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Visual Biographical Background Dossier

ROMAINGARY’SLIFESTORYINPICTURES

Romain Gary is born in the town of Vilnius on the 21st of May 1914 - at that time a part of the Russian Empire but now in Lithuania.

Gary is born as ‘Roman Kacew’, first being brought up in Vilnius by his Jewish mother, Mina - his father leaves her and remarries. Young Roman will become fluent in 6 languages: Russian, German, Polish, French, Yiddish and English - mostly while still an infant.

Gary’s father, Leib Kacew, will see him very rarely after leaving Mina. Roman chooses to believe that his real father is the Russian actor Ivan Mosjoukine - that his mother had an affair with him while an actress.

Gary moves with his mother to Warsaw, then to Nice. According to ‘Promise at Dawn’ she tells everyone at the start that her son is going to be a war hero, literary great, respected diplomat and famous figure.

Romain Gary studies Law in Aix-en-Provence and after that he gains his Law Degree Certificate in Paris. Life will take another course for him and he shall never go on to become an attorney.

After becoming French in 1935, Gary joins their Air Force for military service in 1938. He fights for the ‘Free French Forces’ based at an RAF Airbase in the UK, sees action in Africa and makes many bombing raids.

Romain Gary submits his first novel to publishers in 1937: ‘The Wine of the Dead’ (‘Le Vin des Morts’) will be rejected by all of them. His first work ends up being the last one published (2014).

Following WWII victory, French President Charles De Gaulle awards Romain Gary medals and honors for his bravery including making him Captain, Compagnon de la Libération and Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur.

‘Forest of Anger’ is published in January of 1945 - nine months before the end of WWII. It is an immediate success. Published as ‘Éducation Européenne’ in France, Gary’s novel wins the coveted ‘Prix des Critiques’.

In 1944 Romain Gary enters into his first marriage - with the author, journalist and Vogue editor Lesley Blanch. From 1946 onwards, he is a respected diplomat posted in Bulgaria, Switzerland and America.

France’s leading intellectuals Simone De Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre meet with Romain Gary in 1945. They are amazed at his novel and the deep wealth of life experience that lies behind his writings.

Gary’s novel ‘Les Racines du Ciel’ (‘The Roots of Heaven’) is published in 1956 and it wins France’s highest literary award, the ‘Prix Goncourt’.

In spite of also winning the prestigious ‘Prix Durchon-Louvet’ from the French Academy that same year - for his entire output of work - rumors circulate that author Albert Camus may have doctored his novel. There is also criticism of Gary not writing ‘Proper French’.

Gary’s ‘The Roots of Heaven’ is filmed by director John Huston in 1958.

Romain Gary becomes the most famous French author of his day, having huge commercial success and also massive critical acclaim. His Prix Goncourt makes him the star of the literary establishment.

Errol Flynn is one star of the Hollywood production of ‘The Roots of Heaven’, which will be his final movie. - Orson Welles also appears.

Since the end of WWII Romain Gary has also been leading a life as a respected diplomat, ultimately becoming Consul General for France in Los Angeles and chief envoy of the French Delegation at the UN.

In 1960, Romain Gary’s memoir ‘Promise at Dawn’ (‘La Promesse de l’Aube’) is published. It will be adapted into a feature film in 1971 and more recently in 2017 - starring Pierre Niney and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

Romain Gary remains married to Lesley Blanch for 17 years, but it is actually she who recommends that he spend some time with the rising young actress Jean Seberg - with whom he becomes infatuated.

Jean Seberg has been acting for three years, but starring in Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Breathless’ (‘A Bout de Souffle’) is a key turning-point for her in 1960 and - along with Gary - her stepping-stone to Hollywood.

Jean Seberg, however, is 24 years younger than Romain and a lot of scandal circulates around the difference of age in their relationship.

In spite of the media judgment and public opinion, Romain Gary and Jean Seberg are secretly married in Corsica. The wedding takes place on October 6th 1962 - a month after Gary’s divorce from Lesley Blanch.

Romain Gary’s life is rarely out of the newspapers and this will never change - he shall remain the focus of media attention even after death.

With his career and marriage flying high, Romain Gary moves to Hollywood with his wife, where they take on a new stage of life.

It takes no time for them to settle into the entertainment capital of the world and they are soon a part of the ‘Higher Hollywood’ Elite.

After selling film rights to many of his literary works for large sums, Gary becomes co-screenwriter of war film ‘The Longest Day’ in 1962.

Gary’s and Seberg’s relationship is dramatic and emotional. They become like the European version of the original power-couple of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, with some similar problems.

The love between them appears genuine and real - yet Hollywood has a way of making true love difficult, as they both cruelly discover.

Hidden from everyone except the closest family for the first year of his life, Gary’s and Seberg’s only child Alexandre Diego Gary, is born in Barcelona on July 17, 1962. He will grow up to be an author as well.

Romain Gary directs Jean Seberg in two films that he writes and directs himself, the first of which is ‘Birds in Peru’ (1968).

Jean Seberg and Gary travel widely, owning properties in France, Majorca, the U.S.A and elsewhere. They live a jetsetting lifestyle as Romain accompanies his wife to many of the films she is shooting.

Romain Gary is always intensely aware of his Jewish heritage and this reveals itself in several of his works, nowhere perhaps more so than in ‘The Dance of Genghis Cohn’, which was inspired by a trip he made to attend a special ceremony for the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial in 1967.

Infidelity hits their marriage as Jean Seberg has a not-so-secret affair with Clint Eastwood - her co-star in the Musical Western ‘Paint Your Wagon’ (1969). Gary flies straight to Hollywood once he hears about it.

Gary challenges Eastwood to a duel with revolvers. Eastwood declines. Further tragedy comes with a smear campaign by the FBI, who put out rumors she is pregnant with the baby of a ‘Black Panther’ group member.

They stay together shortly and Jean Seberg stars in Gary’s 2nd movie, the drug-world action-thriller ‘Kill’, AKA ‘Police Magnum’ (rel. 1971).

The same year of shooting that film - 1970 - Jean Seberg and Gary are divorced. She pursues her film career for another decade and he is by now world-famous for his literature and film adaptations from them.

Romain Gary lives alone after divorcing his second wife. As for his career, he feels discarded and disregarded as an author - especially in his adopted home of France. He begins to see a need to reinvent himself.

Romain Gary remains a greatly respected figure in terms of his military contributions during the Second World War. He attends a number of memorial events over the years, always sure to display his many medals.

Romain Gary writes novels and screenplays continuously through the course of his life, producing over twenty-two books and eleven scripts.

He becomes as famous for works he writes in English as in French.

Gary writes under several pen-names - Fosco Sinibaldi, Shatan Bogat, René Deville inter alia - as he continually attempts to reinvent himself.

Inspired by Gogol’s ‘Diary of a Madman’, Romain Gary pens the novel ‘Cuddles’ (‘Gros-Calin’) which is published under the name Emile Ajar. It becomes a literary sensation overnight - Gary is once again being read.

However, things get out of hand as Romain Gary’s next novel as ‘Emile Ajar’ is awarded the Prix Goncourt - a problem, as it is against the rules for the same author to win this prize twice. As part of the deceit, Gary has his cousin Paul Pawlowitch pretend to be the real Ajar for a while.

Fate’s cruel irony is that, after leaving Hollywood behind - a town that caused him personal heartbreak and great riches but little acclaim - the movie based on his novel ‘The Life Before Us’ is awarded the Best Foreign Film Oscar, yet no-one is aware that he is the real author of the work.

Some have gone so far as to call Gary a con-man or fraudster because of the way he pulled off success as Ajar. Others realize that with his alter- ego he came closer to expressing his initial identity as ‘Roman Kacew’.

Gary’s many literary works continue to be adapted into movies as their plots and characters are found to be so vibrant with dramatic energy.

Almost nine years after their divorce, Jean Seberg commits suicide. She was briefly remarried and at the time of her death Gary has a new partner (though is not married). The news shocks the world as Seberg is only 40 years old and is a great loss to the Seventh Art.

Romain Gary’s final relationship is with Leïla Chellabi, a Moroccan- born French writer and digital artist who has published over 100 books and was also a dancer, model, radio host, and songwriter.

However, his final year of life seems to be absorbed with sadness, following the death of his second wife Jean Seberg. It also seems that he is tired of keeping up the game of not being ‘Emile Ajar’.

Gary hears the call of death and commits suicide by shooting himself in the mouth with his army issue Smith & Wesson on 2nd Dec. 1980.

Images of Romain Gary in his final year reveal him as a broken figure - compared to the confident and energetic writer and man of action that he had been during the dramatic, turbulent many lives he led.

In his home-town of Vilnius, a small statue of the boy that he once was, is installed outside one of the buildings where he was brought up by a devoted mother who had such a clear vision of his amazing future life.

Lesley Blanch - from whom Romain Gary divorced in 1962 - lives on to be 103 years old and survives him by 27 years, only dying in 2007.

Movies of Gary’s work continue to be filmed after his death, including the controversial adaptation of his novel ‘White Dog’ by Sam Fuller.

Apart from the two film versions of ‘Promise at Dawn’, only one other movie has presented any part of Romain Gary’s life on the screen - the Amazon drama ‘Seberg’ (2019) with Yvan Attal and Kristen Stewart.

Most recently, a star who partied with Romain Gary in his Hollywood years has brought his most timeless character to the screen in a new way: Sophia Loren playing Madame Rosa in ‘The Life Ahead’ (2020).

Although the scandal of the ‘Emil Ajar Affair’ took some decades to blow over, Romain Gary is now appreciated as one of France’s greatest authors and his diverse library of literary works are now studied for their complexity, depth and sheer emotional power.