Danielle Darrieux

The muse of Max Ophüls , who gave her significant roles in three of his best films, Danielle Darrieux is a legendary actress who has continued to be active, shooting at a good pace throughout her life.

Danielle Yvonne Marie Antoinette Darrieux was born on May 1, 1917 in Bordeaux, although she spent her childhood in Paris, marked by the tragic death of her father, a military doctor, when she was only seven years old. She dreamed of becoming a medical doctor, like her father, but when she was fourteen her mother insisted that she attend an audition for an important role in Le Bal , an adaptation of the novel ‘The Ball’, by Irene Némirowsky, which marked his film debut. “I dreamed of giving service to others, maybe going to Africa to help the sick there, but it was my mother who encouraged me to be an actress. Years later I suffered a crisis, a kind of regret for having chosen a profession that seemed rather frivolous to me. But little by little I understood that I had not betrayed myself, that I also had a job that was useful for others, because I provide them with fun, some happiness, and the opportunity to forget their problems for a moment, “said the actress. .

Success accompanied Danielle Darrieux from her first works, comedies and light dramas that were widely accepted in her country, where she began to be known by her initials: DD. She highlights the drama Dangerous Curves , a debut feature –co-directed with Alexander Esway– by a certain Billy Wilder who only shot that film in France, before emigrating to the United States. She received rave reviews when she placed herself under the direction of director Henri Decoin , with whom she fell in love and married in 1935. Before divorcing a few years later, Decoin directed her in titles such as Le domino vert , Abus de confiance and Premier rendezvous, a musical in which she demonstrated an enormous talent for song. The actress’s greatest success was the historical drama Mayerling , by Anatole Litvak , in which she played Marie Vetsera, a lady who fell in love with Rudolph, Archduke of Austria, who was played by Charles Boyer . It had such an impact that Universal hired it to shoot in the United States. She starred in the Mecca of cinema The Rage of Paris , by Henry Koster , but she did not have much acceptance, so she decided to return to France, where she stayed during the years of the Nazi occupation, in which she shot titles such as La fausse maîtresse .

In 1942 she remarried Porfirio Rubirosa, a diplomat and member of the jet-setter, who was very popular in the French country due to his continuous love scandals, and because he was related to some murder. Although it was after joining her third and final husband, Georges Mitsinkidès, who died in 1991, when she Danielle starred in her best titles. For example, La ronda , her first collaboration with the aforementioned Ophüls, where she was Emma, ​​a married woman who had an extramarital relationship with a young man. She once again collaborated with the incomparable filmmaker on The Pleasure , an adaptation of three stories by Guy de Maupassant., although his fragment, the second, ‘La casa Tellier’ is the least interesting. It revolves around the madame of a brothel, who decides to close the premises and take her ‘pupils’ to her niece’s first communion. Her most memorable work with Ophüls was Madame de… , which paired her up with Charles Boyer again, and where she was a countess, wife of a general, who in need of funds decides to sell some earrings, a gift from her husband, and tells this one who has lost them. She also played another noblewoman, a countess, in Joseph L. Mankiewicz ‘s Five Fingers . Many other top filmmakers recruited the actress, such as Sacha Guitry ( Napoleon ), Marc Allegret (Lady Chatterley’s lover ), André Téchiné ( The crime scene ), Claude Chabrol ( Landrú ) and Claude Sautet ( A few days with me ). She has played Catherine Deneuve ‘s mother five times, in L’homme à femmes , Les demoiselles de Rochefort , El lugar del crimen , 8 mujeres and Persepolis , the animated film in which both were voice actors. A born worker, Darrieux combines cinema with television and theatre. She replaced Katharine Hepburnin ‘Coco’, a musical that achieved unusual success on Broadway in 1970.