The Actor's Art: Jeanne Moreau

Catalog description

Study of major films in the seven-decade career of Jeanne Moreau (1928-2017), the performing artist who is widely recognized as France’s greatest actress of the post-World War II era and who has also been a pioneering female director. Topics include: the value for film criticism and history of conceptualizing the performer as a creative auteur; Moreau’s manner(s) of film acting and role realization; the risks and the productive consequences of her serving as “muse” to such male directors as Louis Malle, François Truffaut, Orson Welles, Joseph Losey, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Paul Mazursky, and as a creative partner to such female directors as Marguerite Duras and Josée Dayan; her embodiments and projections of sexuality and sensuality and how they differ from those of other so-called “screen love goddesses” (Brigitte Bardot, Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, Simone Signoret, Catherine Deneuve); Moreau’s own work as a director of feature-length films; the rewards and burdens of international stardom and the challenge of being expected to “represent” France and its cinema; growing old in the public eye and life-long strategies for career renewal and sustainability