Anouk Aimee (Franijoise Sorya Dreyfus), b. Paris, 1932
Anouk — -as she was originally known — is a princess of the French cinema, but a princess whose heart has been touched by Grimm cold. Those wide eyes and the grave face appeared to see a tragic destiny that could not be avoided, and that at times even held enchantment for her. She began in her teens in La Motion sous la Mer (47, Henri Calef); in Game’s unfinished La Fleur de I’ Age (47); as a young lover on the outskirts of moviemaking in Let Amants de Verone (48, Andr£ Cayatte); to England for The Golden Salamander (49, Ronald Neame), The part that best captured her fragile pessimism was in a short, The Crimson Curtain (52, Alexandre Astruc), as the girl who has a weak heart but submits nevertheless to her lover and dies. That soulful contemplation of self-destruction was borne out in Les Mauvaises Rencontres (55, Astruc); as one of Modigliani’s suffering women in Mont-purnasKi: J9 (57, jacijues Becker); and as the helpless girlfriend in La Tit? Cimtre les Mure 1.58, Georges Franju). At this time, she moved vaguely between the new French cinema— Les Dragueurs (59, Jean-Pierre Mocky); Le Farceur (60, Philippe de Broca)—”international” parts, like the nymphomaniac in La Dvlce Vita. (60, Federico Fellini); and small parts in the Resistance in Carte Her Name With Pride (58, Lewis Gilbert) and The journey (58, Anatole Litvak).
Lola (60, Jacques Demy) came, as a surprise and a relief: at last she was allowed to giggle, flutter, to be animated, and to breathe a cryptic song into the camera—”C’est moi. C’est Lola.” The most magical of the New Wave films, Lola freed Princess Anonk and allowed her the flighty, romantic self-absorption of a chambermaid. However, Anouk’s newfound freedom did not result in an organized career, although she may not have cared too much, then or now. It must be said that serious roles have sometimes found her wanting. Perhaps so handsome and commanding a woman is really frivolous; certainly Lola has that effortless beauty that comes from relaxation.
After that, Anouk worked rather haphazardly: L’imprevisto (61, Alberto Lattuada); II Giudizio [Jniversale (fil, Vittorio de Sica); as one of Aldrich’s first lesbians in Sodum and Gomorrah (62); Les Grands Chemlns (63, Christian Marquand); looking severe in spectacles in 8′A (63, Fellini); ll Terrorista (63, Gianfranco De Bosio); A Man and a Woman (66, Claude Lelouch), which harked back to her capacity for being hurt; (Jn Soir tin Train (69, Andre1 Delvanx); The Appointment (69, Sidney Lumet); as Lola again, stranded in America, in Model Shop (69, Demy)—a resigned woman now who sells herself to the fantasies of amateur photographers.
She was curiously indifferent to Justine (69, George Cukor). That normally most generous of directors called her “the great disaster… the only time I’ve ever had anything to du with somebody who didn’t try… indomitably refined.”
Well past forty, married to and divorced from Albert Finney, she appeared for Lelouch again in the forlorn Second Chance (76). Since then, she has been in Salto Nei Vuoto (80, Marco Bellocchio); as the wife in Tragedy of a Ridiculous Mart (HI, Bernardo Berto-lueci); Ou’est-ce (jui fait courir Dacid? (82, Elie Chouraqui); Le General de I’Amide Marte (83, Luciano Tovoli); briefly in Success Is the Best Revenge (84, Jerzy Skolimowsld); and increasingly as a touchstone for Lelouch— A Man and a Woman 20 Years Later (86) and Hyadesjours. . etdesLvnes (90),