Background
DARRIEUX, Danielle was born on May 1, 1917 in Bordeaux. Daughter of Jean and Marie-Louise (nee Witkowski) Darrieux.
DARRIEUX, Danielle was born on May 1, 1917 in Bordeaux. Daughter of Jean and Marie-Louise (nee Witkowski) Darrieux.
Studied at Paris University.
For fifty years a leading French actress, she has made the occasional venture into American cinema and specialized in sophisticated, tender women. It was Max Ophuls who truly kindled her warmth: in La Ronde (50), she is the young woman in bed with Daniel Gélin. He has been thinking of it all day, but when the moment comes he cannot. She tells him not to worry. Gélin wonders if she has read Stendhal’s account of cavalry officers who talk all their sex away. There is a large close-up of Darrieux, with this direction in the script: "The young woman must not appear to be mocking. She should be verv sympathetic, but not really convinced.” That instruction is close to the nerve of Ophuls’s sad smile, and Darrieux realizes it beautifully. She worked twice again for him: in the Maison Tellier episode oï Le Plaisir (51) and as the heartrending wife in Madame de(53). She was never as good elsewhere, but never less than beautiful, and always in good humor: Le Bal (31, William Thiele); L'Or dans la Rue (33, Kurt Bernhardt); Mauvaise Graine (34, Billy Wilder and Alexandre Esway); Mat/crling (36, Anatole Litvak); Abus de Confiance (37, Henri Decoin, her then husband); Katia (38, Maurice Tourneur); The Rage of Paris (38, Henry Koster); Battements de Coeur (39, Decoin); Premier Rendezvous (41. Decoin); La Fausse Maîtresse (42, André Cay- atte); Ru y Bias (47, Pierre Billon); Occupe-toi d’Amélie (49, Claude Autant-Lara); scheming with James Mason in Five Fingers (52, Joseph L. Mankiewicz); Rich. Young and Pretty (51, Norman Taurog); La Venté sur le Bébé Donge (51, Decoin); Adorables Créatures (52, Christian- Jaque); Le Bon Dieu Sans Confession (53, Autant- Lara); as Madame de Renal in Le Rouge et le Noir (54, Autant-Lara); Napoléon (54, Sacha Guitry); L’Amant de Lady Chatterley (55, Marc Allégret); Alexander the Great (55, Robert Rossen); Le Salaire du Péché (56, Denys de la Patellière); Pot-Bouille (57, Julien Duvivier); Marie-Octobre (59, Duvivier); The Greengage Summer (61, Lewis Gilbert); as a victim of Landru (62, Claude Chabrol); Patate (64, Robert Thomas); Le Dimanche de la Vie (65, Jean Herman); Le Coup de Grâce (65, Jean Cayrol); L'Homme à la Buick (66, Gilles Grangier); The Young Girls of Rochefort (67, |acques Demy), reluctant to marry a man named Monsieur Dame; as the madame in Les Oiseaux vont Mourir au Pérou (68, Romain Gary); 24 Heures de la Vie d’une Femme (68, Dominique Delouche): La Maison de Campagne (69, Jean Girault); La Divine (75, Delouche); L’Année Sainte (76, Girault); Le Cavaleur (78, Philippe de Broca); Une Chambre à Ville (82, Demy): En Haut des Marches (83, Paul Vecchiali); Scene of the Crime (86, André Téchiné); and Quelques Jours Avec Moi (88, Claude Sautet).
She was seen, often on French TV, and elegant as always: La Tête dans les Nuages (88, Vecchiali ); Bille en Tête (89, Carlo Cotti); Le Jour des Rois (91, Marie-Claude Treilhon); Les Mamies (92, Annick Lanoe); La Vérité en Face (93, Etienne Perier); Jalna (94, Philippe Monnier); Ça Ira Mieux Demain (00, Jeanne Labrune); Que Reste- t-il (00, Perier); 8 Femmes (02, François Ozon).
Married 3rd Georges Mitsinkides in 1948.