Biography: life and films
Miou-Miou's real name is Sylvette Héry. She was born in
Paris on 22nd February 1950. A trainee carpet maker, she began
her acting career when she joined Romain Bouteille's troupe of assorted
lunatics at the Café de la Gare, a popular dinner theatre in
Paris. The troupe included her fiancé at the time,
Coluche, the man who came up with her stage name. Miou-Miou made
her screen debut with a small part in Michel Mitrani's
La Cavale (1971). She then
appeared in Claude Faraldo's comic oddity
Themroc
(1973) and Gérard Oury's
Les Aventures de Rabbi Jacob
(1973) (playing, of all things, Louis de Funès' daughter).
Stardom came her way when she partnered Patrick Dewaere and
Gérard Depardieu in Bertrand Blier's anarchic comedy
Les Valseuses (1974).
Around this time, Miou-Miou and Dewaere were pursuing an intense love
affair which resulted in the birth of their daughter, Angèle
Herry in 1974. In 1976, Miou-Miou left Coluche to live with
Dewaere.
In the late 1970s and throughout much of the 1980s, Miou-Miou took on a
wide variety of dramatic and comedic roles which allowed her to present
many different facets of the modern liberated woman. Her most
notable film appearances at this time include Alain Tanner's
Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l'an 2000
(1976), Yves Boisset's
La Femme flic (1980) and Daniel
Duval's
La Dérobade (1979), the
latter of which won her the Best Actress César in 1980.
Diane Kurys gave her one of her more memorable roles in the wartime
romantic drama
Coup de foudre (1983) and she
then starred alongside Alain Souchon in Laurent Ferrier's
Le Vol du Sphinx (1984).
Although Miou-Miou was no stranger to mainstream cinema - witness her
presence in Georges Lautner's
Est-ce bien raisonnable?
(1981), Claude Zidi's
La Totale! (1991) and
Hervé Palud's
Un indien dans la ville (1994)
- it was in more intimate, auteur pieces that she shone most
brightly. Michel Deville gave her one of her best roles in
La Lectrice (1988), although
she also excelled in films by some other distinguished filmmakers,
including Louis Malle (
Milou en mai, 1990), Claude
Berri (
Germinal, 1993) and Anne
Fontaine (
Nettoyage à sec,
1997).
More recently, Miou-Miou has been less visible on our screens but
continues to demonstrate her talents and versatility in a dizzying
range of made-to-measure supporting roles. Michel Gondry (
La Science des rêves,
2006), Radu Mihaileanu (
Le Concert, 2009) and Jean
Becker (
Bienvenue parmi nous, 2012) are
just some of the directors who have called upon Miou-Miou to add depth
and lustre to their films. The fact that she has been nominated
ten times for the Best Actress César in the course of her career
testifies to the esteem in which is held, and she remains one of French
cinema's most respected actresses.
© James Travers 2013
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