Delphine Seyrig

Delphine Claire Beltiane Seyrig (; 10 April 1932 – 15 October 1990) was a Lebanese-born French actress and film director. She came to prominence in Alain Resnais's 1961 film ''Last Year at Marienbad'', and later acted in films by Francois Truffaut, Luis Buñuel, Marguerite Duras, Fred Zinneman, and Chantal Akerman. She directed three films, including '' Sois belle et tais-toi'' (1981).

Early life

Seyrig was born into an intellectual Protestant family. Her Alsatian father, Henri Seyrig, was the director of the Beirut Archaeological Institute and later France's cultural attaché in New York during World War II.; "Henri Seyrig", in ''Je m'appelle Byblos'', Jean-Pierre Thiollet, H&D (2005), p. 257; Her mother, , was Swiss, and the niece of linguist/semiologist Ferdinand de Saussure.

Delphine was the sister of composer Francis Seyrig. Her family moved from Lebanon to New York City when she was ten. When the family returned to Lebanon in the late 1940s, she was sent to school at the Collège Protestant de Jeunes Filles, which had been founded by Protestant pacifists and social justice activists in 1938. She attended the school from 1947 to 1950.

Career

As a young woman, Seyrig studied acting at the Comédie de Saint-Étienne, training under Jean Dasté''. In 1956, she returned to New York and studied at the Actors Studio. In 1958, she appeared in her first film, ''Pull My Daisy''. In New York she met director Alain Resnais, who asked her to star in his film ''Last Year at Marienbad'' (1961). Her performance brought her international recognition and she moved to Paris. Among her roles of this period is the older married woman in François Truffaut's '' Stolen Kisses'' (1968).

During the 1960s and 1970s, Seyrig worked with directors including Truffaut, Luis Buñuel, Marguerite Duras, and Fred Zinnemann, as well as Resnais. She achieved recognition for both her stage and film work, and was named best actress at the Venice Film Festival for her role in Resnais' '' Muriel'' (1963). She played many diverse roles, and because she was fluent in French, English and German, she appeared in films in all three languages, including a number of Hollywood productions.

Seyrig may be most widely known for her role as Colette de Montpellier in Zinnemann's 1973 film ''The Day of the Jackal''. In turn, perhaps her most demanding role was in Chantal Akerman's 1975 film ''Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles'', in which she was required to adopt a highly restrained, rigorously minimalistic mode of acting to convey the mindset of the title character.

Seyrig was a major feminist figure in France. Throughout her career, she used her celebrity status to promote women's rights. The most important of the three films she directed was the 1977 '' Sois belle et tais-toi (Be Pretty and Shut Up)'', which included actresses Shirley MacLaine, Maria Schneider, and Jane Fonda, speaking frankly about the level of sexism they had to deal with in the film industry. She also directed with Carole Roussopoulos an adaptation of the SCUM Manifesto by Valerie Solanas. In 1982, Seyrig was the key member of the group that established the Paris-based Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir, which maintains a large archive of women's filmed and recorded work and produces work by and about women. In 1989, Seyrig was given a festival tribute at Créteil International Women's Film Festival, France.

''Les Insoumuses''

Seyrig, Carole Roussopoulos, and translator Ioana Wieder, formed the feminist video collective ''Les Insoumuses'' in 1975, after meeting at a video-editing workshop that Roussopoulos organized in her apartment. The name ''Les Insoumuses'' is a neologism combining "insoumise" (disobedient) and "muses." The collective produced several videos together, focusing on representations of women in the media, labour, and reproductive rights.

Personal life

Seyrig married (and was later divorced from) American painter Jack Youngerman (1926–2020), who had studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Their son Duncan (b. 1956, Paris) is a musician and composer working in both France and the United States; and granddaughter Selina Youngerman, who is a working actress, is based in London.

In 1971, Seyrig signed the Manifesto of the 343, publicly declaring she had an illegal abortion. She was the unrequited love of Anglo-French actor, Michael Lonsdale.

Death

Seyrig died in Paris in 1990, aged 58, from cancer. She was interred there in Montparnasse Cemetery.

Select filmography (acting)

* 1954 ''Sherlock Holmes'' in "The Mother Hubbard Case", "The Case of the Singing Violin"
* 1959 ''Pull My Daisy'', as the wife of Milo
* 1961 ''Last Year at Marienbad'', as A - La femme brune
* 1963 '' Muriel'', as Hélène Aughain
* 1966 '' Who Are You, Polly Magoo?'', as a journalist
* 1967 ''Accident'', as Francesca
* 1968 '' Stolen Kisses'', as Fabienne Tabard
* 1969 ''Mr. Freedom'', as Marie-Madeleine
* 1969 ''The Milky Way'', as La prostituée
* 1970 ''Le Lys dans la vallée'' (TV), as Mme de Mortsauf
* 1970 '' Donkey Skin'', as La fée des Lilas (The Lilac Fairy)
* 1971 ''Daughters of Darkness (Le rouge aux lèvres)'', as Countess Bathory
* 1971 ''Tartuffe'' (TV), as Elmire
* 1972 ''The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie'', as Simone Thévenot
* 1973 ''The Day of the Jackal'', as Collette de Montpellier
* 1973 ''A Doll's House'', as Kristine Linde
* 1974 ''The Black Windmill'', as Celi Burrows
* 1974 ''The Heart's Cry'', as Mme Bunkermann
* 1975 '' Aloïse'', as Aloïse adulte
* 1975 '' The Last Word'', as Simone
* 1975 ''Le Jardin qui bascule'', as Kate
* 1975 ''Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles'', as Jeanne Dielman
* 1975 '' India Song'', as Anne-Marie Stretter
* 1976 ''Caro Michele'', as Adriana Vivanti
* 1976 '' Son nom de Venise dans Calcutta désert'', as Anne-Marie Stretter
* 1977 ''Baxter, Vera Baxter'', as L'inconnue
* 1977 '' Repérages'', as Julie
* 1979 ''Utkozben'', as Barabara
* 1980 ''Le Chemin perdu'', as Mathilde Schwarz
* 1980 ''Chère inconnue'', as Yvette
* 1981 ''Le Petit Pommier'' (TV), as La mère
* 1981 ''The Man of Destiny'' (TV), as The Lady
* 1983 ''Le Grain de sable'', as Solange
* 1984 ', as Dr. Mabuse
* 1986 ''Seven Women, Seven Sins'' (segment "Pride")
* 1986 '' Golden Eighties'', as Jeanne Schwartz
* 1986 ''Les Étonnements d'un couple moderne'' (TV), as Marie-Claude Poitevin
* 1986 ''Letters Home'', as Aurelia Plath
* 1989 '' Johanna D'Arc of Mongolia'', as Lady Windermere

Filmography (directing)

* 1975 ''Maso et Miso vont en bateau

* 1976 ''Scum Manifesto''
* 1981 '' Sois belle et tais-toi''

References

Sources

* François Poirié. ''Comme une apparition: Delphine Seyrig, portrait'', Actes Sud, 28 February 2007 (paperback);

External links

*
* ''Adapted from the articl
Delphine Seyrig
from Wikinfo, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license and the GFDL''
* Delphine Seyrig in Conversation with Melinda Camber Porter from Through Parisian Eye
PDF

Centre Audiovisuel Simone de Beauvoir

{{DEFAULTSORT:Seyrig, Delphine
1932 births
1990 deaths
20th-century French actresses
Actresses from Paris
Burials at Montparnasse Cemetery
Deaths from cancer in France
French film actresses
French film directors
French feminists
French stage actresses
French women film directors
French Protestants
Volpi Cup for Best Actress winners
Signatories of the 1971 Manifesto of the 343