MARIA CASARES

Biography

Catch her in Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne if you can. Her Hélène is as cruelly watchable as anything on the screen. Directed by Robert Bresson, it was his last film to feature a cast entirely composed of professional actors.

Casares would also appear in Le Testament d'Orphée some ten years later after Orphée. I can think of no actress more spellbindingly watchable than her. And that includes Garbo and Dietrich who, if the reports are correct, were approached to play her Orphée role. She blew all away.

Her eyes, once seen, are never forgotten. The eyes have it, the eyes have it. Unlock.

Early Life and Exile

María Victoria Casares Pérez was born November 21, 1922 in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. She immigrated to France in 1936. Her father, Santiago Casares Quiroga, was a pro-Republic politician when the Spanish Civil War began in July 1936, and Maria and her mother took refuge north of the Pyrenees after Francisco Franco's victory.

Because of enforced exile at the end of the Spanish Civil War, her career was entirely on the French stage and screen. In her new homeland, she studied acting at the Conservatoire in Paris.

Theater and Film Career

During World War II, she performed at the Mathurins theater, working with director Marcel Herrand. While there, she appeared in J.M. Synge's Deirdre of the Sorrows and existentialist plays such as Albert Camus' La Malentendu and Jean-Paul Sartre's Le Diable et le Bon Dieu.

From 1945 to 1949, Casares starred in important films, such as Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne, Jean Cocteau's Orphée, Les Enfants du Paradis, and La Chartreuse de Parme.

Preferring the stage, however, she returned to theater. Independent by nature, Casares often changed companies and constantly explored new roles. She excelled at both classical and modern drama and earned distinction as one of France's foremost actresses, appearing in nearly every classic female stage role, from Medea to Lady Macbeth.

In 1988, she won the coveted Molière Prize for best comedienne; in 1990, she was awarded the National Grand Prix of Theater.

She was married to André Schlesser (1978 - 1985) until his death. She kept an apartment in Paris. She died on November 22, 1996 in La Vergne, Charente-Maritime, France.

Filmography

Selected Films:

Les Enfants du Paradis (Children of Paradise, 1945) • Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Ladies of the Park, 1945) • Roger-la-Honte (1946) • La Septième Porte (1946) • La Revanche de Roger-la-Honte (1946) • L'Amour autour de la Maison (1946) • La Chartreuse de Parme (1948) • Bagarres (The Wench, 1948) • L'Homme qui revient de Loin (1949) • Orphée (Orpheus, 1950) • Ombre et Lumière (1951) • Testament d'Orphée (Testament of Orpheus, 1960) • La Reine verte (1964) • La Lectrice (1989) • Les Chevaliers de la table ronde (1990)