She had two faces: that of comedy and that of tragedy. And excelled in both areas alike. “The mockery and the drama were in the same bed, and it was a very small bed”, says Michel Boujenah.
This is also emphasized by most of the speakers – actors, directors, his biographer, his granddaughter… – interviewed in the documentary Annie Girardot according to her heart, directed by Frédéric Zamochnikoff, dedicated to the immense actress who died in 2011.
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We come back to the career of the Parisian, born in 1931, who first wanted to study nursing, to become a midwife like her mother.
But who very quickly turned to comedy, enrolling at the rue Blanche school, then at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art, from which she graduated with honors.
Her career took off immediately: she was hired by Cocteau (who found that she had the temperament of a tragégienne) in the main role of her play. The typewriter, in 1956, as well as at the Comédie-Française.
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It was then that Annie Girardot adopted her famous short haircut, on the advice of Cocteau. “It really revealed her personality: that of a woman, but of a woman who had it”, smiles her granddaughter, Lola Vogel, in the documentary.
And it is indeed necessary to have personality to resign from the Comédie-Française, which asks it to choose between cinema and theater …
Over the films (like Rocco and his brothers de Visconti, with Alain Delon, 1960), the actress becomes a star. She impresses the directors and theater directors with whom she works, including Roger Vadim, Marcel Carné, Claude Lelouch, Michel Audiard, Claude Pinoteau (for whom she shoots The slap with Lino Ventura)… But the New Wave sulks her, which saddens her.
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In 1971, the film die from love, by André Cayatte, made her an ultra popular star. Inspired by a true story, it stages a love story between a teacher (Annie Girardot, therefore, masterful) and her student, which turns out very badly.
Then she formed a cinema couple with Philippe Noiret, from The Old Girl (1971) to We stole Jupiter’s thigh (1980). But, although very popular and respected by the community, the actress also has her crossings of the desert.
In the 1980s, with Bob Decout, she embarked on a musical show, and decided to renovate the Casino de Paris. For that, she mortgages her apartment. But the show is a fiasco …
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This will not prevent her from continuing to shoot, to win Césars, including two César for best actress in a supporting role, for Wretched (1996) and La Pianiste (2002).
Affected by Alzheimer’s disease in the 2000s, the actress will continue to tour, with an earpiece, keeping her usual banter.
She leaves behind 122 films. “She lived, she played and she loved as she was. It was true ”, said her little girl. A moving documentary on an eternal icon of French cinema.
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Annie Girardot according to her heart, Documentary, 53 minutes, to watch on CINÉ +.
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