French cinema mourns its oldest member: actress Micheline Presle, who made more than 150 films, died Wednesday at the age of 101, announced her son-in-law Olivier Bomsel.
“Micheline passed away peacefully, at the National House of Artists in Nogent-sur-Marne” in Val-de-Marne, he declared, adding that the funeral would take place in privacy.
Born in Paris in August 1922, she shot more than 150 films, including a few in Hollywood, letting herself be carried away by her encounters: from George Pabst to Alain Resnais via Abel Gance, Jacques Demy and Joseph Losey.
One of the three favorite stars of the French
For a long time one of the three favorite stars of the French with Danielle Darrieux and Michèle Morgan, she was also one of the rare established actresses who gave a lot to beginning filmmakers.
Among the films that made her famous, “Paradis perdu” (1940) by Abel Gance, “Falbalas” (1945) by Jacques Becker, “Boule de suif” (1945) by Christian-Jaque, and especially “Le Diable au corps” (1947) by Claude Autant-Lara with Gérard Philippe.
Micheline Presle and Gérard Philipe in “The Devil in the Body” (1947) by Claude Autant-Lara. [AFP – ©Transcontinental Films / Collection ChristopheL]
Her naturalness and classic beauty led her straight to Hollywood where she married actor and director Bill Marshall. “I didn’t do anything interesting there,” she confided. “I even managed the feat of making with Fritz Lang his least interesting film, “Guerrilla in the Philippines”, a commissioned work on the Return of General MacArthur.
She cannot film “The Cicero Affair” by Mankiewicz because she is pregnant with her daughter Tonie Marshall.
“Vénus Beauté (institut)”, with her daughter
She then returns to France. At the end of the 1950s, the New Wave ignored it. But it was on the small screen that she achieved her greatest success with “Les Saintes Chéries”, alongside Daniel Gélin. A soap opera about the little quirks of married life.
Later, she will film with her daughter, director, notably “Vénus Beauté (institut)”, in 1999. By receiving the César for best director, the latter, who died in March 2020, will pay tribute to her mother, “always ready to getting up at 5:00 a.m. to wade through the rain and make a first film with enthusiasm.”