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The beautiful and talented actress Anicée Shahmanesh, better known as Anicée Alvina, had a short career which nevertheless left a mark in French nouveau or avant-gardist movies. It was thanks to her impeccable sensuous forms that the very young Anicée caught the eyes of French moviegoers who immediately saw her as the new French sex bomb.

Without dethroning Brigitte Bardot or Catherine Deneuve, she flirted with success from the late 60's to the mid seventies. Her very first film shot in 1969 "Elle boit pas, elle fume pas, elle drague pas, mais elle CAUSE" (She doesn't drink, she doesn't smoke, she doesn't flirt, but she TALKS ) was directed by the famous French scriptwriter Michel Audiard. The success of the film turned her into a true actress.

Alain Robbe-Grillet (an author who launched the "Nouveau Roman" literary movement in France) chose her for his film "Glissements progressifs du plaisir" in 1974. An extremely erotic film in the context of the seventies, for which the sensual forms of Anicée were once again put into contribution. Nevertheless Anicée proved that her body was not to be taken for granted and through a subtle performance, she marvelously manages to render some coherence in the movie director's extravagant script.

Anicée shot a second film with Robbe-Grillet, "Le jeu avec le feu " (Playing with Fire), which again focuses on a heavy but sensual atmosphere. It is probably because of such films that the beautiful actress was very quickly typecast in similar roles and didn't quite manage to emancipate in what seemed like a promising career.

She revealed a larger spectrum of her talent in two other films, "Ames Perdues " (Lost Souls) directed by Dino Risi (1976) and "Un second souffle" (A Second Breath) directed by Gerard Blain.

Later Anicée, did some musical performances, and played roles in TV dramas, including one in which she was Sherazad in "A Thousand and One Nights".

Darius Kadivar

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