Jeanne Moreau

Jeanne Moreau (born 23 January, 1928 in Paris, France) is a French actress and singer.

Jeanne Moreau (left) in Jules et Jim

Moreau was born in Paris to a French father and an English mother of Irish descent.

She studied at the Conservatoire in Paris. In 1947, she made her theatre debut at the Avignon Festival. By her twenties, Moreau was already one of France's leading stage actresses at the Comédie-Française.

In the late 1950s, after making many mainstream films, including several successes, she made Elevator to the Gallows with first-time director Louis Malle. Largely thanks to that film, she went on to work with many of the best known New Wave and avant garde directors.

François Truffaut's explosive New Wave film Jules et Jim (1962) is centered on her magnetic starring role, and is perhaps her most famous film. She has also appeared with a number of other notable directors such as Michelangelo Antonioni (La Notte), Jean-Luc Godard (A Woman Is a Woman), Orson Welles (The Immortal Story), Luis Buñuel (Diary of a Chambermaid), and Philippe Agostini (Dialogue des Carmelites).

She has also co-produced several films, including Jules and Jim, and has directed films herself.

Throughout her life she has maintained friendships with prominent writers such as Jean Cocteau and Marguerite Duras.

She remains one of France's most accomplished and diversely talented actresses. As a singer, she once appeared at the Carnegie Hall in New York with Frank Sinatra.

Orson Welles also considered her the best actress ever.

Filmography

Actress

Broken English (2007)
Roméo et Juliette (2006)
Time to Leave (2005) by François Ozon
Cet amour-là (2001) as Marguerite Duras
Ever After (1998)
I Love You, I Love You Not (1996)
The Proprietor (1996) - Merchant Ivory Film
Beyond the Clouds (1995) - Michelangelo Antonioni
A Foreign Field (1993) by Charles Sturridge
Until the End of the World (1991) by Wim Wenders
La vieille qui marchait dans la mer (1991)
Nikita (1990) by Luc Besson
La Truite (1982) by Joseph Losey
Querelle (1982) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Monsieur Klein (1976) by Joseph Losey
The Last Tycoon (1976) by Elia Kazan
Les Valseuses (1974) by Bertrand Blier
Nathalie Granger (1972) by Marguerite Duras
The Bride Wore Black (1968) by François Truffaut
The Immortal Story (1968) by Orson Welles
Viva Maria! (1965) by Louis Malle
The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964) by Anthony Asquith
The Train (1964) by John Frankenheimer
Diary of a Chambermaid (1964) by Luis Buñuel
Le feu follet (1963) by Louis Malle
Jules et Jim (1962) by François Truffaut
The Trial (1962) by Orson Welles
La notte (1961) by Michelangelo Antonioni
Le Dialogue des Carmélites (1960) by Philippe Agostini
Les liaisons dangereuses (1959) by Roger Vadim
Les amants (1958) by Louis Malle
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1958) by Louis Malle
La Reine Margot (1954)
Touchez pas au grisbi (1954) by Jacques Becker

Director

Lillian Gish (1983, TV documentary)
L'Adolescente (1979)
Lumière (1976)

External links

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* [1] Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Jeanne Moreau