YEREVAN-MARSEILLE — Lydie Belmonte (born in Marseille) is a French actress, writer, singer, historian and multidisciplinary artist. Born to an Armenian mother and a Spanish father, her multicultural background has strongly shaped both her artistic sensibility and her intellectual interests. Trained in dramatic arts at the Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Marseille, she was awarded a gold medal early in her career. Alongside her acting career, she pursued academic studies and in 1991 earned a master’s degree in history from Aix-Marseille University, focusing on the history of the Armenian community in Marseille. As a stage actress, she has performed in numerous productions and has also written, directed, and performed her own original works. Her creativity extends to cinema and television, where she appeared in several films and TV projects in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Lydie Belmonte is also an acclaimed author, particularly known for her historical and literary works on Provence and the Armenian diaspora (“Little Armenia,” “Marseillaises le dictionnaire,” “The Armenian Blue Cross women”) as well as theatrical pieces The Entrance (L’Entracte), The Caregiver (La garde-malade) and “Sacred Souls” (“Sacrées F’Ames”).
Dear Lydie, your career spans theatre, playwriting, jazz and chanson singing and historical research. How do your colleagues in the arts respond to your academic work? And do your academic peers ever see your artistic pursuits as a kind of diversion?
I have always been atypical, highly sensitive, multi-potential, and multidisciplinary. I am passionate and curious. You can also add dance and drawing, painting as well. I know I can be unsettling because I don’t fit into boxes, but when I commit to something, I give it my all, with all my heart. If others don’t understand, so be it.
Your book From Little Armenia to Boulevard des Grands Pins (Éditions P. Tacussel, 2000) received wide recognition—including a mention at the Grand Prix Historique de Provence and the Georges Goyau Prize of the Académie Française. It was also the first work on an Armenian subject to receive such an award. There was a second edition, La Petite Arménie (Little Armenia), winner of the Academy of Marseille Price, and you currently preparing a third edition, while seeking a national and international publisher. What do you think makes your study unique?
Its uniqueness lies in its soul. With a glowing foreword by Charles Aznavour, it combines scientific rigor with a rich collection of archival documents and intimate testimonies, offering an authentic and deeply human portrait of Armenian Genocide survivors.
Written as a duty of memory and published at a historic moment, just before the disappearance of the last witnesses of the genocide, an excerpt from the book was read at the French National Assembly when France officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. I was profoundly moved to learn that the book has found its place in universities across the world and at the U.S. Senate.
