French actress Claire Maurier passed away at the age of 97 on Sunday, as announced on Monday by her husband. Originally from Céret, this figure of cinema and theater made a lasting impression since 1959 in François Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows”. She was one of the few faces to span the decades, from the success of “La Cuisine au beurre” to that of “Amélie Poulain” in 2001, accumulating over sixty years of career.
Originaire des PO
Named Odette Agramon in 1929 in Céret (Pyrénées-Orientales), she chose the stage name Claire Maurier and began a career in theater in the early 1950s while also working in television.
She landed small roles in film, notably in Edouard Molinaro’s first film “Le Dos au mur” in 1957, a director with whom she would work on several feature films.
Her career took off in 1959 thanks to the role of Jean-Pierre Léaud’s mother in “The 400 Blows” by François Truffaut, one of the most iconic films of the French New Wave.
In 1963, she starred alongside Fernandel and Bourvil in “La Cuisine au beurre”, a phenomenal success of French cinema in the early 1960s. She played the wife of the two leading actors of the era.
Her career slowed down afterwards, but in the late 1970s, she reunited with Edouard Molinaro for another hit with “La Cage aux folles”.
César de la meilleure actrice dans un second rôle
In 1981, she received a nomination for the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in “Un mauvais fils” by Claude Sautet, alongside Patrick Dewaere and Brigitte Fossey. She then disappeared from the big screen and focused on theater. She notably appeared in “Un air de famille”, a play written by Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri.
Two years later, in 1996, she reprised her role as a toxic mother in a family reunion in a bar run by one of her sons (Jean-Pierre Bacri), for the film adaptation directed by Cédric Klapisch.
Once again, she achieved public and critical success. In 2001, she participated in another cult film: “Amélie”, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
She played a former equestrian dancer turned café owner in Montmartre who employs Amélie Poulain. Her solitary and eccentric character, with a profoundly human gaze, is characteristic of the figures in this extraordinary film (with over eight million admissions in France).
For one of her last roles in film, she portrayed Gérard Depardieu’s mother in “La Tête en friche” in 2010, directed by Jean Becker. She was married to actor Jean-Renaud Garcia.
