MOVIE NOTES: JEANNE MOREAU

Jeanne Moreau was the embodiment of French New Wave cinema. She was the star of the 1962 François Truffaut classic Jules et Jim, a love triangle with a shock ending.

She began with small roles in films in 1949 and became one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française.* She had starring roles in Louis Malle’s Elevator to the Gallows (1958), and Michelangelo Antonioni’s La Notte (1961).

Orson Welles called her “the greatest actress in the world.”

Jeanne Moreau died alone on July 31, 2017. She was 89. Her body was found by her cleaning lady. Before she died, she said she felt “abandoned.”

Jules et Jim, 1962, with Oskar Werner and Henri Serre

• Comédie-Française is the only state theatre in France to have its own permanent troupe of actors. It was founded in 1680 and is the oldest theatre company in the world.

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