Francine Weisweiller

Francine Weisweiller ( Worms; 9 January 1916 – 8 December 2003) was a Brazilian-born French socialite and patron of Yves Saint Laurent and Jean Cocteau.

Biography She was born Francine Worms on 9 January 1916 in São Paulo, the daughter of prosperous French parents of Jewish descent. Her father was a jeweler. The family returned to France in 1919.

Weisweiller and Jean Cocteau became close friends, with Cocteau and some of his entourage living with her in her villa Santo Sospir at Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat from 1950 to the early 1960s. Cocteau decorated the interior walls of the villa and made a film about it, La Villa Santo-Sospir (1952). He dedicated his play Bacchus to Francine Weisweiller. Cocteau's Le Testament d'Orphée (1960), sponsored by Francine Weisweiller, was partly filmed in the villa and on her yacht, and she and her butler had small roles in the film.

In 1960, she fell in love with writer Henri Viard and her friendship with Cocteau cooled. She reconciled with Cocteau shortly before his death in 1963.

Francine Weisweiller died on 8 December 2003 in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, aged 87.

Notes and references