Anouk Aimée (1932-2024)

Anouk Aimée, the French star of European New Wave classics including La Dolce Vita, A Man and a Woman and Lola, has died aged 92. Her daughter Manuela Papatakis announced the news on social media on Tuesday.

Papatakis said: “We have the immense sadness to announce the departure of my mother … I was close to her when she passed away this morning, at her home in Paris.”

Having broken into screen roles in the late 1940s, Aimée achieved international recognition with a series of high-profile successful films in the 1960s, associating her with the major directors of the era, Federico Fellini and Jacques Demy among them. Arguably her most influential hit was the Oscar-winning A Man and a Woman, opposite Jean-Louis Trintignant, released in 1966 and which won the best foreign language film and best original screenplay Oscars, as well as a best actress nomination for Aimée herself.

As a result of A Man and a Woman’s success, Aimée was able to join the international film industry elite, appearing in films such as Justine (for George Cukor), The Appointment (directed by Sidney Lumet) and Bernardo Bertolucci’s Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man.

Aimée was married four times, including to fellow actor Albert Finney between 1970 and 1978, her fourth and last husband. Her daughter Manuela was the offspring of her second marriage, to Greek film director Nikos Papatakis.




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