you!' And yes, I had flat shoes, I was playing a half-wit, straight hair, no eyelashes and no makeup. You know, sort of something the cat brought home (laughs) and he said, ‘I've got to do another film with you to give you glamour again. Have you any ideas?'  

This is when Caron came up with the idea of Gigi because she had read the story by Collette and because Audrey Hepburn was doing it on Broadway and she thought "this is perfect for me!" ‘It took a year and half to get all the rights and I think there were some problems... Not because it's an older man singing about little girls. But because it's about the education of a ‘cocotte' and I think this is why, finally, they decided to turn it into a musical."

"Thank Heaven'" is a revealing, unsentimental and moving memoir for everyone who loves this period of classic American cinema.