From Publishers Weekly
Jeanne Moreau is a legend to lovers of foreign films, with her gravely voice and unabashed, uncompromising sensuality: "Sleeping with people must be one of the best ways of getting to know them," she murmurs. Her films, from Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1959) and Jules et Jim (1962) to La Femme Nikita (1989), span 40 years of cinema history, and her stage appearances are storied in her native France. She has apparently been lucky in love, having been involved happily with Francois Truffaut, Roger Vadim and Pierre Cardin, in addition to her marriages to actor and screenwriter Jean-Louis Richard and director William Friedkin. She is less lucky in her biographer. Gray (Depardieu) is an odd combination of star-struck, self-aggrandizing and plain boring. Gray likes to tell the reader exactly what she herself said to Moreau and who answered her inquiries, who sent faxes, etc. Her faults are not helped by the fact that little attempt has been made to edit this biography for the American reader, resulting in such puzzling phrases as "Truffaut has bunked off [left] school" and referring to her heroine as "a Third Programme Bardot" (Third Programme being a BBC high-end radio channel, now defunct). Gray also supplies the good news that the 68-year-old Moreau is breaking ground as a director and is no less outspoken than before. However, she has earned a biography that is more outrageous than this, and more fun. Photos.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Gray regards Jeanne Moreau with respect, even awe, and never descends to publicity hype while examining her long, distinguished career. America once considered the star of The Diary of a Chambermaid, The Lovers, etc., to be a sort of intellectual, artistic sex kitten, a cerebral Bardot for arthouse audiences. During the course of her career, however, she has become a more protean creative force, adding writing, directing, and producing credits to her resumeand frequently participating in serious discussion of cinema and serving on film competition juries. As Gray makes plain, Moreau has by now established credentials on a par with those of the finest auteurs of French cinema. Comprehensive on Moreau's career, Gray's effort is also a valuable directory of the people and achievements of the last 50 years of French moviemaking. Truly an international star, Moreau deserves the representation in any film-conscious collection that Gray provides. Mike Tribby
