SEYRIG, DELPHINE

(1932-1990)

Actress and director. Delphine Seyrig was born in Beirut, Lebanon. She acted on the stage in French theaters in the 1950s and in 1956 relocated to New York. In 1959, she appeared in Robert Frank and Alfred Leslie'sPull My Daisy, a short narrated by beat poet Jack Kerouac. Her career was launched with her starring role inAlain Resnais's 1961 filmL'Année dernière à Marienbad. In 1963, she won the Volpi Cup for best actress in Resnais'sMurielat the Venice Film festival. Fluent in English and French, she played in French and British films in the 1960s, notably Joseph Losey'sAccident(1967) andA Doll's House(1973),François Truffaut'sBaisers volés(1968), and William Klein'sMister Freedom(1969).Her collaboration withLuis Bunuelwas fruitful; after a small role in Bunuel'sThe Milky Way(1969), she landed a pivotal role in his classicLe Charme discret de la bourgeoisie(1972).

Seyrig worked for prominentwomendirectorsMarguerite Durasand Chantel Ackerman and starred in Duras'sIndia Song(1975) and Ackerman'sJeanne Dielman,23 Quai de commerce,1080 Bruxelles(1975),Golden Eighties(1986), andLetters Home(1986). Seyrig was active in the women's rights movement and helped to establish the Simone de Beauvoir Center, a resource for documentary filmmakers with feminist concerns. Seyrig directed her own documentary about the careers of actresses,Sois belle et tais-toi(1977). It featuredRomy Schneiderand Jane Fonda, among others.

Seyrig was truly a pan-European actress, playing in French, British, German, Belgian, and Hungarian films. She acted in Belgian director Harry Kumel'sLes Lèvres rouges(1971), British director Fred Zinneman'sThe Day of the Jackal(1973), British director Don Siegel'sThe Black Windmill(1974), French director Guy Gilles'sLe jardin qui bascule(1975), French director Liliane de Kermadec'sAloïse(1975), Hungarian director Màrta Mészaros'sUtkozben(1979), and German director Ulrike Ottinger'sDorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse(1984) andJohanna d'Arc of Mongolia(1988).