Anny Duperey

In 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967), Anny Duperey faces the lens while Godard feeds his actors lines and questions through an earpiece. It is an awkward arrangement for anyone trying to make a character seem to think for herself. Yet her Marianne is brighter and sadder than Marina Vlady's Juliette, whose thoughts arrive as the slogans she has absorbed. We felt for Marianne, because Duperey's sadness makes her seem vulnerable amid all that questioning. She gives us someone to attend to when the film threatens to become a lecture.

That was her screen debut, before glamorous parts became a familiar use for her. Alain Resnais cast her as Arlette in Stavisky... (1974), and she played Charlotte in the comedy Pardon Mon Affaire (1976). Her early casting repeatedly favoured sophisticated or alluring women; Charlotte gave her scope for feeling within that sort of supporting role. The limitation was how much attention those roles directed towards her appearance. Her later search for parts less dependent on her looks makes sense when there was already something more interesting to notice in Marianne.

In the 1980s, she shifted her emphasis towards theatre, often working alongside Bernard Giraudeau. Television brought sustained work as Catherine Beaumont, the central maternal figure in Une famille formidable (1992–2018), across 56 episodes. The shift from alluring supporting player to the mother at the centre of a family programme changes what an audience expects from her. Here, the interest lies in returning to the same woman over many years, rather than making a quick impression in someone else's story.

For a first encounter, though, we would choose Marianne. Raoul Coutard's colours give Godard's film much of its beauty, but the actors have to hold our interest through the questions and slogans. Duperey's contribution is small enough that it would be easy to overlook while following the director's pronouncements, and affecting enough to make that a mistake. Our reservations about the film concern how readily Godard lectures when he could be looking at the people in front of him. Do not expect her to make him an easy evening.