I heard of this actress long before I had a chance to see her. And finally it came. The first motion picture with her that I've seen was Truffaut's La mariée était en noir. Never mind the romantic sounding title, the movie is not half as good as its title. A simple story: a groom is killed by accident during the wedding and the bride finds the guilty and kills them all. Not bad, really but it's hard to call it a milestone in cinematography.
Then it was Buñuel's Le journal d'un femme de chambre. Here she was blank. The whole movie was pathetic. Then a long time passed before I had a chance to see her again.
Next time it was Antonioni's La Notte and finally I had a real close up on her. So after a few times it became clear that Jeanne Moreau is a big misunderstanding as an actress. You can notice the theatrical school: she never changes her expression, in theatre there are body movements that are most important as you cannot see a face of an actor. But in cinema this facial play is much more important. But her face is like a face of a stature that was brilliantly noticed in Jules et Jim where she also participates.
One should admit she is pretty if you like that type of beauty. But she is absolutely motionless, lifeless. She would be perfect in mute films as her speech is never important. Big eyes, lusty lips. She stares at you without ever changing the expression of her face.
Of course all these opinions are subjective. One can say that famous Catherine Deneuve is not much of an actress either. I don't know… I never admired her as an actress, she is pretty motionless too. As for me I like actresses that behave like normal people: one moment they laugh, the other they might cry. In a moment their expression can change from happy to desperate and vice versa. And in general, I don't think faces of statures fit in cinema. Take Fanny Ardant, for example. I always enjoy watching this actress because she is alive. She can express all the gamut of different emotions though her emploi is pretty limited.
In Balzac she plays much better. Surprisingly, at old age we finally got some good play. Not anything striking but good. Perhaps old age added some interest or whatever the reason is in this film she looks decent.
Fame does not necessarily mean good. It's often a matter of chance and luck or whatever else.
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