Marie Versini - the interview

Interview with Marie Versini
(English translation by Marlies Bugmann)

Walter Joerg Langbein: You’ve become world-famous through Karl May’s Nsho-Chi. Have you read Karl May’s novels earlier, in your youth already?

Marie Versini: No. I’ve not read Karl May during my childhood. He had not been translated into French at that time. But my father, a great Germanist, discovered Karl May in Germany. He thought his books were wonderful, just like those written by our Jules Verne.

My father always told me Karl-May-stories at bedtime: the love story between Old Shatterhand and Nsho-Chi, the story about the blood brotherhood of Winnetou and Old Shatterhand, and many more…

Walter Joerg Langbein: Has your understanding of Karl May changed through Nsho-Chi?

Marie Versini: Yes, of course. The book was translated into French by Flamarion before Winnetou I was filmed, and I’ve read it immediately. It’s always wonderful for an actor or actress to find his or her role in a novel. The author always says so much about the character of the individual people.

But, even as a child, I already had my image of Nsho-Chi. She was always present in the background.

I’ve always wanted to play that role, ever since I was seven years old. And my dream became reality! The time in Croatia during the filming with Lex Barker and Pierre Brice was also a dream. I couldn’t imagine that the film was going to be so successful! And the success continues to this day!

Walter Joerg Langbein: Did you like reading books as a child?

Marie Versini: Yes, very much. And I still do! I read a lot…with pleasure.

Walter Joerg Langbein: What book are you reading at present?

Marie Versini: I’m reading Montaigne. Montaigne’s works contain everything. One can read them again and again! I also read Montaigne by Stephan Zweig…I love him very much.

Walter Joerg Langbein: You are also writing books. Being an author, what does that mean for you?

Marie Versini: My husband, Pierre Viallet is a director and an author. He has written thirteen novels. They were translated and are available in the USA (Ballantines-Books, New York) and in Germany (Zsolnay und Rowohlt). Through him, I’ve found a new way of expressing myself. Acting and writing are very similar. But writing has one advantage. You can write when you want and where you want. You’re completely independent with writing and not tied to someone else.

Walter Joerg Langbein: What is a writer allowed or not allowed to do?

Marie Versini: A writer is allowed to do anything. He or she invents—that’s their profession. And as they dream up things, the reader is made to dream.

Walter Joerg Langbein: Will you write more books?

Marie Versini: Of course.

Walter Joerg Langbein: Many people still see you as Nsho-Chi. Does that annoy you? You’ve made other important films, after all!

Marie Versini: It has, indeed, annoyed me a few years ago. I mean, I’ve acted in many other roles…almost eight years on stage, in the ‘Comédie Française’ in Paris where I’ve played the classical part of the Naïve; works from Molière to Shakespeare. And I’ve made many other movies, for example A Tale Of Two Cities (1958), next to Dirk Bogarde, Paris Blues (1961) with Paul Newman and Louis Armstrong, Cien De Pique (1960) with Eddie Constantine, or Is Paris Burning? (1966) with Jean Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Gert Fröbe etc…

Later I realized: It was a great opportunity to be identified with a character. In the present time, with it’s short-term memory that forgets so much and so many, it is beautiful to be Nsho-Chi. But I’m not only Nsho-Chi…

Walter Joerg Langbein: What was your most important film…after the Karl May movies?

Marie Versini: The River Line (1964) with Peter van Eyck, Romantic Nights In The Taiga (1967) with Thomas Hunter and Ach Pierre (La Foire) (1977) with Curd Jürgens, my husband Pierre Viallet directed.

Translation: Marlies Bugmann, Tasmania, 2009

Winnetou's Sister and I

Marie Versini
(by Marlies Bugmann)

I first heard that lovely French name when I watched Winnetou’s sister ride side by side with Winnetou and Old Shatterhand across the wide silver screen, sometime during the early 1960s. Since then, I’ve watched the beautiful ‘Apache maiden’ countless times fall in love with Old Shatterhand, the white adventurer in Karl May’s Wild West.

Of course, Marie Versini, the accomplished and very charming French actress has not only played several female roles in movies adapted from May’s novels, but has also acted in a long list of wonderful stage plays, movies and television productions throughout her successful acting career.

As I translate Karl May’s novels into English, I become very closely acquainted with the characters in his works and, consequently, also get to know more of the actors and actresses who played, and still play, those roles, which is especially delightful to me when I find that my childhood heroes and heroines continue to honour Karl May’s world in the way Marie Versini does.

To me, Marie Versini HAS become Nsho-Chi, Winnetou’s sister. By following her own dreams, asking ‘what if’ and developing an alternative world to Karl May’s, whereby Nsho-Chi has lived on and given life to a daughter, Versini is connecting a new generation to Karl May’s spirit.

In my view, Versini’s two recent novels, co-authored by her husband, author and director, Pierre Viallet, Rätsel um N.T ('Riddles About N.T.'), and N.T. geht zum Film ('N.T. Goes To The Movies'), are a delightful new concept with which Karl May’s world and the people he populated it with have found new life. To my admiration for the actress Marie Versini has been added an even deeper respect for the writer Marie Versini as the trials and tribulations of giving life to a book are not only a rewarding, but, above all, also a challenging way of life.

Marie Versini, Winnetou’s sister, continues to play a very important role in my life. She stepped into the guise of the Apache maiden and has, thus, helped to draw me into the world of Karl May as a teenager; forty-something years later, Marie Versini is still enriching my life—by having remained Winnetou’s sister.

Marlies Bugmann, Hobart, Tasmania, November, 2009

Please visit Marlies Bugmann here...
Australian Friends of Karl May http://www.karl-may-friends.net/

The picture of Marie Versini was given to us with friendly permission of the owner, Mr. Elmar Elbs. Thank you very much!