Photo: Underwood & Underwood / Corbis
Never forgotten
Today, 30 years ago, Princess Gracia Patricia of Monaco died eight weeks before her 53rd birthday as a result of a traffic accident. Her beauty, her charisma, her work and her sudden death made her a legend. She was a movie legend during her lifetime. Therefore, she may today, on her 30th anniversary, "resurrected" in Monte Carlo under her maiden name Grace Kelly on the big screen.
A nice gesture: in the presence of Prince Albert (54), the movie "Over the rooftops of Nice", shot in 1954, is shown today in the "Theater Princesse Grace" after his deceased mother, without her dream role in this (later) Hitchcock classic The US diva Grace Kelly could hardly have known and appreciated the flair of the Cote d'Azur so extensively that she could imagine herself as an American to live there forever.
Without this knowledge, she would probably have barely let a year later, Prince Rainier, whom she had met on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival at a photo shoot to include so intense in their minds that his courtship led them straight to success. Because: Already in May 1956, just eleven months after this first meeting, Grace Kelly boarded a passenger steamer in New York, which sailed her straight to Monaco in the port of marriage.
The Monegasque people may be laying flowers in the Great Cathedral on the grave of the Princess, who died 30 years ago. You can also do this on the so-called Princesse-Grace-Parcours, a circular route initiated by Monaco's tourism association, which, with many photos of the unforgotten Mother of the Land, passes many sites that are closely related to the mortally injured.
The mourning there is free, as well as at the Gracia statues in the Rosarium or at the hospital. Free - that is not necessarily a matter of course for Monaco. Those who want to take part in the three-day event series "Grace - A Symbol of Chance" (14 to 16 September) with hat exhibition, vintage car presentation, film screenings and fashion show, have to dig deep into their pockets.
This exclusive commemoration event costs around 2, 000 euros, the proceeds of which go to benevolent purposes, and therefore stands under Prince Albert's patronage.
