French film legend Jeanne Moreau dies

PARIS: French actress Jeanne Moreau, who lit up the screen in "Jules et Jim" and starred in some of the most critically-acclaimed films of the 20th century, has died aged 89, her agent said on Monday. The gravel-voiced actress epitomised the freedoms of the 1960s and brought daring, depth and danger to a string of cinematic masterpieces from Louis Malle’s "Lift to the Scaffold" to Jacques Demy’s "Bay of Angels".

Moreau, who was still making films at 87, was found dead at her home in Paris early on Monday, the district’s mayor told AFP.

Once described by US director Orson Welles as "the best actress in the world", she was a feminist icon and trailblaser for liberated women as well as the face of French New Wave. "Physical beauty is a disgrace," she once said in her characteristic rasp, her voice redolent with the strong French cigarettes she smoked. Yet that did not stop her becoming the thinking man’s femme fatale with film scholar David Shipman calling her "the arthouse love goddess".

Leading tributes to the plain-speaking actress, French President Emmanuel Macron said Moreau had "embodied cinema" and she was a free spirit who "always rebelled against the established order". Fellow French screen legend Brigitte Bardot told AFP, "Jeanne was a beautiful, intelligent, hugely seductive woman with a voice and a personality that made her an actress with so many sides. I am very sad today."