"Contempt (film) Contempt (released in the UK as ) is a 1963 French-Italian New Wave drama film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, based on the Italian novel ""Il disprezzo"" (""A Ghost at Noon"") by Alberto Moravia. It stars Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance, and Giorgia Moll. Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli), a young French playwright who has found commercial success in Rome, accepts an offer from vulgar American producer Jeremy Prokosch (Jack Palance) to rework the script for German director Fritz Lang's screen adaptation of ""The Odyssey"". Paul's wife, Camille Javal (Brigitte Bardot), joins him on the first day"
"Merville (playwright) Merville, real name Pierre-François Camus (1781 in Pontoise – 1853 in Belleville (Seine)) was a 19th-century French Algerian settler who initially worked as a physician, then an actor and finally a playwright. Pierre-François Camus took the surname of his mother, Villemer, which he transformed into Merville as pen name. It is under this pen name that he began in theater. We owe him some thirty-five theatre plays which he signed alone or in collaboration and which were given on the most important Parisian stages (Opéra-Comique, Ambigu-Comique, Second Théâtre-Français, Théâtre de Madame, Favart, Odéon, Porte-Saint-Martin, etc.). All of them"
"Maria Duval Maria Duval is a French psychic (born in Milan, Italy, as Maria Carolina Gamba) is the woman at the origin of the Maria Duval psychic scam. Claiming to have psychic powers, she gained some notoriety before her name became associated with a vast and sophisticated mail scam. First living in Callas in the South of France then traveling extensively, ""Maria Duval"" was able to build a growing reputation as a psychic throughout the 1970s and 1980s, doing consultations and horoscope newspaper columns. She did media interviews and appeared on the cover of Vogue Paris. Old newspaper clippings she"
"2008, Defonseca publicly admitted what many had already suspected, that her book was false. Her real name was Monique de Wael; while her parents were in fact taken away by the Nazis, they were not Jews but Roman Catholic members of the Belgian Resistance, and she did not leave her home during the war, as the book claims. In a statement released through her lawyers to the Brussels newspaper ""Le Soir"", de Wael attempted to defend the hoax, claiming that the story of ""Misha"" ""is not actual reality, but was my reality, my way of surviving"" and that there were"
"Cassie Chadwick Cassie L. Chadwick (10 October 1857 – 10 October 1907) is the infamous name used by a Canadian woman who defrauded several U.S. banks out of millions of dollars by claiming to be an illegitimate daughter and heiress of Andrew Carnegie. She was born Elizabeth Bigley on 10 October 1857 in Eastwood, Ontario Her parents, Dan and Annie, owned a small farm in Eastwood. She had three sisters: Alice, Mary, and Emily, and a brother, Bill. Her father worked for the Grand Trunk Railway as a section boss and was often away from the homestead. ""Betsy"", as she"
"in 2010 and has been diagnosed with dementia in 2013. Maria Duval Maria Duval is a French psychic (born in Milan, Italy, as Maria Carolina Gamba) is the woman at the origin of the Maria Duval psychic scam. Claiming to have psychic powers, she gained some notoriety before her name became associated with a vast and sophisticated mail scam. First living in Callas in the South of France then traveling extensively, ""Maria Duval"" was able to build a growing reputation as a psychic throughout the 1970s and 1980s, doing consultations and horoscope newspaper columns. She did media interviews and appeared"
"then felt she was unable to stop the ongoing relationship. Early law enforcement investigations concluded Maria Duval may not actually exist, being a persona completely fabricated by scammers. That turned out to be incorrect when Ellis and Hicken, assisted by French colleagues, located Duval's residence in the south of France in 2016 and managed to interview her two years later. In August, 2018, they published ""A Deal with the Devil: The Dark & Twisted True Story Of One Of The Biggest Cons In History"", which narrates their search for the elusive Maria Duval/Carolina Gamba. An investigation by the United States"
"account has her alive in 1775. Mlle Duval Mlle Duval (short for Mademoiselle Duval) (1718–after 1775) was an 18th-century French composer who wrote the second opera by a woman ever performed at the Paris Opera. Mlle Duval, whose first name is unknown, was a French composer and dancer who was an accomplished harpsichordist. A letter to the ""Journal des nouvelles de Paris"" in 1736 reported she was known by the name ""La Légende"" because she was an illegitimate child, possibly indicating that Duval was a stage name. She may be the same person as an 18th-century French composer who is"
"Taxil hoax The Taxil hoax was an 1890s hoax of exposure by Léo Taxil intended to mock not only Freemasonry but also the Catholic Church's opposition to it. Léo Taxil was the pen name of Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès, who had been accused earlier of libel regarding a book he wrote called ""The Secret Loves of Pope Pius IX"". On April 20, 1884, Pope Leo XIII published an encyclical, ""Humanum genus"", that said that the human race was After this encyclical, Taxil underwent a public, feigned conversion to Roman Catholicism and announced his intention of repairing the damage he"
"Léo Taxil Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès, better known by the pen name Léo Taxil (; March 21, 1854 – March 31, 1907), was a French writer and journalist who became known for his strong anti-Catholic and anti-clerical views. He is also known for the Taxil hoax, a spurious exposé of Freemasonry and the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to it. Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès was born in Marseille, and at the age of five, he was placed into a Jesuit seminary. After spending his childhood years in the seminary, he became disillusioned with the Catholic faith and began to"
"Mlle Duval Mlle Duval (short for Mademoiselle Duval) (1718–after 1775) was an 18th-century French composer who wrote the second opera by a woman ever performed at the Paris Opera. Mlle Duval, whose first name is unknown, was a French composer and dancer who was an accomplished harpsichordist. A letter to the ""Journal des nouvelles de Paris"" in 1736 reported she was known by the name ""La Légende"" because she was an illegitimate child, possibly indicating that Duval was a stage name. She may be the same person as an 18th-century French composer who is identified as Louise Duval (1704–69), though"
"Louis Benoît Alphonse Révial Alphonse Révial, real name Marie Pauline Françoise Louis Benoît Alphonse Révial (29 May 1810 – 13 October 1871) was a 19th-century French tenor and singing professor. Born in Toulouse, Révial entered the Conservatoire de Paris on 23 October 1829. He obtained the second prize in singing at the 1831 competition, the first prize in 1832. On 15 April 1833, he made his debut at the Opéra-Comique in Daniel-François-Esprit Auber's ""Fra Diavolo"". The first role he created was in the ""Prison d'Édimbourg"", by Michele Enrico Carafa, on 20 July 1833. For a few years he was the"
"Maria Duval scam The Maria Duval Psychic Scam is one of the most successful mail scams in history, having defrauded millions of people out of at least $200 million over twenty years. Targeting sick and elderly people through a combination of personalized letters and personal information databases, it has been shut down in the United States in 2016, but is still ongoing in many countries. The scam originates from a purported psychic of Italian origin named Maria Carolina Gamba, using ""Maria Duval"" as her trade name. Gamba gave psychic consultations in the South of France and attained some measure of"
"After, Veronica confronts the man and finds out that the man's real name is Jimmy Spain, who has played a role named ""Karl"" in another supposed ""project."" After the show, Karl comes up to her and attempts to con her, after which she questions him. He reveals that he is actually taking part in a reality show called ""Duped!"" in which he and others con people while it is all being caught on camera. Veronica tells him it is a scam, and he gives her the phone number of the people who auditioned him. Wallace tells her it is the"
"to ""Le Soir"" that she had fabricated the tale, after having been presented with what the paper described as ""irrefutable"" evidence that her story was false. ""The book is a story, it's my story"", said the writer in a statement issued under her real name. ""It's not the true reality, but it is my reality. There are times when I find it difficult to differentiate between reality and my inner world."" Defonseca told ""Le Soir"" that she had always wanted to forget her real name because she had been called ""the traitor's daughter."" Forensic genealogists Sharon Sergeant and Colleen M."
"Alceste Cœuriot Alceste Anastasie Hortense Cœuriot, also known under the stage name Madame Ismaël, (born 1823 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands; died 1893 in Colombes, France) was a French operatic mezzo-soprano. Her professional career ran from 1850 to 1888 under the last name Ismaël, which was her husband Jean-Vital Jammes' stage name, and she would keep the stage name even after their divorce in 1860. Throughout her onstage roles, she mostly portrayed roles of comic old women, ""duègne"" roles, or ""Dugazon"" roles, which were of young mothers and women past youth. Alceste Cœuriot was born in 1823 to French tenor singer"
"""Marval's paintings are provocative and edgy, challenging and unusual, she was an important modernist at the earliest moments of the movement."" Jacqueline Marval Jacqueline Marval was the pseudonym for Marie Josephine Vallet (1866–1932), a French painter, lithographer, and sculptor. Vallet was born 19 October 1866, in Quaix-en-Chartreuse into a family of schoolteachers. She separated from her husband in 1891 and earned a living making waistcoats. In 1894, she met the painter François Joseph Girot and began living with him in Paris as his lover. The next year, she met Jules Flandrin, another painter and a student of Gustave Moreau. The"
"as ""On m'appelait la Chatte"" (""I Was Called the Cat"")), in which she denied many claims that had been made about her and her activities during the war.. She died in Paris on May 30th, 2007, at the age of 98. Mathilde Carré Mathilde Carré (30 June 1908 – 2007), née Mathilde Lucie Bélard and known as ""La Chatte"", was a French Resistance agent during World War II who turned double agent. Carré was born in Le Creusot, Saône-et-Loire. In the 1930s she attended Sorbonne University and became a teacher. After her marriage, she moved to Algeria with her husband"
"Emma Liébel Emma Liébel (born Aimée Medebielle; 13 September 1873 – January 1928) was a French ""chanteuse"". She was one of the pioneers of the ""chanson réaliste"" style. Aimée Medebielle was born in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France, on 13 September 1873. Her father, Pierre Medebielle, was a carpenter. She made her debut as a singer in the southwest of France, under the German-sounding stage name of Emma Liebel, a partial anagram of her real name. This name appears on a program from the ""Nouveautés"" of Toulouse in 1900. After the start of World War I (1914-1918) she made the stage name"
"Jacques Prevel Jacques Marie Prevel (1915 Paris - 1951 ) was a French poet. His real first name was Jacques, but he added 'Marie' not to be mistaken with Jacques Prévert, whose surname is pronounced in a very similar way. During the German occupation he lived in the famous Parisiene district Saint-Germain-des-Près. Among his friends were the members of the ""Le Grand Jeu"" movement, René Daumal and Roger Gilbert-Lecomte, and also Antonin Artaud. Prevel considered Artaud his master, but Artaud admired Prevel's writings as well - he wrote about him (often ""more portraying himself"" ) and dictated his visions to"
"Clémence de Grandval Clémence de Grandval (21 January 1828 – 15 January 1907), born as Marie Félicie Clémence de Reiset and also known as Vicomtesse de Grandval and Marie Grandval, was a French composer of the Romantic era. She was a person and composer of stature during her life, although less remembered subsequently. Many of her works were published under pseudonyms. Marie Félicie Clémence de Reiset was the youngest of four children, born in 1828 into a well-to-do family in the Chateau de la Cour du Bois at Saint-Rémy-des-Monts. Her father was an Officier de la Légion d'honneur and a"
"Jacqueline Marval Jacqueline Marval was the pseudonym for Marie Josephine Vallet (1866–1932), a French painter, lithographer, and sculptor. Vallet was born 19 October 1866, in Quaix-en-Chartreuse into a family of schoolteachers. She separated from her husband in 1891 and earned a living making waistcoats. In 1894, she met the painter François Joseph Girot and began living with him in Paris as his lover. The next year, she met Jules Flandrin, another painter and a student of Gustave Moreau. The two fell in love, and Vallet left Girot to move in with Flandrin in Rue Campagne-Première, in the Montparnasse area. She"
"by him. The audience received these revelations with indignation and contempt. Afterwards, Taxil left the hall, where policemen escorted him to a neighboring café. He then moved away from Paris. He died in Sceaux in 1907. Léo Taxil Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pagès, better known by the pen name Léo Taxil (; March 21, 1854 – March 31, 1907), was a French writer and journalist who became known for his strong anti-Catholic and anti-clerical views. He is also known for the Taxil hoax, a spurious exposé of Freemasonry and the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to it. Marie Joseph Gabriel Antoine"
"Duval's psychic assistant, who also offered services, generating another revenue stream for the scam. Letters have been found in a dozen countries and generated revenues in excess of $200 million in the United States and Canada. The scam was managed by a series of successive groups using shell companies to hide their involvement. Gamba, however, continued to receive payments and did some promotional work under the name Maria Duval, even occasional news appearances at some point. Gamba's son thinks her mother agreed to be used as the face of the scam out of a desire to become rich and famous,"
"Ann O'Delia Diss Debar Ann O'Delia Diss Debar (probably born Editha Salomen, c. 1849 – 1909 or later) was a late 19th and early 20th century medium and criminal. She was convicted of fraud several times in the US, and was tried for rape and fraud in London in 1901. She was described by Harry Houdini as ""one of the most extraordinary fake mediums and mystery swindlers the world has ever known"". Although many sources claim that O'Delia Diss Debar was born as Editha Salomen in Kentucky in 1849, no documentary proof exists. Another commonly reported birth name is Ann"
"fictionalized autobiography: ""Un enfant"". In ""Les Femmes vengées"", he developed a theory inspired from Molière: ""Women are what we make of them"". Vaulabelle adds, ""If women lie it is because we teach them to lie"". But he devoted most of his work to theatre under the pseudonym Jules Cordier, most of the time in collaboration with Clairville. Only the collection of short stories ""Les Jours heureux"" appeared under his real name. If he privately adhered to Republican ideas - probably under the influence of his older brother, Achille Tenaille de Vaulabelle, author of ""Histoire des deux Restaurations"" and Minister of"
"then suspects Mercedes probably wrote the letter herself. Clare returns to her hotel room where Mercedes is tied to a chair. Clare tells Mercedes that Doctor Browning suspects she wrote the ransom note, and that they need to work harder to get ransom money out of him before punching her in the face. Clare soon persuades Doctor Browning to buy Chez Chez so that they can be business partners. He initially agrees, but he then discovers from Jim that ""Cassandra Knight"" does not exist. When he confronts her about this, she reveals that her real name is Clare Devine and"
"being forced to free Fantine, he reported him as Valjean to the French authorities. He tells Valjean he realizes he was wrong, because the authorities have identified someone else as the real Jean Valjean, have him in custody, and plan to try him the next day. Valjean is torn, but decides to reveal himself to save the innocent man, whose real name is Champmathieu. He travels to attend the trial and there reveals his true identity. Valjean returns to M____-sur-M__ to see Fantine, followed by Javert, who confronts him in her hospital room. After Javert grabs Valjean, Valjean asks for"
"Coccinelle Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy (23 August 1931 – 9 October 2006), better known by her stage name Coccinelle, was a French actress, entertainer and singer. She was transgender, and was the first widely publicized post-war sexual reassignment case in Europe, where she was an international celebrity and a renowned club singer. Born in Paris under the name of Jacques Charles Dufresnoy at rue Notre Dame de Nazareth Nr. 66 in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris, she took the stage name Coccinelle (French for ""ladybug"") when she entered show business, making her debut as a transgender showgirl in 1953 at Chez"
"titular role. According to the film, Vatel committed suicide when he realized he was nothing more than property in the eyes of the nobility, his social superiors. François Vatel François Vatel () (1631 – April 24, 1671) was the majordomo (in French, ""maître d'hôtel"") of Nicolas Fouquet and prince Louis II de Bourbon-Condé. Vatel was born either in Switzerland or in Paris in 1625, 1631, or 1635. He is widely but incorrectly credited with creating ""crème Chantilly"" (Chantilly cream), a sweet, vanilla-flavoured whipped cream, but there is no contemporary documentation for this claim, and whipped, flavored cream was known at"
"keeps in her home indicate she brushed shoulders with celebrities, although her claim to have psychically found Brigitte Bardot's lost dog was debunked by Bardot herself. Gamba has a son, named Antoine Palfroy. In the mid-1990s, Gamba sold the rights to the name Maria Duval to a group of scammers, who used her notoriety to sell astrology charts. The scam quickly changed form, as sick and elderly people started receiving letters promising the psychic help of ""Maria Duval"" for $40 per mail consultation. The scam would quickly take gigantic proportions and generate some $200 million in revenues for the fraudsters"
"Enghien. On 7 September 1914 Camille was transferred with a number of other women, to the Montdevergues Asylum, at Montfavet, six kilometres from Avignon. Her certificate of admittance to Montdevergues was signed on 22 September 1914; it reported that she suffered ""from a systematic persecution delirium mostly based upon false interpretations and imagination"". For a while, the press accused her family of committing a sculptor of genius. Her mother forbade her to receive mail from anyone other than her brother. The hospital staff regularly proposed to her family that Claudel be released, but her mother adamantly refused each time. On"
"Joseph Jiel-Laval Joseph Jiel-Laval, real name: ""Joseph Marie François Laval"" or ""Pierre-Joseph Laval"", (born 26 November 1855 in Saint-Junien; died 26 February 1917 in Bordeaux) was a French cyclist. Jiel-Laval grew up in Angers. His rode his first race in 1876 on a Penny-farthing for the Véloce-Club d'Angers. The following year he settled in Bordeaux and opened a bicycle shop, initially called Vélocipèdes Jiel-Laval, later Cycles Jiel-Laval. The nickname Jiel originated from the initials of his name Joseph Laval. In Bordeaux he founded the Veloce Club Bordelais and was one of the founders of the Ligue française d'éducation physique. In"