Tout Goude

He is not very tall – and this complex has been a remarkable source of creativity –but he is hyperactive. The time has come for Jean-Paul Goude, the organizer of the bicentennial celebrations in 1989, the talented advertiser, the «inventor» or stage director of superb creatures such as Grace Jones and Laetitia Casta, to take stock of his life. With the help – complicity - of Patrick Mauriés he tells of his beginnings, his broken dreams of a dancer, his contacts with Jacques Prévert or with New York, from the Esquire magazine to the peep shows on 42nd street. The book is valuable for its pictures, of which some have become icons (the advertising campaign for the perfume Egoïste for example), but also for the sincerity of is personal confession. We only believe up to a certain point that the book is his testament, since Goude has not finished using his French spirit – a bit vane, a little superficial, but nevertheless witty. What the Americans call the French touch...

• Tout Goude (All Goude), text by Patrick Mauriés, La Martinière publications, 2005 , 66.50€