The romantic turmoil of the “former saint”

France 5 – Friday, May 10 at 11:10 pm – Documentary

It was her soul and her heart The little prince (1943). When in the summer of 1930 Consuelo Sancin Sandoval (1901-1979) met Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) at the Alliance Française salons in Buenos Aires, she had everything he could please: an intense and volcanic experience. a personality. The Salvadoran artist, 29, has just left Paris after the death of her husband, the Guatemalan writer and diplomat Enrique Gomez Carrillo. Between her and “Saint-Ex,” the director of Aéropostale’s operations in Argentina, it was instant love at first sight. It lasted fourteen years, until the famous pilot disappeared into the sea on July 31, 1944, after taking off from Bastia.

Documentary Consuelo and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Taming the stars It traces this extraordinary love story where the breakups were as intense as the reunions. Thanks to numerous films, archival photographs, and the feverish words (letters, telegrams, etc.) in which they spoke to each other, Dorothy Laschaud’s film reveals a fiery and free relationship.

It begins on board the Latécoère when Saint-Exupéry, after performing a series of episodes, begs the young woman to kiss him. Consuelo accepts this with the audacity of a pilot. “In turn, he kissed me violently, and we stayed like that for two or three minutes.”Says. But the relationship will go through long periods of turmoil, especially when the pilot, after crossing the threshold of the city hall, turns around to get married. The union would be formalized in April 1931 at the Var, where Consuelo, dressed in black, would become Countess of Saint-Exupéry.

beguile

The writer sees it as a source of inspiration and valuable support for his writing work. If Consuelo inspires him, she also reassures him. They never separate except when the pilot goes on a mission. The mail does not wait, and Aéropostale becomes another source of inspiration for him, especially when he flies among the stars and imagines his future works, Night flight. When he came home late, I waited for him and said, “Only five pages of the storm this evening.”“Consuelo confirmed. He was going to his studio. She sat him in his chair, kissed him, and repeated in his ear: “It is necessary… write… write.” In the morning, I found some unread pages on my small desk. »

The artist, already a widow, realizes that she is madly in love with a hero without limits, able to take crazy risks to fly over the desert or the Andes mountain range in order to ensure air communications, but also to write his legend as a successful writer. . Night flight It won the Femina Prize in 1931 and became a bestseller. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is acclaimed and loved. Publishers are scrambling for it.

In the mid-1930s, the couple moved to Morocco, where the pilot believed the climate would alleviate his wife’s chronic asthma. But in Casablanca, Consuelo has difficulty dressing as a pilot’s wife. Love extends again and everyone consoles themselves with other arms. In 1939, Land of menoriginally titled The stars are in strong windsAnd enjoyed unprecedented success. In addition to the Grand Prix for Fiction from the French Academy, he received the National Book Award, the American Medal.

Multiple female conquests

On a whim, Saint-Exupéry left Paris and pursued his career in New York. The couple breaks up again. “The man I love is lost forever, like your wedding ring that you pass into other hands without being able to hold it again. I say to you: good evening.”she writes. I’m leaving tonight in my sleep. »

She joins her husband across the Atlantic, but the reunion after a year apart is tough. The documentary then shows the writer in a less flattering light than the one we know: cold, and sometimes insulting. Her feminine conquests follow one another, she does not dream “Only one shoulder to sleep on”.

When World War II broke out, Saint-Exupery forgot about the tensions and played his role as a protective husband by helping his wife escape the bombing. Captain Saint-Exupéry goes on war missions, and everyone realizes that they can no longer live without each other, risking losing themselves. In the summer of 1942, he wrote the pilot The little princeChildren’s story. The book tells the story of a pilot lost in the desert. There he encountered baobab, sheep, snake and rose. They are flirtatious, arrogant, angry, and have sharp spines. There is no doubt that this rose was inspired by Consuelo.