This page uses content from the Jeanne Moreau biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

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

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).

Moreau has showcased her unique singing voice in many films and has enjoyed success as a vocalist. She has released several album and once performed with Frank Sinatra at Carnegie Hall.

In addition to acting, Moreau has also worked behind the camera, as a writer, director and producer.

Throughout her life she has maintained friendships with prominent writers such as Jean Cocteau, Jean Genet, Henry Miller, and Marguerite Duras (an interview with Moreau is included in Duras's book Outside: Selected Writings).

Orson Welles called her "the greatest actress in the world" [need citation], and to this day she remains one of France's most accomplished and talented actresses.

Selected Filmography

Actress

• 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
• A Woman Is a Woman (1961) by Jean-Luc Godard (Uncredited cameo, discussing Jules et Jim)
• 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

Quotes “We have so many words for states of the mind, and so few for the states of the body.”

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