Jeanne Moreau turns 85
A diva of European cinema
Jeanne Moreau was born in Paris on January 23, 1928 and began training as an actor in 1946 after finishing high school. She was only 20 when she was she invited to work full time with the venerable Comédie-Française. She subsequently moved to the Théâtre National Populaire, where director Louis Malle saw her in a production of Tennessee Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and cast her in the leading role in his first feature, ELEVATOR TO THE GALLOWS (1957). One year later she worked with him again on THE LOVERS. With these two successes under her belt, Moreau devoted herself to film roles. She worked with Michelangelo Antonioni in 1960 on THE NIGHT, and, with the rise of the French New Wave, became an international star. She gave an unforgettable performance as Catherine in François Truffaut’s love triangle classic JULES AND JIM (1961), and went on to work on renowned films such as Orson Welles’ THE TRIAL (1962), Luis Buñuel’s DIARY OF A CHAMBERMAID (1963/64) and Truffaut’s THE BRIDE WORE BLACK (1967).
In Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s QUERELLE (1982) she played Madame Lysiane, the boss of the harbor brothel “Feria,” and later spoke of the particular intensity of the film shoot and the freedom she was given by RWF to interpret her role. “She is a star whose intelligence is part of her glamor,” wrote the film critic Peter W. Jansen. She also worked with Wim Wenders on his 1991 drama UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD.
In a career spanning more than 60 years, Jeanne Moreau has worked on more than 150 film productions. She is also a singer and from time to time has worked as a director. A few years ago, she said in an interview, “In fact cinema today is livelier, diverse and engaged than it ever has been,” she said in an interview a few years ago, “No, no, there is never a reason to mourn the past.” In 2005, she gave a wonderful performance in François Ozon’s TIME TO LEAVE, the second part of his “trilogy of mourning.”
Even at 85, Moreau remains open to new experiences: “When I act it is not in order to a take step in my career but to take another step in my life,” she explains without any hint of pretentiousness. “I will only stop when I’m dead.”
A LADY IN PARIS opens in German cinemas on April 18.
Photos: © RWFF