A Feminist Actress, Famous Stranger – Her Name is Delphine Seyrig

  • Marguerite Duras and Delphine Seyrig (photo above).

    Marguerite Duras once called her a ‘famous stranger’ with regards to her relatively little fame among large audiences.

    In the 70’s she proposed a deal to Marguerite Duras: she offered her to star in 12 of her movies every year just on the condition that she would have been given a few days off every month. The contract was never sealed, as Duras couldn’t apparently come out with 12 scripts a year .

  • Lots of photos here..Delphine is fucking amazing (Chained and Perfumed )

  • Both Fonda and Delphine were critical of Joseph Losey’s script when they acted together in “The Doll’s House”.

    Jane Fonda in Delphine’s film (Youtube)

    Be Pretty and shut up (vimeo) directed by Delphine Seyrig.

  • 1abaisersDelphine
    (From Stolen Kisses directed by Francois Truffaut)

    Cool, auburn-haired French actress, born in Lebanon. Spent part of her early childhood in New York, where her archaeologist father was cultural attaché. Acted on the Parisian stage from 1952-55. Returned to New York to attend classes at the Actor’s Studio. Appeared on stage in Arthur Miller’s adaptation of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People”. On the strength of her performance, she was cast in the lead of Last Year at Marienbad (1961) by director Alain Resnais. Subsequently acted in films by major European film makers, including Joseph Losey, Luis Bunuel and Francois Truffaut.
    She considered herself a feminist who was additionally socialist as opposed to her friend Jane Fonda, whom she called a socialist who was additionally feminist.

    She used to ride a motor-scooter.

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    Jeanne Dielman -23-quai-du-commerce-1080-bruxelles

    Akerman’s film seems simple, but it encompasses an entire world. Whether seen as an exacting character study or one of cinema’s most hypnotic and complete depictions of space and time, Jeanne Dielman is an astonishing, compelling movie experiment, one that has been analyzed and argued over for decades.

    She first met Chantal Akerman at a French film festival. She was supposed to show some slides of her friend Jane Fonda during the Vietnam war at 10 p.m while Akerman had to introduce her film Hôtel Monterey (1972) at 8 p.m. Delphine asked the director if they could switch the time of the screenings, because she thought it was really important for people to see Fonda’s work. Akerman agreed on the condition that the actress would have appeared in her next movie. She did.

    Delphine talking to Akerman (youtube)

    Delphine made two films with Alain Resnais.

  • She was a great admirer of Gérard Philipe: she stated that watching his performances played a crucial role in inspiring her to become an actress.

    She was one of Samuel Beckett’s favourite actresses and starred in several of his plays, sometimes under his direction.

  • Agnes Martin and Delphine Seyrig.. see photo of them here..(Delphine was in Pull up the Daisy with Ginsberg and Kerouac.)

  • India Song