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Out of My Father's Shadow

By Tanya Constantine & Tim Lucas
Out of My Father's Shadow by Tanya Constantine & Tim Lucas digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

Though born in America, Eddie Constantine is perhaps best remembered as a film actor in France and Germany, playing the role of a hardboiled detective named "Lemmy Caution" and appearing in films by Jean-Luc Godard, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Lars von Trier. In the process of transitioning Constantine from the star of B-movies to the epicenter of the Nouvelle Vague, Jean-Luc Godard reconsecrated him as the solemn and impassive star of his extraordinary film, Alphaville. Eddie's unruffled charm, winning smile, and American credentials made him virtually untouchable. Europeans liked Constantine because he wasn't a pretty face-he had savoir faire.
Constantine's daughter Tanya traveled with him throughout much of his career, and this book comes from her perspective of their troubled familial relationship. It is a testament to his legend that Constantine emerges from the candor of his daughter's autobiography somehow strengthened by her revelations of the compulsions and insecurities he made those closest to him suffer. This book presents us with universal truths about the difficulties experienced within family relationships and takes us behind the curtain of celebrity and the fixed smiles of publicity photos in a way few books ever do.

I had a most unusual upbringing being the child of a celebrity. My childhood was a unique situation that only people who had experienced it could comprehend. My father was a superstar and singer in Europe in the 1950s and '60s. He and I recorded a song called "The Man and The Child" that sold over a million records in France alone, when I was just eleven years old, thus making me a celebrity too. When superstardom set in, a crazy atmosphere had overtaken our household, as fame creates pressure, fear of loss, and resentment. My father's estate became an open house to international celebrities who came to visit. Despite the fame and fortune that became part of my life, I ran away from home before the age of sixteen with the man who later became my first husband. I have spent my entire life attempting to release the pain of my upbringing.

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About Tanya Constantine

Daughter of Eddie Constantine, iconic star of Jon Luc Goddard's Alphaville. When only 11-years-old, Tanya and her father recorded a song that sold 2 million records, making her a child celebrity. She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area where she has been a commercial photographer since 2001.

Tim Lucas

With his wife Donna Lucas, Lucas launched Video Watchdog magazine in June 1990 with a focus on extremely detailed articles that made it a key source of serious film criticism. The magazine's unique approach to reviewing home video releases has since been widely adopted as the norm, especially by online critics. Video Watchdog won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award as Best Magazine every year from 2002 through 2006, the first five years the award was presented. Director Quentin Tarantino praised Video Watchdog in the pages of the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano as "l'unica rivista di cinema autorevole al mondo" ("the only reliable film magazine in the world") Video Watchdog ceased publication with its 184th issue in June 2017.

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