Stephane Audran

Stephane Audran (Colette Suzanne leannine Dacheville), b. Versailles, Prance, 1932 It is characteristic of Chabrol’s enigmatic work that one might not deduce from it that Stephane Audran was his wife. Counting the black comedy of the episode from Ports Vu Par, . . (64), she has made twenty-one films with her husband. At first her parts were small, but after a brief appearance in Les Cousins (59), she was one of Les Bonnes Femmes (59), in Les GodelvreauK (61), and ! one of Landnt’s victims (63). L’Oeil du Matin (62) was her first starred part. In Paris Vu Par, . . she was the quarrelsome mother whose son puts cotton wool in his ears so that he never hears her cry for help in an emer- I gency. That seemed a sardonic, marital joke from Chabrol, nnd even in La Ligne de I Demarcation (66) and The Champagne Mur-1 ders (67), there was no hint that he regarded I her as anything more than a conventionally I beautiful fashion plate. It was Les Biches (68! I that properly discovered her as an actress. In I one sense, her acutely made-up beauty I needed very little heightening to suggest les-1 bianism, but the eventual sexual reversal of the film allowed her a new poignancy that was an advance for both actress and director. From that point, the note of thoughtfulness beneath such mannequin elegance has become central to Chabrol’s work. It is difficult not to attribute the tenderness and growing human commitment of La Femme Infidele (69), La Rupture (70), and Le Boucher (70) to her presence, even if he continued to photograph her in a strangely detached manner. Or is it tHat there is a glossy coldness in the woman herself that makes her attractive to Chabrol? One thinks of the way her Dor-dogne teacher in Le Boucher wears false eyelashes throughout, and of her remote calm in the yoga sequence. She is herself exquisitely uncommitted, although it is her playing of the woods sequence in Le Boucher on which the insecure humanity of the Film is based. It remains impossible to see her as a major actress, as if Chabrol’s ultimate reticence had affected her too.
She made a few films for other directors— Le Signe du Lion (59, Eric Rohmer); La Peau de Torpedo (70, Jean Delannoy); and she Fitted admirably into The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (72, Luis Bunuel), smiling through every disaster as if it were glass and urgently hauling her husband into the rhododendrons for a quick one before lunch.
Her vapid glossiness suited comedy of manners and may have lured Chabrol away from character studies to the absurd games of people as much corrupted by pretense as their situations are by B pictures. She is so much an image, so little a person: Juste Avant la Nult (71); Lea Noces Rouges (72); Folies Bourgeoises (76); and Blood Relatives (78), At the same time, she worked outside France, but with no more warmth: B. Must Die (73, Jose1 1 Luis Borau); And Then There Were None (74, Peter Collinson); The Black Bird (75, David Giler); Silver Bears (77, Ivan Passer); and Eagles Wing (78, Anthony Harvey). But she was revealed as a bitter middle-aged woman, dowdy beside Isabelle Huppert in Violette Jvoziire (78).
Since then, generally as a supporting actress, she has made Le Gagnant (79, Christian Gion); Le Soleil en Face (79, Pierre Kast); The Big Red One (BO, Samuel Fuller); If Eta.it une fois den Gens Heureux . . . les Plouffe (SO, Gilles Carle); Coup de Torchon (81. Bertrand Tavemier); Brideshead Revisited (81, Charles Sturridge); Le Beau Monde (81, Michel Polac); Le Marteau Pique (81, Charles Bitsch); Le Choc (82, Robin Davis); Boulevard des Assassins (82, BoramyTioulong); Les Affinites Electives (82, Chabrol); Le Paradis pour Tous (82, Alain Jessua); Mortelle Randormde (83, Claude Miller); La Scaraltjine (83, Gabriel Aghion); Thieves After- Dark (83, Fuller); Le Sang des Autres (84, Chabrol); El Viajero de las Quatro Estaciones (84, Miguel Littin); Mistral’s Daughter (84, Douglas Hickox and Kevin Connor); The Sun Also Rises (84, James Goldstcme); Poulet au Vinat-gre (85, Chabrol); Night Magic (85, Lewis Furey); La Cage aux Folies III (85, Georges Lautner); Le Gitane (85, Philippe de Broca); Suivez Man Regard (86, Jean Curtelin); Un’isola (86, Carlo Lizzani); as Babette in Babette’s Feast (87, Gabriel Axel); Le& Saisons du Plaisir (87, Jean-Pierre Mocky); Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story (87, Charles Jarmtt); Sons (89, Alexandra Rockwell); and Betty (93, Chabrol).
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