Irène Jacob

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Irène Jacob

Born Irène Marie Jacob
July 15, 1966 (1966-07-15) (age 41)
Suresnes, France
Years active 1987 – present

Irène Marie Jacob (born July 15, 1966) is a French-born Swiss actress considered one of the preeminent Swiss actresses of her generation. Jacob gained international recognition and acclaim through her work with Polish film director Krzysztof Kieslowski, who cast her in the lead role of The Double Life of Véronique and Three Colors: Red. She came to represent an image of European sophistication, through her "classic beauty and thoughtful, almost melancholic style of acting."[1]

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[edit] Early life

Jacob was born in Suresnes, France, a western suburb of Paris.[2] The youngest child with three older brothers, Irène grew up in a highly educated and intellectual family and environment: her father was a physicist, her mother a psychologist, one brother a musician, and two brothers scientists.[3][4] In 1969, at the age of three, Irène moved with her family to Geneva, Switzerland where she became interested in the arts.

My family was very shy with feelings and never spoke about them, but we evolved a little bit. I think part of the reason I was attracted to theater was because I wanted to be close to stories because they could help me relate to my family.[5]

Irène developed an interest in performing after seeing the films of Charlie Chaplin. "They took my heart," she recalled. "They made me laugh and cry, and that was exactly what I was waiting for in a film: to awaken me to my feelings."[6]

She made her stage debut in 1977 at the age of eleven. She attended the Geneva Conservatory of Music and earned a degree in languages (she speaks English, German, French and Italian).[7] In 1984, she moved to Paris, where studied acting at the prestigious Rue Blanche (the French national drama academy) and at the Dramatic Studio in London, England.[8][9]

[edit] Film career

In 1987, Jacob returned to Paris, where the 21-year-old drama student obtained her first movie role in the film Au revoir, les enfants, playing the part of a piano teacher. She followed her film debut with six additional French movies in four years — mostly minor roles.

In 1991, Polish film director Krzysztof Kieślowski cast her in the lead role of his film The Double Life of Véronique, the allegorical story of two young women, one in Poland and the other in France, both played by Irène Jacob. For her performance, Jacob won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.[10]

Between 1992-1993, despite numerous offers from Hollywood that came in the wake of her success — including the lead role in Indecent Proposal — Jacob focused on smaller French films.

In 1994, Jacob again earned international acclaim as the protagonist in Kieslowski's masterpiece Three Colors: Red, which received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Screenplay. The film was also named Best Film or Best Foreign Film by the National Board of Review, New York Film Critics Circle Awards, National Society of Film Critics Awards, and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. It received Cesar Award nominations for Best Film, Best Actor (Jean-Louis Trintignant), Best Actress (Irene Jacob), Best Director (Krzysztof Kieślowski), Best Writing (Krzysztof Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz). The New York Times included the film in its list of "The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made."[11][12]

An introvert by nature, Jacob has the remarkable ability to express the emotional turmoil of her characters with very few words. This was very evident in her performance in Three Colors: Red, the third part of Kieslowski's highly acclaimed masterpiece, the Three Colours trilogy. Jacob described her unique experience working with the Polish film director:

The camera was really like a microscope. Krzysztof was always very close and very precise in his directions. It was not something he talked about beforehand; he would only work on the set. He liked to rehearse just before a take, if at all.[13]

Her performance in Three Colors: Red gained huge international recognition, bringing many offers from major American motion-picture studios. But again, Jacob retreated from the growing interest and fame and took nine months off, spending most of her time reading Tolstoy, Balzac, Singer, and several autobiographies.[14]

Between 1995-1999, Jacob made a series of American and European films that met with varying degrees of commercial and critical success. In 1995, she appeared in six films, including Victory, with Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill, Michelangelo Antonioni's Beyond the Clouds, and Oliver Parker's adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello, in which Jacob spoke all her lines in English for the first time on film.[15] In the following years, she made several moderately successful American films, including Incognito (1997), U.S. Marshals (1998), starring opposite Wesley Snipes and Tommy Lee Jones, The Big Brass Ring (1999), with William Hurt, and the entertaining History Is Made at Night (1999), with Bill Pullman and Bruno Kirby.

Beginning in 2000, Jacob's film career slowed down, and after a series of independent, mostly European, films, she revived her theatre career. In 2000, she played the title character in Madame Melville opposite Macaulay Culkin in London's West-End, which was crucial to her further development as an actress. She continues to make films.

[edit] Filmography

  • 2007 Nessuna qualità agli eroi (Fallen Heroes) – Anne
  • 2007 The Inner Life of Martin Frost – Claire Martin
  • 2006 La Educación de las hadas (The Education of Fairies) – Ingrid
  • 2004 Nouvelle-France (Battle of the Brave) – Angélique de Roquebrune
  • 2004 Automne (Autumn) – Michelle
  • 2004 The Pornographer: A Love Story (2004)
  • 2003 Nés de la mère du monde [TV] – Clara Sidowski
  • 2003 La Légende de Parva – voice of La mère de Parva
  • 2002 Mille millièmes (The Landlords) – Julie
  • 2001 Londinium (Fourplay) – Fiona Delgrazia
  • 2001 Lettre d'une inconnue (Letter from an Unknown Woman) [TV] – unknown woman
  • 2001 Léaud l'unique [TV]
  • 2000 L'Affaire Marcorelle (The Marcorelle Affair) – Agneska
  • 1999 History Is Made at Night (Spy Games) – Natasha Scriabina/Anna Belinka
  • 1999 My Life So Far - Aunt Heloise
  • 1999 The Big Brass Ring – Cela Brandini
  • 1999 Cuisine chinoise - Patricia
  • 1998 Cuisine américaine (American Cuisine) – Gabrielle Boyer
  • 1998 U.S. Marshals – Marie Bineaux
  • 1998 Jack's potes
  • 1997 Incognito – Prof. Marieke van den Broeck
  • 1995 Othello – Desdemona
  • 1995 Faire un film pour moi c'est vivre
  • 1995 All Men Are Mortal - Regina
  • 1995 Beyond the Clouds (Al di là delle nuvole) – the girl
  • 1995 Fugueuses (Runaways) – Prune
  • 1995 Victory – Alma
  • 1994 Three Colors: Red (Trois couleurs: Rouge) – Valentine Dussaut
  • 1993 Predskazaniye (The Prediction) – Lyuda
  • 1993 The Secret Garden – Mrs. Lennox/Lilias Craven
  • 1993 Claude (Trusting Beatrice) – Beatrice
  • 1992 Enak – Lucille Spaak
  • 1992 Le Moulin de Daudet (Daudet's Windmill) – Mme Daudet
  • 1991 The Double Life of Véronique (La Double vie de Véronique) – Weronika/Véronique
  • 1991 Le Secret de Sarah Tombelaine (The Secret of Sarah Tombelaine) – Sarah
  • 1990 La Veillée (The Van Gogh Wake) – Johanna
  • 1989 Nick chasseur de têtes [TV]
  • 1989 Les Mannequins d'osier – Marie
  • 1989 Erreur de jeunesse – Anne
  • 1988 La Bande des quatre (The Gang of Four) – Marine
  • 1987 Au revoir, les enfants (Goodbye, Children) – Mlle Davenne

[edit] Awards

[edit] References

  1. ^ Flint, Rebecca. "Irene Jacob Biography" in All Movie Guide on Star Pulse. Retrieved on December 13, 2007.
  2. ^ Irène Jacob at the Internet Movie Database
  3. ^ Flint
  4. ^ Biography Base. "Irene Jacob Biography." Retrieved on December 13, 2007.
  5. ^ McKenna, Kristine. "A Face That Tells the Story." Los Angeles Times, 1994.
  6. ^ McKenna
  7. ^ Flint
  8. ^ Yahoo Movies. "Irene Jacob Biography." Retrieved on December 13, 2007.
  9. ^ Net Glimpse. "Irene Jacob Biography." Retrieved on December 13, 2007.
  10. ^ Biography Base. "Irene Jacob Biography" Retrieved on December 13, 2007.
  11. ^ Flint
  12. ^ Biography Base
  13. ^ Akin Ojumu. "From arthouse to funhouse", The Observer, 14 May 2000. Retrieved on 2007-09-15. 
  14. ^ McKenna
  15. ^ Flint

[edit] External links