#16 Jeanne Moreau

In three films: Lumière , L'Adolescente , Lilian Gish

We no longer present Jeanne Moreau, famous actress, on the stage as
on screen, naturally gifted for a rich range of artistic expression
including the song, loved and admired around the world. But do we know that she has
also wrote and directed three films between 1975 and 1983?

In her first fiction, Lumière (1976), she evokes the world of cinema, as seen from the inside, by focusing on four actress friends (one of whom is played by herself) who meet and share what 'they live professionally and emotionally.

With L'Adolescente (1979), she follows 12-year-old Marie, who loses part of her carelessness at the time of the perilous passage from childhood to femininity,
when consciousness awakens and adult language becomes clear.

As for the third film, it is a portrait of Lillian Gish (1983), the delicate
child of silent cinema, whose career was long associated with that of Griffith, the brilliant inventor of the seventh art. A meeting and an exchange with one of the first stars of Hollywood cinema.

Nothing premeditated in her career… Only a path nourished by encounters and passionate links with the cinema led her to directing.

His films were invisible for many years, copies in poor condition prohibited the projection. One of the first objectives of the Jeanne Moreau Foundation was to have them restored and digitized, so that they could finally be reviewed and reconsidered, then discovered by younger generations.

Jean-Claude Moireau is a photographer. He has worked on over 70 feature films. He is also the official biographer of Jeanne Moreau, whom he rubbed shoulders with for thirty-three years. After two albums published by Ramsay (1988 and an update in 1994), another book was published by Flammarion in 2011.

IN THE CINEMA FEBRUARY 15, 2023