Claude Nollier(1919-2009)
- Actress
An excellent actress, Claude Nollier remains too little known. Maybe
because she made few films, but isn't quality better than quantity ?
Whatever the truth, none of her appearances, whether an important movie
like John Huston's
Moulin Rouge (1952) or an artistic
flop such as
Les trafiquants de la mer (1947),
leaves a normal viewer indifferent. Hieratically beautiful and terribly
cold, Claude Nollier is most often chilling, invariably attracting
resentment from the other characters in the movie in return. Fitting
this type of role to perfection she is memorable as the murderess whose
distant airs play against her in
André Cayatte's court drama
Justice Is Done (1950); as
Olga, the communist party envoy who must decide the life or death of
the hero in
Dirty Hands (1951); as
Fernandel's malevolent sister-in-law in
Le printemps, l'automne et l'amour (1955);
and, among others, as the governess driven by her latent lesbianism in
Lewis Gilbert's cruel and
sensitive
Loss of Innocence (1961).
Of course, as every rule has its exception, she had no difficulty in
portraying Toulouse-Lautrec's adored (and adorable ?) mother in the
already mentioned
Moulin Rouge (1952). More active on
the boards than on the big and the small screen, Claude Nollier's movie
career should nevertheless not be overlooked as it is now. She is a
great performer to rediscover.
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