Description of the attraction
The monument to the French writer Marcel Aimé on Montmartre looks very unusual: a two-meter bronze sculpture only partially peeks out of the stone wall - the head, upper body, right arm, right leg and left hand are visible. This very brush has been polished to a shine by the hands of countless tourists: legend has it that the handshake of the monument brings good luck.
Marcel Aimé (1902-1967) is not well known in Russia, but France knows him as an outstanding writer and playwright. His creative heritage is huge: 17 novels, plays, short stories, fairy tales, film scripts.
In 1943, Aimé wrote one of his most famous stories, The Man Walking Through the Walls. The hero of the story, a humble official Dutilleel, lived in Montmartre. He was remarkable in that he had the gift of easily passing through walls. In the story, Dutilleel first uses his gift to punish the boorish boss, then rob banks, and then starts an affair with a beautiful woman who is locked at home by a jealous husband. When the official leaves the bedroom of his beloved, his gift disappears, and he remains forever walled up in the wall.
The monument in Montmartre, sculpted by the famous film actor Jean Marais, was created based on this very story, but the sculpture is given a portrait resemblance to the appearance of the writer. It was not by chance that Jean Marais took up this work: he had a long and close friendship with Marcel Aimé. The film actor possessed a wide variety of talents, but especially gravitated towards sculpture. Pablo Picasso, having got acquainted with the works of Mare, was surprised how a person with such talent “spends his time on some kind of filming in films and work in the theater”.
The monument to Marcel Aimé appeared in Montmartre in 1989. The place of installation was not chosen by chance: the writer, like the hero of his story, lived in the famous quarter for more than forty years. The square on the corner of which the sculpture is installed is now named after him.
