Monday, July 31, 2017

RIP Jeanne Moreau



French actress Jeanne Moreau died at her Paris home on Monday July 31, 2017. Her famous sensual presence was backed up with formidable timing and technique, so much so that every major director wanted to work with her - Orson Welles, Michelangelo Antonioni, Joseph Losey and Luis Bunuel among them. Of the three most iconic French actresses of her generation - herself, Catherine Deneuve and Brigitte Bardot - Moreau was the one with the most on-screen authority. Post-war French cinema is unthinkable without her. Known for her husky tones, her other films included 1961's La Notte, directed by Michelangelo Antonioni; Luis Bunuel's Diary of a Chambermaid (1964); and Tony Richardson's Mademoiselle (1966). Orson Welles, who worked with her on films including Chimes at Midnight and his adaptation of Kafka's The Trial, once described her as the greatest actress in the world. Her lone Euro-western appearance was as Maria Fitzgerald O’Malley in 1965’s “Viva Maria!” alongside Brigitte Bardot.

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