Annie Suzanne Girardot (25 October 1931 – 28 February 2011) was a French actress.[1][2] She often played strong-willed, independent, hard-working, and often lonely women, imbuing her characters with an earthiness and reality that endeared her to women undergoing similar daily struggles.[3]
After graduating from the Conservatoire de la rue Blanche in 1954 with two First Prizes in Modern and Classical Comedy, Girardot joined theComédie Française, where she was a resident actor from 1954 to 1957.[citation needed]
By the end of the 1960s, she had become a movie star and a box-office magnet in France[according to whom?][citation needed] with such films asVice and Virtue (1963);Live for Life (1967);Love Is a Funny Thing (1969); andTo Die of Love (1971), the fact-based tale ofGabrielle Russier (1937–1969), a thirty year old teacher whose affair with a much younger student made her the object of bourgeoisie ridicule. The film was nominated for aGolden Globe, and remains Girardot's biggest box office hit in France.
Girardot in 1970
Throughout the 1970s, Girardot moved back and forth between drama and comedy, appearing in such successful comedies asClaude Zidi'sLa Zizanie,Michel Audiard'sShe Does Not Drink, Smoke or Flirt But... She Talks (Elle boit pas, elle fume pas, elle drague pas, mais... elle cause !, 1970) orPhilippe de Broca'sDear Inspector (Tendre poulet, 1977). She starred in the teen movie,The Slap (La Gifle, 1974) asIsabelle Adjani's mother. In 1972, she said in an interview toThe New York Times, citing as Exhibit A her role as a sideshow freak inThe Ape Woman, "I think I've proven that I'm opposed to typecasting. I believe that the acting of any role — from duchess to kitchen slavey — must be a form of transformation".[1] She won her firstCésar Award for Best Actress portraying the title character in the dramaDocteur Françoise Gailland (1976). Throughout the 1970s, she was the highest-paid actress in France, and was nicknamed "La Girardot" by the press as her name alone was seen as enough to guarantee the success of a film.[7] Between the release ofLive for Life (1967) andJupiter's Thigh (1980), 24 of her films have attracted more than one million admissions in France.[8] On stage she had success withMadame Marguerite,[citation needed] which became her signature role that she reprised on numerous occasions until 2002. That year she was awarded theMolière Award for this role, along with an HonoraryMolière Award for her entire stage career.
Girardot became one of the symbols of the 1970s feminist movement in France, as the audience embraced the "everywoman" quality she brought to the strong-minded female characters she regularly played in both dramas and comedies.[citation needed] In her 1989 autobiography,Vivre d'aimer, she wrote: "People didn't come to watch a beautiful, vamp-like creature, but simply a woman. [...] I played a judge, a lawyer, a taxi driver, a cop, a surgeon. I was never a glamorous star."[9]
From the 1980s onwards: Fading stardom and comeback
The 1980s were less kind, as her career floundered and parts dwindled. In 1983, she lost a fortune whenRevue Et Corrigée, the musical show she put on and starred in at theCasino de Paris, flopped.[10] In 1989, she published her autobiographyVivre d'aimer. She suffered from depression but bounced back with several television series in France and Italy. However, Girardot had a major comeback on the big screen playing a peasant wife inClaude Lelouch'sLes Misérables (1995). The role won her a secondCésar Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1996. Upon accepting the award, a joyous and tearful Girardot expressed her happiness that she had not been forgotten by the film industry.[11] In 1992, she was the Head of the Jury at the42nd Berlin International Film Festival.[12]
Girardot is the highest ranked woman in the list of French stars who have appeared in the most movies that have attracted more than one million admissions in France since 1945, with 44 films.[8]
She married Italian actorRenato Salvatori in 1962. They had a daughter, Giulia, and later separated but never divorced. Salvatori died in 1988.
After going public in the 21 September 2006 issue ofParis Match with the news that she was suffering fromAlzheimer's disease, she became a symbol of the illness in France. On 28 February 2011, Girardot died in a hospital inParis, aged 79. She was interred atPère-Lachaise Cemetery, in Paris.[13]
In October 2012, France's Postal service has issued a collection of stamps dedicated to six major figures of French Post-War cinema, including Annie Girardot.[15]
In 2013, the 37th annualCésar Awards 2012 selected a picture of Annie Girardot from the 1962 filmRocco and His Brothers as the official promotional poster of the ceremony, during which she was paid tribute with a retrospective montage of her most memorable roles in film.[16]
Sancar Seckiner's book South (Güney), published July 2013, consists of 12 article and essays. One of them, "Girardot's Eyes", highlights broader commentary of Annie Girardot's performances in the cinema of art.ISBN978-605-4579-45-7.
