Florence Delay (French pronunciation:[flɔʁɑ̃sdəlɛ]; born 19 March 1941 in Paris) is a French writer. She has been a member of theAcadémie française since 2000. She has notably written novels, essays and plays (in collaboration withJacques Roubaud) and has translated texts from Spanish.
She is also known for portrayingJoan of Arc in the 1962Robert Bresson filmThe Trial of Joan of Arc.
Florence Delay is the second daughter of Marie-Madeleine Carrez andJean Delay, psychiatrist and writer. She is the sister ofClaude Delay, writer and psychoanalyst.Florence attended theLycée Jean de La Fontaine and then studied Spanish atFaculté des lettres de Paris and at theSorbonne. After obtaining her Spanish degree, she taught general and comparative literature at theUniversité Sorbonne Nouvelle.[1]In 1962, aged 20, she played the title role ofJoan of Arc inProcès de Jeanne d'Arc (The Trial of Joan of Arc) byRobert Bresson.[2][3][1]
After studying at the École du Vieux-Colombier, she was then a trainee stage manager at theFestival d’Avignon, assistant toRaymond Rouleau at theThéâtre du Gymnase, and toGeorges Wilson at theThéâtre national populaire (TNP). She translatedLa Celestina byFernando de Rojas, staged byAntoine Vitez in 1989; and then, in another version, by Christian Schiaretti, at the TNP in 2011, as well as works from theSpanish Golden Age (Calderón de la Barca,Lope de Vega).[3]
In 1973, she published her first novel,Minuit sur les jeux.[2][1][4] Starting withPetites Formes en prose après Edison (1987), she alternated between novels, essays and other writings.[5] She was awarded thePrix Femina in 1983 for her novelRiche et légère,[2] the Prix François-Mauriac in 1990 for Etxemendi,[5] the Grand Prix du Roman de la Ville de Paris in 1999[5] and the Prix de l’Essai de l’Académie française forDit Nerval.[5] WithJacques Roubaud of theOulipo, she compiledGraal Théâtre, a series of ten plays about theArthurian legend, from 1977 to 2005.[3]
She was a juror for the Prix Femina (1978-1982), a member of the reading committee ofÉditions Gallimard (1979-1987), a member of the editorial board of the journalCritique (1978-1995), a drama columnist forLa Nouvelle Revue française (1978-1985), and a member of the reading committee of theComédie-Française (2002-2006).
She has been an actress, narrator or writer in movies byChris Marker,Hugo Santiago,Benoît Jacquot,Emilio Maillé [es], andMichel Deville.
Florence Delay was elected as a member of the Académie française on 14 December 2000.[5]
She is married to the film producerMaurice Bernart.
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