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Biography
b. Paris, 1928
Jeanne Moreau is one of the most challenging ofscreen actresses. Far from beautiful, she sometimes seems plain-faced, dumpy, and sullen. But when her personality is engaged, we have the feeling of an intelligent, intuitivewoman wanting to commit herself to theinner rhythm of the movie.
She flowers under sympathetic, intimate direction. At her best,she is riveting, capable of persuading us thatshe is beautiful, and able to vary her own appearance according to mood. Above all, and without any trace of rhetoric, she bbares a vivid but vulnerable soul. Nothing expresses her so well as that instant in Eve (62, Joseph Losey) when she glares after the departing Stanley Baker and mutters "Bloody Welsh man." Those words embody not just the sensual dominance of the woman, but a residual sadness that so brutal a sexual conflict should exist.
Moreau's eminence coincided with the cinema's new interest in feminism. Her blend of intelligence and feelings is common to all great actresses, but it had seldom been based on less glamorous looks. Like the Catherine in Jules and Jim (61, Francois Truffaut), Moreau asserted herself so that stories took shape from a woman encouraged to experiment in front of the camera. Eve may be her most extreme role, but it involves the greatest risks and the most extraordinary triumph. Losey is not renowned for his handling of women, but Eve glories in Moreau's emotional pragmatism and her instinctive, sour fun. That long sequence in which she takes over Baker's bathroom, and the moment when she deludes him with a pathetic farrago about her own childhood, are perfect expressions of the cruelty and playfulness in Eve. Only Moreau could have made her so flouncingly sexy, so devouringly commercial, without losing sight of her loneliness or the moments in which she resembles a little girl.
The daughter of a chorus girl, Moreau was a leading actress at the Theatre Nationale Populaire before she made her name inmovies. She had acted regularly in moviessince 1948, but she was thirty before theNew Wave found a proper use for her, or sawthat she was deeply attractive and animated.After Touches Pas au Grisbi (54, JacquesBecker), La Salaire du Peche (56, Denys dela Patelliere), and Le Dos au Mur (57, Edouard Molinaro), she made two films for Louis Malle: Lift to the Scaffold (57) and Les Amants (57). The first showed a new"modern" woman, while the second was a notorious advance into sexual frankness—adishonest vein more in keeping with bourgeois French cinema, and not central to Moreau's later work where she has usuallysuggested sexuality obliquely. In 1959, shewent from Le Dialogue des Carmelites (Philippe Agostini) to Madame de Merteuil in Vadim's updated Les Liaisons Dangereuses. That was a part worthy of her, but cheated by Vadim's insistence on novelty at the expense of examination.
She was one of Martin Ritt's Five Branded Women (60), and then began the run of outstanding parts: Moderato Cantabile (60, Peter Brook), an opaque study of a Marguerite Duras wife and mother on the point of breakdown, wonderfully inhabited by Moreau; La Notte (61, Michelangelo Antonioni), another portrait of alienation that Moreau steered carefully away from the self-pity growing in the director s work—no one else could have sustained the long section in which she wanders through Milan, observing the harsh, uncoordinated fragments of life; Jules and Jim, a key character in Truffaut's work, barely plausible on paper, but in Moreau's image a moving, capricious self-destructive woman torn between being a happy and a sad fool; the nervy, blonde gambler in La Baie des Anges (62, Jacques Demy), harrowed by the dilatory wheel and blithely ridding herself of the winnings at the best hotel in town.
Those films made her one of the most desirable actresses in the world. In the event, she did not always choose parts well, but she was still more watchable in neutral than most others in top gear: The Victors (63, Carl Foreman); Peau de Banane (63, Marcel Ophuls); as Fraulein Becker in The Trial (63, Orson Welles), a brief flash of lewdness; Will of the Wisp (63, Malle); cool, matter-of-fact, and flexible in Diary of a Chambermaid (64, Luis Buñuel).
Her insecurity was proved by her inability to dominate silly vehicles: thus Mata-Hari, Agent H.21 (64, Jean-Louis Richard, who, briefly, had been her husband). She was dowdy in The Train (65, John Frankenheimer), a little strained with Bardot in Viva Maria! (65, Malle) and uncomfortable in The Yellow Rolls-Royce (64, Anthony Asquith). But she was a splendidly sordid Doll Tearsheet in Chimes at Midnight (66, Welles). Two Tony Richardson projects would have best been avoided, JK despite the nominal basis in Genet and Duras: Mademoiselle (66) and The Sailor from Gilbrator (67). The part of the avenging Julie Kohler in The Bride Wore Black (67, Truffaut) wavered in and out of life, but seemed as outside her ken as it was imposed on Truffaut by his admiration of Hitchcock.
In 1968, however, Welles cast her with characteristic tender mischief as the aging prostitute reclaimed by romance in the realisation of Mr. Clay's Immortal Story. The most poetic thing in that film is the way Morceau does seem to become younger from the moment she blows out the candles in the magical chamber appointed for the enactment of the story. It suggested that she might yet lead Welles into a film that dealt profoundly with women.
She looked her age and roamed the film world rather uncertainly: Le Corps de Diane (68, Richard); Great Catherine (68, Gordon Flemyng); to Hollywood for Monte Walsh (70, William Fraker) and Alex in Wonderland (71, Paul Mazursky); Compte a Rebours (70, Roger Pigaut); Mille Baisers de Florence (71, Guy Gilles); singing "Quand l'Amour se Meurt" in Le Petit Theatre de Jean Renoir (69); excelling once more for Marguerite Duras in Nathalie Grander Chere Louise (72, Philippe de Broca).
She yielded with ardent regret to middle-age, married William Friedkin briefly, pictures: to Brazil for Joanna Francesca (73, Carlo Diegues); Souvenirs d'en France (74, Andre Techine); Making It (74, Bertrand Blier); Le Jardin qui Bascule (75, Guy Gilles); Mr. Klein (76, Losey); a temperamentalactress in The Last Tycoon (76, Elia Kazan). In 1979, she directed her second film L'Adolescente.
She was in Night Fires (79, Mary Stephen); Your Ticket Is No Longer Valid (81, George Kaczender); Plein Sud (81, Luc Beraud); Mille Milliards de Dollars (81, HenriVerneuil); as an icon of foreboding inQuerelle (82, Rainer Werner Fassbinder); The Trout (82, Losey); L'Arbre (84, Jacques Doillon); Vicious Circle (84, Kenneth Ives); Le Paltoquet (86, Michel Deville); Sauve-toi Lola (86, Michel Drach); La Miracule (86, Jean-Pierre Mocky); The Last Seance (86, John Wyndham-Davies); Hotel Terminus (87, Marcel Ophuls); La Nuit de I'Ocean (88, Antoine Perset); La Femme Nikita (90, Luc Besson); Alberto Express (90, Arthur Joffe); Until the End of Time (91, Wim Wenders); Map of the Human Heart (93, Vincent Ward); and The Summer House (93, Warris Hussein).
Her voice spoke the words of MargeuriteDuras looking back on the events of The Lover (92, Jean-Jacques Annaud)—as iftoo many Gauloises could have given JaneMarch a French accent. In addition, Moreau has contributed to documentaries on Fassbinder, Truffaut, Jean-Louis Barrault and,not least, Lillian Gish—the latter of whichshe directed.
Key Dates
1928:
Born 23 January in Paris, France
1949:Makes screen debut in Dernier amour. Marries film director Jean-Louis Richard. 1 child, Jérôme Richard
1961:
Appears in Truffaut's classic Jules et Jim
1964:
Appears in Luis Buñuel's Diary of a Chambermaid
1966:
Appears in Orson Welles's Chimes at Midnight
1968:
Appears in The Bride Wore Black
1976:
Makes debut as director with Lumière
1977:
Marries film director William Friedkin
1979:
Divorces Friedkin
2000:
Walks off the set of the TV series E.R
2003:
Intruder robs her Paris apartment of $432,000 in cash and jewels
Filmography
Quotes
'I was never interested in existentialism, because of Sartre's famous phrase 'Hell is the others'. For me, this is a crazy idea. For me, hell is one's self' - Jeanne Moreau
Gallery :: Photos
Gallery :: Film Posters
Below are just a few posters from Jeanne Moreau's film career from her iconic movie (is it not one of the top 10 of greatest movies ever made or is that just me?), Jues et Jim.
You won't be surprised to know but the company with the most varied of Jeanne Moreau repro. film posters is amazon. There are a vast array of her posters there - far, far more than here.
They come in various sizes and usually work out to be less than $10 per poster which I don't think is too bad. You get an unusual and beautiful item to hang on your walls and I bet your friends won't have it.
Here, occasionally, you will find an original poster from the time of the release of the movie. They are obviously far more expensive but if you have the money they are worth it as they are works of art in their own right.
Jeanne Moreau Film Posters available @ amazon.com
Jules et Jim Movie Poster
Jeanne Moreau Film Posters available @ amazon.com
Jules et Jim Foreign Movie Poster
Jeanne Moreau Film Posters available @ amazon.com
Jules et Jim Movie Poster
Jeanne Moreau Film Posters available @ amazon.com
Jules et Jim Spanish Movie Poster
Jeanne Moreau Film Posters available @ amazon.com
Jules et Jim French Movie Poster
Jeanne Moreau Film Posters available @ amazon.com
Jules et Jim Japanese Movie Poster
Jeanne Moreau Film Posters available @ amazon.com
Links
Biog. >> Key Dates >> Filmography >> Quotes >> Photo Gallery >> Film Poster Gallery >> La Notte >> Les Valseuses >> Julietta>> Other Galleries >> Jeanne Moreau Dvds available @ amazon.com
