Although she is a living legend in France, the bohemian singer who rose to fame in the mid-40s while performing in Parisian cafes is not as well known in the U.S. today despite the fact that she was also an international film actress who had a long, well publicized affair with 20th-Century-Fox mogul Darryl F. Zanuck. He tried to make her a star in the U.S. but none of the films he produced with her in leading roles, despite his emphasis on her physical appeal, captured the sensuous presence and personality of her live performances. Films such as “The Roots of Heaven” (1958), “Crack in the Mirror” (1960) and “The Big Gamble” (1961) were hampered by Greco having to emote in English instead of her native French and failed to generate much interest with American moviegoers. Her film career in Europe, however, was another matter and movies such as Jean Cocteau’s “Orpheus” (1950) and Jean Renoir’s “Elena et les hommes” (1956, aka “Paris Does Strange Things“) came much closer to capturing her unique persona.

Probably the one film that does her justice, ironically enough, is an English-language film and one where she plays herself in a small cameo – the nightclub singer in the open and close of Otto Preminger’s “Bonjour Tristesse.” (The above still shows Greco on the far left during a lunch on the set with cast members Jean Seberg, Deborah Kerr, David Niven and visiting actress Kim Novak, second from right). Greco’s melancholy rendition of the title song reveals what existentialists such as Jean-Paul Sartre liked about her – an ability to convey a world weary quality mixed with a romantic fatalism. Her songs were closer to poetry than pop music and she continues to perform today though much less frequently. It’s a musical tradition that is being carried on by such contemporary chansonniers as Marianne Faithful and Leonard Cohen.    

If you are interested in sampling some of Greco’s recordings, a good place to begin are the compilations Philips put out in the early 90′s if you can find them still (check eBay or import CD web sites). This was a 6 disc series that covered her recording career from 1957 through the early seventies. The 1955-1959 disc entitled “Bonjour Tristesse” is a high point and includes signature songs such as the title song, “Complainte,” “Vous Mon Coeur,” “Miarka,” and “La Valse Des Si.”