Michèle Méritz (September 24, 1923 – May 28, 1998), born Micheline Rosa Mitz, was a French actress.
Biography
Méritz studied at the
Cours Simon during the 1950s. While acting in
Claude Chabrol
Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...
's ''
Le Beau Serge'', she told him a story outline about a woman who wants to have a child with her boyfriend despite not being married, which Chabrol passed on to
Philippe de Broca
Philippe Claude Alex de Broca de Ferrussac (; 15 March 1933 – 26 November 2004) was a French film director.
He directed 30 full-length feature films, including the highly successful ''That Man from Rio (''L'Homme de Rio'')'', ''Le Magnifique, ...
, who used it as the basis for his first full-length film, ''
Les Jeux de l'amour'';
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...
, who had worked with de Broca on the script, later used it as the basis for his own 1961 film ''
A Woman Is a Woman
''A Woman Is a Woman'' () is a 1961 experimental musical romantic comedy film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo, Anna Karina and Jean-Claude Brialy. It is a tribute to the American musical comedy and associated ...
''. In 1960, along with
Gérard Lebovici
Gérard Lebovici (25 August 1932 – 5 March 1984) was a French film producer, editor and impresario.
Background
His mother was executed in a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War. As he was on the verge of embarking on a promising ...
, she founded the Meritz-Lebovici management agency, whose first two clients were de Broca and
Jean-Pierre Cassel
Jean-Pierre Cassel (; born Jean-Pierre Crochon; 27 October 1932 – 19 April 2007) was a French actor and dancer. A popular star of French cinema, he was initially known for his comedy film appearances, though he also proved a gifted dramatic a ...
; in 1970 it merged with the André Bernheim agency and became Artmedia.
[Jean-Michel Frodon, ''L'Âge moderne du cinéma français: De la Nouvelle Vague à nos jours'' (Flammarion, 1995), p. 188.]
Selected filmography
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Méritz, Michèle
1923 births
1998 deaths
French film actresses
Actresses from Paris
20th-century French actresses