Jean Moreau and the Changing Concept of 'Actress Beauty' on the Cinema Screen

There is no cinema lover who does not remember the face of Jean Moreau, the unique and acclaimed French actress; she passed away on Monday but left behind a plethora of memorable films in her rich career. Jean Moreau was perhaps one of the first great actresses to change the concept of beauty on the cinema screen. In her, there was no sign of the classical beauty that was celebrated—blonde hair and blue eyes—and perhaps even each feature of her face was not particularly 'beautiful' on its own, but their combination seemed so astonishing that one of the most captivating women in the history of cinema was formed on screen and soon became immortal; her presence in every scene was a weight that irresistibly drew the gaze: a calm and seemingly cold woman whose beauty was defined in silence; in penetrating, mysterious, and sometimes languid eyes. For this reason, she became a symbol of sexual freedoms with a celebrated film called 'Jules and Jim' (1962), which François Truffaut showcased her at the peak of his cinematic love; in the role of a woman who captivates two men simultaneously and falls in love with both, challenging predefined definitions of love: a film that inevitably became a symbol of a generation that wanted to rebuild the world, saying no to the prevailing political definitions in the West with May 1968 and experiencing sexual freedoms in the following decade that today— for the current generation—seems very unlikely and distant. At sixteen, after watching a performance of 'Antigone,' she realized she was wasting her time at school, and soon carved a place for herself in the theater world. She was less than twenty when she made her mark at France's most renowned theater center, 'Comédie-Française,' and performed at the Avignon Festival, entering cinema in 1949 and shining alongside Jean Gabin in Jacques Becker's film 'Don't Touch the Greybeard' five years later. Her star rose with the still-viewable and top-tier film by Louis Malle, 'Elevator to the Gallows' (1958), as well as 'The Lovers' by the same filmmaker that year, and she won the Best Actress award at Cannes for 'Madrigal Cantabile' (1960) and became immortal with 'The Night' (1961), Michelangelo Antonioni's masterpiece, and later 'Jules and Jim' (1962). She was now a star who easily worked with the greatest filmmakers of those years in Europe; from Luis Buñuel ('The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie') to Joseph Losey ('Eva and Mr. Klein'), from Jacques Demy ('The Bay of Angels') to Jean Renoir ('The Little Theater of Jean Renoir'). American filmmakers soon sought her out; from John Frankenheimer for the film 'The Train' to even Elia Kazan ('The Last Tycoon'), and finally one of the greatest filmmakers in history who passionately praised her and called her 'the greatest actress in the world': Orson Welles. Moreau first appeared in Welles' undisputed masterpiece 'The Trial' in 1962, based on Kafka's well-known work; a film that was extremely Kafkaesque—not only was it not understood in those years, but it was so ahead of its time that it has not yet received the recognition it deserves. Thus, the collaboration—and friendship—between Moreau and Welles coincided with years when Welles was desperately seeking money to produce his films, sometimes leaving his works unfinished, which is a pity. Nevertheless, the result of this friendship and several years of collaboration includes two more films in their filmography: 'Midnight Bells' (1965) and 'Immortal Tales' (1968). Moreau did not abandon cinema until late in her life. Her last performance dates back to 2012, but perhaps her last memorable work was 'Time to Go' (2005) directed by François Ozon. From the 1980s until then, she added collaborations with another set of acclaimed filmmakers around the world to her resume: from Rainer Werner Fassbinder to Luc Besson, from Theo Angelopoulos to Wim Wenders.