Jeanne Moreau was born in Paris in 1928,
the daughter of an English chorus girl and a French barman. Whilst studying at the
Conservatoire in Paris she made her stage debut in 1947 at the Avignon Festival of Theatre,
after which she joined the Comédie-Française. There she stayed for
four years, participating actively in many productions, before leaving to join the more
experimental TNP (Théatre Nationale Populaire).
At this time, the early 1950s, she began
to appear in French films, most notably opposite Jean Gabin in Gas-Oil
. Fame came in the late 1950s when Louis Malle cast her in two of his films,
Ascenseur pour l’echafaud
and Les Amants.
With her surly yet alluring appearance and
strong-willed, slightly acerbic personality, she was perfect material for the then flourishing
New Wave, which coincided with the emergence of feminism in French cinema. Having
earned acclaim in Peter Brooks Moderato
Cantabile she achieved international stardom, as an actress and singer, for her
part as Catherine in François Truffaut’s masterpiece, Jules
et Jim.
This was the high point of Jeanne Moreau’s
career. With the demise of the New Wave in the mid-1960s she was lured into more
lightweight populist films, such as Mata-Hari, Agent H.21 and Viva Maria!,
which dented her credibility as a serious actress.
In the 1970s, she found an affinity for working
with enterprising new directors on more off-the-wall dramas, including Bertrand Blier’s
Les Valseuses and André
Techiné’s Souvenirs
d’en France. She then went on to work as a director, making the films
Lumière (1975) and L’Adolescente
(1979), both of which were well received by the critics. In 2001, she met
with widespread acclaim for her portrayal of Margeurite Duras in Josée Dayan's
provocative true-life drama Cet
amour-là.
Jeanne Moreau has won a number of awards
for her film work, including a Golden Lion at the 1992 Venice Film Festival and a 1997
European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement Award. She is almost universally acknowledged
as one of the acting legends of French cinema history.
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