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    In Memoriam Anouk Aimée

    Anouk Aimée in A MAN AND A WOMAN

    Since the late 1940s, the French actress Anouk Aimée performed in more than 70 feature films, many of them directed by famous filmmakers. She made her debut, then still as Françoise Dreyfus, at the age of fourteen, in THE HOUSE UNDER THE SEA (1946) by Henri Calef, and adopted her character’s name afterwards.

    She worked with Federico Fellini on LA DOLCE VITA (1960) as the mysterious and melancholic Maddalena and again on 8 1/2 (1963), in both films alongside Marcello Mastroianni. In Jacques Demy’s feature film debut LOLA (1961), she was the protagonist, a cabaret dancer and single mother – for which she was nominated for a BAFTA.

    Among her greatest successes was her performance as the widow Anne Gauthier in Claude Lelouch’s A MAN AND A WOMAN (1966) alongside Jean-Louis Trintignant. After winning the Palme d’Or in Cannes, the film became an international success, winning two Oscars and a Golden Globe and getting Anouk Aimée an Oscar nomination and a BAFTA.

    She collaborated with André Delvaux’s on ONE NIGHT… A TRAIN (1968), with George Cukor on JUSTINE and Sidney Lumet on THE APPOINTMENT (both 1969), with Bernardo Bertolucci on TRAGEDY OF A RIDICULOUS MAN (1981), and with Robert Altman on PRET-A-PORTER (1994).

    In 1979, Anouk Aimée received a César for MON PREMIER AMOUR by Élie Chouraqui, in 1980 she won Best Actress in Cannes for A LEAP IN THE DARK by Marco Bellocchio.

    Besides her presence in French cinema, Anouk Aimée’s career included films made in Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA, and she received an Honorary César in 2002 and an Honorary Golden Berlin Bear in 2003.

    Anouk Aimée passed away on 18 June in Paris. We will miss her.