Françoise Dreyfus was raised mainly by her mother following the divorce of her parents, who were theatre actors. Her mother frequently took her to the cinema and gave her consent when her 13-year-old daughter was asked to make her debut there. She was renamed Anouk after her first role and Aimée as suggested by Jacques Prévert. In Jacques Becker’s “Montparnasse 19”, she plays Jeanne Hébuterne, Modigliani’s companion (Gérard Philipe). Federico Fellini highlighted her arrogant beauty in “La dolce vita” and “8½”. In 1966, the ideal couple she formed with Jean-Louis Trintignant in “A Man and a Woman” was an international success, and she toured with Claude Lelouch on numerous occasions until “What Love May Bring” in 2010. Her mysterious charm illuminates “Lola” and “Model Shop” by Jacques Demy. She toured in Italy a lot, with Alberto Lattuada, Marco Bellocchio, Bernardo Bertolucci. In 2003, in Marceline Loridan-Ivens’ “A Birch Tree Meadow”, Anouk Aimée plays a camp survivor. She thus revives part of her memory, she who had miraculously escaped extermination as a little girl. Pointed out as “Jewish” by her companions after school, she had been brought back to her grandmother by a German soldier who remained anonymous. In 2011, she played in Philippe Claudel’s “Tous les soleils” [All the Suns]. On stage, she played her debut in Julien Green’s “Sud” [South]; more recently, in the American play “Love Letters”, with Bruno Crémer, then Philippe Noiret and finally Alain Delon. She was married to filmmaker Nikos Papatakis, the father of her daughter Manuella, then to singer Pierre Barouh, and actor Albert Finney. Committed to the protection of nature and animals, she is friends with primatologist Jane Goodall and a member of the Jane-Goodall Institute France.
