Fetish actresses... Gena/Solveig

February 1989 : Gena Rowlands lost her Pygmalion. January 2007 : the ex-girlfriend of Wim Wenders, Solveig Dommartin, the unforgettable trapeze artist of Wings of Desire (1987), joined the kingdom of the angels. The partners of two great cineastes, Gena and Solveig were also their fetish actresses. Featuring in most of their films, they were also involved in their creation.

After having participated in the montage of Tokyo-Ga (1985), Solveig Dommartin was fully involved in the writing of Until the End of the World (1991). In Wings of Desire, an angel, Daniel (Bruno Ganz) sacrificed his immortality for the beauty of the body and soul of an acrobat ; whilst during the film shoot, Wenders succumbed to Solveig’s sensual and melancholy charm. Faraway So Close (1993) was the last opportunity for Wenders to direct her. Following their separation, she appeared in two long features by the French director Claire Denis. She also moved behind the camera for the short film If there were a bridge (1997). A desire for emancipation from the Wenderian style ?

Married in New York in the mid-fifties, Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes were then two young rising stars, notably in theatre and television. Whilst Gena signed up for a first big-screen role in 1958, John Cassavetes was preparing to launch his directing career with Shadows. Here Gena had a secondary role. Their real artistic one-to-one would not take shape until Faces. Self-produced, the film deals with the misdemeanours and loneliness which can transform marital relations. In reality, John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands seemed more than ever united. Their collaborations would continue from Minnie and Moskowitz (1971) to Love Streams (1984).

Being intimately tied allowed them without a doubt to go beyond many limits. If Gena Rowlands was the muse of Cassavetes the director, he didn’t hesitate to film her face deformed by tears, her features unstrung and furious, her grimaces, her haggard looks, her uncontrollable movements. Toughness at work did not lessen their unconditional love. The very same that exists without a doubt between a cineaste and HIS actress.

Emilie Padellec