mireille balin
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1939
MENACES (THREATS), by Edmond T Gréville, with Eric Von Stroheim. This film was prohibited during the occupation years, and will only be available after the Liberation. Mireille Balin and Eric Von Stroheim become friends.
COUP DE FEU (GUNSHOT), by Rene Barbéris, then RAPPEL IMMEDIAT (IMMEDIATE CALL), by Leon Mathot, with Eric Von Stroheim and Roger Duchesne.
MACAO, L’ENFER DU JEU (GAMBLING HELL), by Jean Delannoy, from a novel by Maurice Dekobra, still with Eric Von Stroheim. The story was supposed to happen in China, but was actually shot in the south of France. The movie was forbidden by the nazis, and all the scenes with Eric Von Stroheim were remade with Pierre Renoir (brother of Jean Renoir) instead.
September 1st : Germany invades Poland.
September 3rd : France declare war on Germany.
DERNIER REFUGE, by Jacques Constant (from Le Locataire, written by Georges Simenon). The film was stopped by the war, then lost in a fire.
LE SIEGE DE L’ALCAZAR (THE SIEGE OF THE ALCAZAR), second film with Augusto Genina, shot in Cinecittà. This movie will cause many troubles to Mireille balin after the war, because it was a pro-fascist film...

1940
May 10: Germany invades France.
June 17: Armistice. German troops occupy France. Mireille Balin’s apartment is requisitioned. She moves to Cannes with Tino Rossi.

1941
FROMONT JEUNE ET RISLER AINE, by Leon Mathot. Mireille Balin is regulary seen at german embassy parties. She buys herself a new apartment, avenue d’Iéna (Paris 16e).
June 22, Germany attacks the USSR.
In September, Mireille Balin separates from Tino Rossi.

1942
Mireille Balin meets Birl Desbok, young Wehrmacht officer at the German embassy. It’s love at first sight.
More movies : LA FEMME QUE J’AI LE PLUS AIMEE, by Robert Vernay, with Arletty, then L’ASSASSIN A PEUR LA NUIT, by Jean Delannoy, with Jules Berry, from a scenario by Pierre Véry.
Mireille Balin and Birl Desbok now live together in Cannes.
DERNIER ATOUT, by Jacques Becker, then HAUT-LE-VENT, by Jacques de Baroncelli, with Charles Vanel. Despite the german occupation, its a kind of golden age for french cinema.
In November, she get engaged to Birl Desbok.
MALARIA, by Jean Gourguet, her next to last film.

1943
Mireille Balin stays in Paris or Cannes, still with Birl Desbok.

1944
31 mars : the Paris Nuit du Cinéma.
June 6 : D-day. The battle of Normandie begins.
August 26 : Liberation of Paris. Mireille Balin and Birl Desbok flee away, trying to reach the Italian border. They hide in the cellar of a building near Beausoleil, close to Nice.
September 28 : They both get arrested by some « resistants ». Mireille Balin is raped and beaten, then taken to prison. Birl Desbok was probably killed.

1945
January 3 : Mireille Balin gets out of jail. She is forbiden to work for one year. Her apartment has been devastated. In summer she falls sick : typhus.

1946
LA DERNIERE CHEVAUCHEE, by Leon Mathot, last Mireille Balin movie.
Totally out of money, Mireille Balin must sell her apartment and villa in Paris and Cannes. Her friend Leon Mathot finds her a very small house for rent in Cannes.

1949
Stroke. Meningitis.

Années 50
Alcohol problems. Skin disease.

1957
Her house is sold. Mireille Balin goes to Nice hospital. Then she moves to Paris, rue des Acacias, to live with her cousin, Thérèse. But Thérèse dies in an air crash and Mireille Balin has to take refuge in a small hotel, the Villiers Hotel, rue Claude Pouillet.

1961
Mireille Balin is rescued by La Roue Tourne, a solidarity association managed by Paul Azaïs, who gets her a small apartment in Paris, close to the Place de la Republique. In January, she is operated on to cure her face disease. Mireille Balin hopes she might be able to make a come-back, but the operation is a failure. Alcoholism. Beginning of cirrhosis.

1968
November 9 : Mireille Balin dies at the Beaujon Hospital in Clichy, near Paris, broke and forgotten. Her body is buried in Saint Ouen cemetery, square 31. A few years later, in 1973, Jean Tissier, another forgotten actor, will be buried beside her.

BIBLIOGRAPHY (in french)
Mireille Balin ou La Beauté Foudroyée. Daniel Arsand. Editions de la Manufacture, 1989.
Tino Rossi et Mireille Balin. Maurice Berthon, Paris, R. Debresse, 1942.
Le Cinéma Français Sous l’Occupation. René Château, 1995.
La Vie Parisienne Sous l'Occupation, Hervé le Boterf, éditions France-Empire, 1974.