2023-08-01 17:22:01
“You know, she is very whimsical! » In a tense voice, Anita, Cruella d’Enfer’s personal press officer, thus justifies that, twenty-four hours before the interview with The cross, the place of the meeting is not fixed yet. And who knows what place the terrible London fashion diva discovered in 1961 in the cartoon 101 Dalmatiansfounding opus of its legend, will choose for this meeting.
Improbable scenarios come to mind: will she have set her sights on a kennel? Unlikely, her current communication campaign aimed at putting an end to her image as a killer of puppies, preferably Dalmatians. The private salons of a haute couture house? An option too conventional to please this internationally renowned stylist. A fancy restaurant? We doubt it just as much, its thinness – not to say its thinness – seeming incompatible with the very notion of a meal.
“Madame d’Enfer intends to visit the exhibition “Degas in black and white” at the National Library of Francefinally specifies Anita, visibly relieved. She invites you to meet her again in the gardens of the Palais-Royal, before her interview with the Minister of Culture, rue de Valois. »
High Priestess of British Fashion
Luckily, the sun is out at the end of the morning. In a whirlwind of airy flounces and lace to match, wearing an oversized hat, her legendary cigarette holder riveted to her fiercely crimson lips, Cruella hits the dusty ground in her high heels. All eyes turn to her slender figure, not daring to scrutinize her face. Is it good she? So similar to the character embodied in the 1990s by Glenn Close for the Disney studios that dizziness overwhelms incredulous observers.
“Let’s hurry, she says in greeting, I don’t have the whole day ahead of me! And I warn you, no questions about my husband: if I quickly got him out of my life, it wasn’t to talk to strangers about him. » Of which act. The stranger will content herself with furtively recalling that this skin and coat fanatic briefly united her fate with that of a furrier, chosen for his profession much more than for sentimentalism. Besides, isn’t one of Cruella’s favorite maxims: “Marriage will have taken away more worthy women than all the wars, famines and cholera combined? »
Momentarily appeased by this entry into the subject, she exposes the new elements of language whose objective is to restore a portrait that is not very fashionable: “I forbid you to write in your diary that I still wear fur or any other animal material. The well-being of the animals is my only concern and I only wear synthetics”, she asserts. And to show off her handbag, her long gloves and her imitation zebra muff. Cruella animalist, the information deserves to be verified. And since the high priestess of British fashion invites her to revise her preconceptions, another question burns her lips: is she still so… mean?
Endless silence, eyes flashing fearsome lightning, we imagine that the interview will end there. But it is with a Homeric laugh that Madame d’Enfer rewards the audacious interrogation. “Wicked, really? Intractable and demanding, no doubt, eager for justice – MY justice, of course –, absolutely certain of my immense talent and my immense intelligence, of course. But mean, surely not. »
“Take back what was stolen from me”
Since she agrees to evoke her criminal past, the memory of the Dalmatians stolen to make coats is revived, the tyranny, still perfectly topical, exerted on the personnel of her company, her brutal ascendancy over Horace and Jasper, the two executors of his base works, in particular the abduction of the adorable little Dalmatians. Cruella does not deny.
Eyelids half-closed, taking several puffs of her cigarette whose greenish smoke manages to unpleasantly mask the scent of the surrounding flowers, she seems to be weighing each word of her answer. “Everything you say is true, but does not convey any malice. Rather a legitimate thirst to take back what was due to me and was shamefully stolen from me. My fortune first but, above all, the affection of the one who raised me and was killed by my real mother, Baroness von Hellman, that monster of selfishness. »
A mother worthy of the fairytale stepmother
Without falling into a summary psychology, this childhood trauma thus explains many things. It was, in fact, three Dalmatians trained to attack by the baroness who caused the fatal fall of Catherine, the adoptive mother of Cruella, then still named Estella. Like the stepmother of the tales, the said baroness had, a few years earlier, wanted to make her own daughter disappear on the very day of her birth. Without the pity of his right arm, John, the child would have perished.
“It does not hurt to swallow as revelations, she whispers chillingly. I arrogated to myself the right to reconquer and eliminate anything that stood in my way. » The film Cruellashot recently by Craig Gillespie without his approval but with the concern for “realism” displayed by Disney, does not lie either about his young years, or about the motivations of his sensational professional rise.
As for the hatred of living Dalmatians and the perverse desire to wear them like hunting trophies, it is easy to identify their origin. Their sworn enemy, however, is keen to point out that she was ready to pay a good price for the reach of Pongo and Perdita. “But their master, that stupid Roger Radcliffe, convinced his wife not to sell them to me. I had only one solution, to steal them. If I am resisted, do not be surprised to pay the consequences. »
Perhaps moved by this dive into a carefully buried past, Cruella splits the armour: with a theatrical gesture, she takes off her wide capeline, revealing the singularity of her hair, half black, half white. Today, her private hairdresser has pulled her into a strict bun, revealing her high forehead, her heavily made-up eyes fringed with oversized lashes. The very pale complexion and the blood-colored lips add to the oddity of a disturbing physiognomy, which the all-black-and-white elegance of the garment further reinforces.
“I can see that you are wondering why I like the absence of color so much, except for small touches of red. It all started with my hair. What ordinary mortals consider an anomaly – people are so conventional – I have made it my uniqueness, my strength. » A little (very) softened, she recalls that only her friend Anita never made fun of this two-tone hair, while the horrible jojos of the college never stopped provoking her. “I didn’t let it go and I thrashed more than one of those pretentious little cretins! »
Impeccably bodied car
Impatience suddenly overcomes her. Holding in place is not one of its very rare virtues. She thinks next. Her meeting with Minister Rima Abdul Malak, from whom she intends to extract a Legion of Honor for service rendered to fashion, then a visit to the Hunting Museum, a choice that we will not comment on.
This evening, she is invited to a party in the vicinity of Paris. “In a very beautiful castle, I was told to bait me, where all the films produced by the Disney studios and which my magnificent personality illuminates will be screened. » However, she is not certain to honor the event with her presence, even if driving her impeccably bodied car, another of her passions, tries her. “But seeing and hearing once again so many untruths, having to justify yourself, what a chore! » Would Cruella get tired of her infernal and flamboyant fate? Would she go so far as to dream of a peaceful life away from fame and controversy? An angel, or a devil, passes by.
Trembling, two young Japanese women discreetly approached to get an autograph. The diva of the London catwalk straightens up, eyes them for a moment, sighs loudly, snatches the stamped ballpoint pen from her interviewer’s hands. The cross, and scribbles a strange signature. It reads, an assembly of angular letters: “̶C̶r̶u̶e̶l̶l̶a̶ Estella »…
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At the origins of the character
This portrait of Cruella de Vil was made from various sources:
The novel 101 Dalmatians by British author Dodie Smith (1896-1990), published in 1956.
The animated film from Disney studios 101 Dalmatians, released in theaters in 1961, became a great classic of the genre and which imposed the infernal and delirious figure of Cruella. She was then drawn by Marc Davis, who signed his last, but not least, character for Disney.
Stephen Herek’s film, in live action, The 101 Dalmatians, released in 1996 from the same Disney studios, with Glenn Close as Cruella.
Craig Gillespie’s movieCruella, released in 2021 with Emma Stone in the lead role and Emma Thompson as the Baroness. Where the veil is lifted on the youth of this wicked anthology.
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