Moderato Cantabile
Encyclopedia
Moderato Cantabile is a novel
by Marguerite Duras
. It was very popular, selling half a million copies and being the initial source of Duras's fame.
The story concerns the life of a woman
, Anne Desbaresdes, and her varying relationships with her child, the piano teacher Mademoiselle Giraud and Chauvin. Chauvin is a working-class man who is currently unemployed and whiles away his time in a café near the apartment where Anne Desbaresdes' child takes piano lessons with Madame Giraud. After the fatal shooting of a woman in the café by her lover, Anne and Chauvin imagine the relationship between the lovers and try to reason why it occurred. Anne frequently returns to the café, before returning to her comfortable home, the last house on the Boulevard de la Mer, which itself represents the social divide between the working- and middle-classes. In the climactic 7th chapter, she returns home late and drunk to a dinner party, then causes a scandal (and is subsequently ill, vomiting) whose consequences are seen in the final 8th chapter.
is organized into 8 chapters, 5 of which recount the passage of full days. Chapters 5,6, and 7 recount a detailed 6th day of the novella, moving first from a piano lesson to Anne's meeting with Chauvin, and finally to the reception which Anne is late for. Thus, the novel recounts the passage of a full week during Anne's life.
The novelette is ambiguous at many points throughout. In some instances, the reader cannot tell who is talking because no caption is provided for speeches. With the exception of Chauvin, Anne and Mademoiselle Giraud, no other names are mentioned; Anne's husband is referred to as "one," or "on" in French. The setting is also vague as we are never given a definitive place to locate the town, other than the fact that it is close to the sea
. The time can be inferred to be late spring to early summer, but we cannot tell the exact month. However, specific settings, like Anne's house and the café, are described in detail in the description and speeches of the conversations between Anne and Chauvin.
Chapter 1 and 5 are set in Mademoiselle Giraud's apartment.
The other chapters all start with Anne's arrival at the café, her daily conversation with Chauvin, and her inevitable return to her home due to the siren that signals the end of the working day. It is speculated that Anne returns home at the siren in order to return before her husband gets home.
The wife of a wealthy director of downtown factories, Anne belongs to the upper echelon
of the town's social class. One day, while at her child's piano lesson, she sees and becomes intrigued by the murder of a woman by her possible lover. Subsequent chapter see Anne returning to the café where the murder was committed, often speculating upon details of the murder with Chauvin, a worker who used to work in the factories her husband manages. Her venture into the café is considered a social faux-pas, as she comes into a shabby café where her husband's workers retire to daily; these workers recognize both Chauvin and Anne.
While inventing details of the murder, Chauvin and Anne seem to have a metaphysical
relationship reflected in their invented ideas; their relationship begins with talk about how the murdered couple's relationship began, and ends with Anne's acknowledgement that she is dead; reflective, again, of the murdered couple's relationship.
Her life is characterized by repetition: many elements, such as her walk down the Boulevard of the Sea, the suppressed imagery of violence, the siren, seem to recur in succeeding chapters. One reading of the novelette interprets Anne's actions as an attempt to escape this repetition, ultimately culminating in the same repetition she was trying to avoid. She has an intense and profound attachment to her child, which may be interpreted as her inability to let go of maternal responsibilities.
Chauvin:
Chauvin is a working class
man who used to work at Anne's husband's factory. His name seems to be an allusion to "chauvinism
," referring to his often dominating tone during conversations with Anne. However, in French, chauvin(e) is an adjective which translates as "patriotic." The name Chauvin has nothing to do with "misogynie," the French word for chauvinism. He remarks that he often has nothing to do. Throughout the novel, he has unusually detailed knowledge of Anne's house and habits. He knows her directly via the repetitious reception that Anne's husband gives for workers at his factory. He seems to have a (sexual) relationship with Anne that is achieved through words instead of physical contact.
The Child:
The child, (l'enfant), is never given a name, like many of the characters in the novelette. He is a talented piano player, but has little enthusiasm for learning the technicality of piano-playing: he doesn't make an effort to learn the meaning of tempo, nor does he find practicing scales necessary. The piece he plays throughout the novelette is the Diabelli sonata
, the tempo of which composes the title: Moderato Cantabile (moderately and singingly). He is stubborn, and refuses to yield to the orders of his teacher, Madame Giraud. Critics have pointed to this stubbornness as a reflection of Anne's refusal to give into the repetition of her life; this may be the reason that Anne approves of the child's obstinate behaviour. However, « Quand il obéit de cette façon, ça me dégoûte un peu. » ("When he obeys in this way, it disgusts me somewhat"). The child is at once her « honte » (shame) and « trésor ».
'Il est un enfant difficile {...} non sans une certaine timidité'. ('He's a difficult child {..} and not without a certain shyness').
Mademoiselle Giraud:
Mademoiselle Giraud is the piano teacher for Anne's child. She disapproves of Anne's upbringing of the child, and stereotypes the strict teacher of the 20th century: at one point in the novelette she is portrayed with a ruler.
Mr. Desbaresdes:
Throughout the novelette Anne's husband is never really mentioned by reference or name, instead given the impersonal "on" in the French novel. Translated, this means "one." This suggests that he is never a real physical presence in Anne's life, although his presence looms upon her.
He is a wealthy factory-owner in the small town. The Desbaresdes' house is situated towards the end of a long Boulevard of the Sea, suggesting that it is the richest in town.
The bartender:
The bartender works at the café where the murder first occurs. She is a bystander of the metaphysical affair between Anne and Chauvin, and serves them wine
from time to time. She usually serves clients who come from the factory at 6:00 pm from work. When she is not conversing with them, she is knitting a red sweater
. This colour sustains the motif of the colour red throughout the novelette. Towards the latter stages of the relationship between Anne and Chauvin, she disapproves of their relationship, but says nothing.
by Diabelli, presumably Sonatina in F major, op. 168, no. 1 (I: Moderato cantabile).
in Moderato Cantabile occur throughout Duras's works to that point, which some critics argue provides needed context to understanding them, as they are largely ambiguous in the work itself.
Culminating images of violence:
There are frequent images of violence throughout each chapter: in the first, the red colour of the sky culminates in a woman's scream, the cry, no doubt, of the murdered woman. In subsequent chapters this violence is replaced with the siren that signals the end of the work day for factory workers. Towards the end it is that of the devouring of food by guests at the reception Anne's husband throws, culminating in Anne's vomiting of the food she consumes.
Magnolia:
The first mention of the flower/tree comes in Chapter III, when the child is in the garden. Chauvin remarks that Anne was wearing a magnolia
flower between her breasts during a reception, and that her breasts were semi-exposed. Anne also has a magnolia flower in her garden, right outside her window, which she remarks she closes because the smell of magnolia
can become too strong at times. The flower/tree represents, no doubt, her sexuality; her closing of the windows signals her inability to handle the sexuality that she has suppressed within her.
Wine:
Anne drinks wine
throughout the story, initially in order to stifle her trembling when she visits the café to go see Chauvin; the pace of wine drinking reflecting the dramatic arc of the work: building, climaxing in the 7th chapter, then diminishing again in the 8th chapter. She consumes progressively more wine during each meeting with Chauvin, at times "mechanically", and in Chapter 7, she drinks too much wine and winds up vomiting out the wine she had been drinking that day. In the final, 8th chapter, she then drinks the wine "in small mouthfuls" (« à petites gorgées»).
The wine helps her to relax at the setting, and forget about the social burdens she holds. Symbolically, the act describes her casting off of these social burdens, and the image of alcohol as liberation recurs in Duras's works. Biographically, Duras was alcoholic at various periods of her life, giving added weight to this symbol.
Motorboat:
The motorboat (vedette) which passes in the open window in the opening scene and briefly recurs, is interpreted as a symbol of freedom, particularly in light of Duras's earlier use of a boat for this purpose in her preceding Le Marin de Gibraltar and Les petits chevaux de Tarquinia.
movement started by Alain Robbe-Grillet
, but critics take pains to distinguish Duras's style as distinct and inimitable. The book was published with the publishing house les Éditions de Minuit
, which specialized in avant-garde works, unlike her previous works, which had been published by the more conventional Gallimard. Duras would not publish again with Minuit until Détruire, dit-elle of 1969, and thereafter continued to publish with Minuit.
The style is initially austere: in the initial chapters, the action is described shallowly, at the surface, but changes sharply in Chapter 7, where the narrator is prominent and colors the description, sarcastically describing the "absurd" ritual of dinner and the "devouring" of the salmon and duck. The austere style is the focus of much commentary and of connection with the nouveau roman movement, while the rich seventh chapter is seen as a payoff by some critics, that may not be reached by readers who "shut the book before arriving [there]".
The novella
is written in past tense, the French passé simple
(usually translated as the Past Historic) and "imparfait" (Imperfect). In Chapter 7, the tense changes noticeably from past to present during the dinner party, and from present to future simple during the last few paragraphs of the chapter.
The format of the bulk of the novel, of a meeting between two people, is particularly prefigured by Le Square ("The Square"), Duras's immediately preceding novel, which features two strangers meeting and talking on a park bench one Saturday afternoon, a fact commented on by many critics, but also is a focus of several, arguably all, of her previous works.
.
Critics praised the innovative, austere, "formal", allusive style, a work of suggestive words and gestures. Conversely, the work is criticized as lacking plot, as being more an essay than a work of art, and of lacking context for its images – the symbolism only being apparent in the context of Duras's oeuvre.
, and starring Jean-Paul Belmondo
and Jeanne Moreau
. The latter won the Best Actress Award
at the Cannes Film Festival
for her performance.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Marguerite Duras
Marguerite Duras
Marguerite Donnadieu, better known as Marguerite Duras was a French writer and film director.-Background:...
. It was very popular, selling half a million copies and being the initial source of Duras's fame.
Plot
The plot is initially the banal daily routine of a rich woman taking her son to piano lessons, and conversing with a working class man in a café, drinking wine all the way, then reaches a scandal at a dinner party in chapter 7, followed by a denouement in the final chapter.The story concerns the life of a woman
Woman
A woman , pl: women is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent...
, Anne Desbaresdes, and her varying relationships with her child, the piano teacher Mademoiselle Giraud and Chauvin. Chauvin is a working-class man who is currently unemployed and whiles away his time in a café near the apartment where Anne Desbaresdes' child takes piano lessons with Madame Giraud. After the fatal shooting of a woman in the café by her lover, Anne and Chauvin imagine the relationship between the lovers and try to reason why it occurred. Anne frequently returns to the café, before returning to her comfortable home, the last house on the Boulevard de la Mer, which itself represents the social divide between the working- and middle-classes. In the climactic 7th chapter, she returns home late and drunk to a dinner party, then causes a scandal (and is subsequently ill, vomiting) whose consequences are seen in the final 8th chapter.
Organization
The novellaNovella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
is organized into 8 chapters, 5 of which recount the passage of full days. Chapters 5,6, and 7 recount a detailed 6th day of the novella, moving first from a piano lesson to Anne's meeting with Chauvin, and finally to the reception which Anne is late for. Thus, the novel recounts the passage of a full week during Anne's life.
The novelette is ambiguous at many points throughout. In some instances, the reader cannot tell who is talking because no caption is provided for speeches. With the exception of Chauvin, Anne and Mademoiselle Giraud, no other names are mentioned; Anne's husband is referred to as "one," or "on" in French. The setting is also vague as we are never given a definitive place to locate the town, other than the fact that it is close to the sea
Sea
A sea generally refers to a large body of salt water, but the term is used in other contexts as well. Most commonly, it means a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, and is commonly used as a synonym for ocean...
. The time can be inferred to be late spring to early summer, but we cannot tell the exact month. However, specific settings, like Anne's house and the café, are described in detail in the description and speeches of the conversations between Anne and Chauvin.
Chapter 1 and 5 are set in Mademoiselle Giraud's apartment.
The other chapters all start with Anne's arrival at the café, her daily conversation with Chauvin, and her inevitable return to her home due to the siren that signals the end of the working day. It is speculated that Anne returns home at the siren in order to return before her husband gets home.
Characters
Anne Desbaresdes:The wife of a wealthy director of downtown factories, Anne belongs to the upper echelon
Echelon
Echelon may refer to:* A level or rank in an organization, profession, or society.* Echelon formation, a military hierarchical formation, also used to describe the migratory patterns of birds...
of the town's social class. One day, while at her child's piano lesson, she sees and becomes intrigued by the murder of a woman by her possible lover. Subsequent chapter see Anne returning to the café where the murder was committed, often speculating upon details of the murder with Chauvin, a worker who used to work in the factories her husband manages. Her venture into the café is considered a social faux-pas, as she comes into a shabby café where her husband's workers retire to daily; these workers recognize both Chauvin and Anne.
While inventing details of the murder, Chauvin and Anne seem to have a metaphysical
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
relationship reflected in their invented ideas; their relationship begins with talk about how the murdered couple's relationship began, and ends with Anne's acknowledgement that she is dead; reflective, again, of the murdered couple's relationship.
Her life is characterized by repetition: many elements, such as her walk down the Boulevard of the Sea, the suppressed imagery of violence, the siren, seem to recur in succeeding chapters. One reading of the novelette interprets Anne's actions as an attempt to escape this repetition, ultimately culminating in the same repetition she was trying to avoid. She has an intense and profound attachment to her child, which may be interpreted as her inability to let go of maternal responsibilities.
Chauvin:
Chauvin is a working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
man who used to work at Anne's husband's factory. His name seems to be an allusion to "chauvinism
Chauvinism
Chauvinism, in its original and primary meaning, is an exaggerated, bellicose patriotism and a belief in national superiority and glory. It is an eponym of a possibly fictional French soldier Nicolas Chauvin who was credited with many superhuman feats in the Napoleonic wars.By extension it has come...
," referring to his often dominating tone during conversations with Anne. However, in French, chauvin(e) is an adjective which translates as "patriotic." The name Chauvin has nothing to do with "misogynie," the French word for chauvinism. He remarks that he often has nothing to do. Throughout the novel, he has unusually detailed knowledge of Anne's house and habits. He knows her directly via the repetitious reception that Anne's husband gives for workers at his factory. He seems to have a (sexual) relationship with Anne that is achieved through words instead of physical contact.
The Child:
The child, (l'enfant), is never given a name, like many of the characters in the novelette. He is a talented piano player, but has little enthusiasm for learning the technicality of piano-playing: he doesn't make an effort to learn the meaning of tempo, nor does he find practicing scales necessary. The piece he plays throughout the novelette is the Diabelli sonata
Sonata
Sonata , in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata , a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era...
, the tempo of which composes the title: Moderato Cantabile (moderately and singingly). He is stubborn, and refuses to yield to the orders of his teacher, Madame Giraud. Critics have pointed to this stubbornness as a reflection of Anne's refusal to give into the repetition of her life; this may be the reason that Anne approves of the child's obstinate behaviour. However, « Quand il obéit de cette façon, ça me dégoûte un peu. » ("When he obeys in this way, it disgusts me somewhat"). The child is at once her « honte » (shame) and « trésor ».
'Il est un enfant difficile {...} non sans une certaine timidité'. ('He's a difficult child {..} and not without a certain shyness').
Mademoiselle Giraud:
Mademoiselle Giraud is the piano teacher for Anne's child. She disapproves of Anne's upbringing of the child, and stereotypes the strict teacher of the 20th century: at one point in the novelette she is portrayed with a ruler.
Mr. Desbaresdes:
Throughout the novelette Anne's husband is never really mentioned by reference or name, instead given the impersonal "on" in the French novel. Translated, this means "one." This suggests that he is never a real physical presence in Anne's life, although his presence looms upon her.
He is a wealthy factory-owner in the small town. The Desbaresdes' house is situated towards the end of a long Boulevard of the Sea, suggesting that it is the richest in town.
The bartender:
The bartender works at the café where the murder first occurs. She is a bystander of the metaphysical affair between Anne and Chauvin, and serves them wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
from time to time. She usually serves clients who come from the factory at 6:00 pm from work. When she is not conversing with them, she is knitting a red sweater
Sweater
A sweater, jumper, pullover, sweatshirt, jersey or guernsey is a garment intended to cover the torso and arms. It is often worn over a shirt, blouse, T-shirt, or other top, but may also be worn alone as a top...
. This colour sustains the motif of the colour red throughout the novelette. Towards the latter stages of the relationship between Anne and Chauvin, she disapproves of their relationship, but says nothing.
Child and mother
Perhaps the most persistent and complex relationship throughout the novel revolves not around Chauvin and Anne, but around Anne and her child. The title is based on the tempo of a Diabelli sonatina, a child's piano piece. At various moments in the story, Anne remarks that the child has grown; the child is described as having the same blue eyes as Chauvin; the child wants a red motorboat, sustaining the image of red in the story; the child is with Anne throughout the story except when she enters the cafe and when she meditates at night. In addition, the only time the child is not present in the cafe is at the end of Anne's relationship with Chauvin - the last time Anne visits the cafe.Title
The title is a musical direction, literally "moderately and singingly", and refers to a sonatinaSonatina
A sonatina is literally a small sonata. As a musical term, sonatina has no single strict definition; it is rather a title applied by the composer to a piece that is in basic sonata form, but is shorter, lighter in character, or more elementary technically than a typical sonata...
by Diabelli, presumably Sonatina in F major, op. 168, no. 1 (I: Moderato cantabile).
Motifs
A number of motifsMotif (narrative)
In narrative, a motif is any recurring element that has symbolic significance in a story. Through its repetition, a motif can help produce other narrative aspects such as theme or mood....
in Moderato Cantabile occur throughout Duras's works to that point, which some critics argue provides needed context to understanding them, as they are largely ambiguous in the work itself.
Culminating images of violence:
There are frequent images of violence throughout each chapter: in the first, the red colour of the sky culminates in a woman's scream, the cry, no doubt, of the murdered woman. In subsequent chapters this violence is replaced with the siren that signals the end of the work day for factory workers. Towards the end it is that of the devouring of food by guests at the reception Anne's husband throws, culminating in Anne's vomiting of the food she consumes.
Magnolia:
The first mention of the flower/tree comes in Chapter III, when the child is in the garden. Chauvin remarks that Anne was wearing a magnolia
Magnolia
Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol....
flower between her breasts during a reception, and that her breasts were semi-exposed. Anne also has a magnolia flower in her garden, right outside her window, which she remarks she closes because the smell of magnolia
Magnolia
Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol....
can become too strong at times. The flower/tree represents, no doubt, her sexuality; her closing of the windows signals her inability to handle the sexuality that she has suppressed within her.
Wine:
Anne drinks wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
throughout the story, initially in order to stifle her trembling when she visits the café to go see Chauvin; the pace of wine drinking reflecting the dramatic arc of the work: building, climaxing in the 7th chapter, then diminishing again in the 8th chapter. She consumes progressively more wine during each meeting with Chauvin, at times "mechanically", and in Chapter 7, she drinks too much wine and winds up vomiting out the wine she had been drinking that day. In the final, 8th chapter, she then drinks the wine "in small mouthfuls" (« à petites gorgées»).
The wine helps her to relax at the setting, and forget about the social burdens she holds. Symbolically, the act describes her casting off of these social burdens, and the image of alcohol as liberation recurs in Duras's works. Biographically, Duras was alcoholic at various periods of her life, giving added weight to this symbol.
Motorboat:
The motorboat (vedette) which passes in the open window in the opening scene and briefly recurs, is interpreted as a symbol of freedom, particularly in light of Duras's earlier use of a boat for this purpose in her preceding Le Marin de Gibraltar and Les petits chevaux de Tarquinia.
Style
Moderato Cantabile is loosely identified as part of the nouveau romanNouveau roman
The nouveau roman is a type of 1950s French novel that diverged from classical literary genres. Émile Henriot coined the title in an article in the popular French newspaper Le Monde on May 22, 1957 to describe certain writers who experimented with style in each novel, creating an essentially new...
movement started by Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet , was a French writer and filmmaker. He was, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon, one of the figures most associated with the Nouveau Roman trend. Alain Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the Académie française on March 25, 2004, succeeding Maurice...
, but critics take pains to distinguish Duras's style as distinct and inimitable. The book was published with the publishing house les Éditions de Minuit
Les Éditions de Minuit
Les Éditions de Minuit is a French publishing house which has its origins in the French Resistance of World War II and still publishes books today.-History:...
, which specialized in avant-garde works, unlike her previous works, which had been published by the more conventional Gallimard. Duras would not publish again with Minuit until Détruire, dit-elle of 1969, and thereafter continued to publish with Minuit.
The style is initially austere: in the initial chapters, the action is described shallowly, at the surface, but changes sharply in Chapter 7, where the narrator is prominent and colors the description, sarcastically describing the "absurd" ritual of dinner and the "devouring" of the salmon and duck. The austere style is the focus of much commentary and of connection with the nouveau roman movement, while the rich seventh chapter is seen as a payoff by some critics, that may not be reached by readers who "shut the book before arriving [there]".
The novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
is written in past tense, the French passé simple
Passé simple
The passé simple , also called the passé défini , is the literary equivalent of the passé composé in the French language, used only in formal writing , journalism, and formal speech. As with other preterites, it is used when the action has a definite beginning and end and has already been completed...
(usually translated as the Past Historic) and "imparfait" (Imperfect). In Chapter 7, the tense changes noticeably from past to present during the dinner party, and from present to future simple during the last few paragraphs of the chapter.
The format of the bulk of the novel, of a meeting between two people, is particularly prefigured by Le Square ("The Square"), Duras's immediately preceding novel, which features two strangers meeting and talking on a park bench one Saturday afternoon, a fact commented on by many critics, but also is a focus of several, arguably all, of her previous works.
Reception
Moderato Cantabile was very popular, selling half a million copies. Critical response was sharply divided, but generally very positive. A survey of contemporary French critical response is given in the critical edition (Collection "double"), in the section "Moderato Cantabile et la presse française". It was the first winner of the short-lived Prix de MaiPrix de Mai
The Prix de Mai was a short-lived French literary award, founded by Alain Robbe-Grillet and first awarded to Moderato Cantabile by Marguerite Duras in 1958.The jury included Georges Bataille, Maurice Blanchot, Roland Barthes, Marthe Robert, Dominique Aury....
.
Critics praised the innovative, austere, "formal", allusive style, a work of suggestive words and gestures. Conversely, the work is criticized as lacking plot, as being more an essay than a work of art, and of lacking context for its images – the symbolism only being apparent in the context of Duras's oeuvre.
Film adaptation
The novel was filmed in 1960 by Peter BrookPeter Brook
Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...
, and starring Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo
Jean-Paul Belmondo is a French actor initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s.-Career:Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris, Belmondo did not perform well in school, but developed a passion for boxing and football."Did you box professionally very long?" "Not very long...
and Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau is a French actress, singer, screenwriter and director.She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française...
. The latter won the Best Actress Award
Best Actress Award (Cannes Film Festival)
The Best Actress Award is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of films at the festival. It was first awarded in 1946.-Award Winners:-External links:* * ....
at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
for her performance.
External links
- Moderato cantabile, official page, with some criticisim