Stéphane Audran

In film from 1958, French actress Stephane Audran has most often been seen in the films directed by her second husband, Claude Chabrol. Conveying an icy sensuality in her screen appearances, Audran won France's Cesar Award for her against-type portrayal of a drab, unhappy woman in Chabrol's Violette Noziere (1978); three years earlier, she was honored with the British Film Academy award for Just Before Nightfall (1975). She has also appeared in the works of Eric Rohmer (Signe du Lion), Jean Delannoy (La Peau de Torpedo), Gabriel Axel (Babette's Feast), and Bertrand Tavernier (Coup de Touchon). The most celebrated of her non-Chabrol films was Luis Bunuel's Oscar-winning The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972). Also active in English-language productions, Audran seemed a bit lost in such American misfires as The Black Bird (1975), but was poise personified in the made-for-TV projects Brideshead Revisited (1982), Mistral's Daughter (1984) and The Sun Also Rises (1984). Prior to her 1964 marriage to Chabrol, Stephane Audran had been the wife of actor Jean-Louis Trintignant.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide