Remembering Jeanne Moreau

An actress who brought as much grace and art to life and aging as she did to her craft

Six years ago today French cinema and the world lost an extraordinary French actress and much more.

Back in 2017, when I first learned of Jeanne Moreau’s death at 89, two strong memories sprang to mind. One was of her on the big screen in my favorite French film, Jules and Jim; the other was of her sitting across the table from me during a late-night dinner in Paris in the eighties. She was relaxed, unwinding after her performance in a boulevard comedy. She was always gregarious, but a few glasses of wine made her all the more so. We chatted like old friends despite a 20-year age difference.

Many years ago (funny how I find myself using that phrase so much to introduce a story), I was a young writer living in France for a decade with my husband, also a writer, and — after a few years — our baby.

The experience was very special and life-changing, of course, though probably not as romantic and glamorous as you might imagine (remember, this was well before the Internet and even FedEx, so life wasn’t easy).

However, as a struggling freelance writer, I got to meet some remarkable celebrities, as I searched for subjects of interest to readers back home. In the…