Mourning for movie diva

Actress Anouk Aimée dead at 92

Anouk Aimée with the Golden Bear

(Bild: AP ( via APA) Austria Presse Agentur/Sven Kaestner)

Anouk Aimée was a rare combination of mysterious beauty and outstanding acting talent. Star director Federico Fellini once called her "the best actress in the world", while Austrian actor O.W. Fischer said: "Mademoiselle Aimée is a miracle." 

Now the diva with the cat eyes has died in Paris at the age of 92, as her agent confirmed to dpa.

Stars like Diane Kruger mourned on Instagram with photos of the film beauty.

Much-loved actress
The actress, who was born Nicole Dreyfus on April 27, 1932, lived up to her name Aimée - the beloved. She was one of the few international stars who were held in high esteem by professionals, critics and the public alike. How did she get her pseudonym? The French poet Jacques Prevert, whom she had met in her first films, suggested she call herself as he saw her, as a popular and much-loved actress. And Anouk goes back to her first major role in "The House Under the Sea". "I internalized that name very quickly and that's why I thought it was a memorable pseudonym," said the Paris-born Frenchwoman.

Anouk Aimée

(Bild: APA/AFP/Dominique FAGET)

More than 50 films in 50 years
In over 50 years, the daughter of an actress couple has made more than 50 films, mostly love stories in which she played shy, enigmatic and withdrawn women with her Mona Lisa face and longing gaze. It was a love story that elevated Aimée's fame to legendary status: "A Man and a Woman". A bittersweet love story by director Claude Lelouche, which won the Palme d'Or at the 1966 Cannes Festival. The film received two equally successful sequels in 1986 and 2019.

However, the actress, who first appeared in front of the camera at the age of 13, made a name for herself just four years later with her second screen appearance in the modern Romeo and Juliet adaptation "Les amants de Verone" (The Lovers of Verona). After that, directors from Munich, Rome, Paris, London and Hollywood flocked to the striking beauty.

Honorary César
Among the greats she worked with were the Italians Federico Fellini, Vittorio de Sica, Marco Bellocchio, the French Marcel Carne, Claude Lelouch, Julien Duvivier and the Americans Sidney Lumet and Robert Altman.

Her filmography includes classics such as Fellini's cult film "La Dolce Vita", and later "Eight and a Half" alongside Marcello Mastroianni. And Aimée was loved well into old age: in 2002, she was awarded an honorary César, the French film prize, for her life's work.