Irène Jacob
Irène Jacob | |
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Irène Jacob at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival | |
Born |
Irène Marie Jacob 15 July 1966 Suresnes, France |
Occupation | Actress |
Years active | 1987–present |
Awards |
Best Actress, Cannes Film Festival, 1991 The Double Life of VĂ©ronique |
Website |
www |
Irène Marie Jacob (born 15 July 1966) is a French-born Swiss actress considered one of the preeminent French actresses of her generation.[1] Jacob gained international recognition and acclaim through her work with Polish film director Krzysztof Kieślowski, 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.[2]
Early life
Irène Jacob was born in Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine, a western suburb of Paris.[3] The youngest child with three older brothers, she was raised in a highly educated and intellectual family and environment: her father Maurice Jacob was a physicist; her mother, a psychologist; one brother Francis Jacob, a musician; and two brothers, scientists.[4][5] 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.[6] | ” |
Jacob developed an interest in performing after seeing the films of Charlie Chaplin. "They took my heart", she has 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."[7]
She made her stage debut in 1977 at the age of 11. She attended the Geneva Conservatory of Music and earned a degree in languages (she speaks fluent French, English, German, and Italian).[4] She also studied at the Dramatic Studio in London, England.[8][9] In 1984, she moved to Paris, where she studied acting at the prestigious Rue Blanche (the French national drama academy).
Film career
In 1987, Jacob returned to Paris, where the 21-year-old drama student obtained her first movie role in the Louis Malle film Au revoir, les enfants, playing the part of a piano teacher. She followed her film debut with six additional French movies—mostly minor roles—in four years.
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 of whom are played by Jacob. For her performance, Jacob won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.[10]
From 1992 to 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 Kieślowski's 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 César Award nominations for Best Film, Best Actor (Jean-Louis Trintignant), Best Actress (Irène 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."[4][11]
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 Kieślowski's 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.[12] | ” |
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.[7]
From 1995 to 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 of her lines in English for the first time on film.[4] 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.
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1987 | Au revoir, les enfants | Mlle Davenne | English: Goodbye, Children |
1988 | La Bande des quatre | Marine | English: The Gang of Four |
1989 | Erreur de jeunesse | Anne | |
1989 | Les Mannequins d'osier | Marie | |
1989 | Nick chasseur de tĂŞtes | Television program | |
1990 | La Veillée | Johanna | English: The Van Gogh Wake |
1991 | Le Secret de Sarah Tombelaine | Sarah | English: The Secret of Sarah Tombelaine |
1991 | The Double Life of VĂ©ronique | Weronika/VĂ©ronique | French: La Double vie de VĂ©ronique Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress CĂ©sar Award Nomination for Best Actress Sant Jordi Best Foreign Actress Award |
1992 | Le Moulin de Daudet | Mme Daudet | English: Daudet's Windmill |
1992 | Enak | Lucille Spaakv | |
1993 | Claude | Beatrice | English: Trusting Beatrice |
1993 | The Secret Garden | Mrs. Lennox/Lilias Craven | |
1993 | Predskazaniye | Lyuda | English: The Prediction Nika Award Best Actress Nomination |
1994 | Three Colors: Red | Valentine Dussaut | French: Trois couleurs: Rouge CĂ©sar Award Nomination for Best Actress BAFTA Award Nomination for Best Actress |
1995 | Victory | Alma | |
1995 | Fugueuses | Prune | English: Runaways |
1995 | Beyond the Clouds | The girl | French: Par-delĂ les nuages |
1995 | All Men Are Mortal | Regina | |
1995 | Faire un film pour moi c'est vivre | ||
1995 | Othello | Desdemona | |
1997 | Incognito | Prof. Marieke van den Broeck | |
1998 | Jack's potes | ||
1998 | U.S. Marshals | Marie Bineaux | |
1998 | American Cuisine | Gabrielle Boyer | French: Cuisine américaine |
1999 | Cuisine chinoise | Patricia | |
1999 | The Big Brass Ring | Cela Brandini | |
1999 | My Life So Far | Aunt Heloise | |
1999 | History Is Made at Night | Natasha Scriabina/Anna Belinka | Also known as Spy Games |
2000 | L'Affaire Marcorelle | Agneska | English: The Marcorelle Affair |
2001 | Letter from an Unknown Woman | Rose | French: Lettre d'une inconnue Television film |
2001 | Londinium | Fiona Delgrazia | English: Fourplay |
2002 | Mille millièmes | Julie | The Landlords |
2003 | La Légende de Parva | Voice of La mère de Parva | |
2003 | Nés de la mère du monde | Clara Sidowski | Television film |
2004 | The Pornographer: A Love Story | ||
2004 | Automne | Michelle | English: Autumn |
2004 | Nouvelle-France | Angélique de Roquebrune | English: Battle of the Brave |
2006 | La EducaciĂłn de las hadas | Ingrid | English: The Education of Fairies |
2007 | The Inner Life of Martin Frost | Claire Martin | |
2007 | Nessuna qualitĂ agli eroi | Anne | English: Fallen Heroes |
2008 | The Dust of Time | Eleni | Directed by Theo Angelopoulos |
2009 | The French Kissers | Aurore's mother | French: La mère d'Aurore |
2010 | Rio Sex Comedy | Irène | |
2014 | L'Art de la fugue | Mathilde | |
2014 | Dying of the Light | Michelle Zuberain | |
2015 | Ella Maillart - Double Journey | Ella Maillart | voice over |
2015 | Sayonara | ||
Awards
- 1991 Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for The Double Life of VĂ©ronique
- 1992 CĂ©sar Award Nomination for Best Actress for The Double Life of VĂ©ronique
- 1993 Sant Jordi Best Foreign Actress Award for The Double Life of VĂ©ronique
- 1994 Nika Award Best Actress Nomination for Predskazaniye
- 1995 CĂ©sar Award Nomination for Best Actress for Three Colors: Red
- 1995 BAFTA Award Nomination for Best Actress for Three Colors: Red
- 2002 Camerimage Krzysztof Kieślowski Special Award[13]
References
- ↑ Irène Jacob at AllMovie
- ↑ Flint, Rebecca. "Irene Jacob Biography" in Allmovie on Star Pulse. Retrieved on 13 December 2007.
- ↑ Irène Jacob at the Internet Movie Database
- 1 2 3 4 Flint
- ↑ Biography Base. "Irene Jacob Biography." Retrieved on 13 December 2007.
- ↑ McKenna, Kristine. "A Face That Tells the Story." Los Angeles Times, 1994.
- 1 2 McKenna
- ↑ Yahoo Movies. "Irene Jacob Biography." Retrieved on 13 December 2007.
- ↑ Net Glimpse. "Irene Jacob Biography." Retrieved on 13 December 2007.
- ↑ Biography Base. "Irene Jacob Biography" Retrieved on 13 December 2007.
- ↑ Biography Base
- ↑ Akin Ojumu (14 May 2000). "From arthouse to funhouse". The Observer. Retrieved 2007-09-15.
- ↑ Camerimage "Camerimage 2002" Check
value (help). Retrieved 30 October 2011.|url=
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Irène Jacob. |
- Irène Jacob Official Website
- Irène Jacob at the Internet Movie Database
- Irène Jacob at AllMovie
- Irène Jacob at Hollywood.com
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