Danielle Darrieux gives sophisticated women wit and vulnerability. We admire the warmth she brings to Persepolis just as much: her grandmother is affectionate without turning every line into a lesson.
Fi1m perspective
In Persepolis (2007), Marjane's grandmother sounds like someone a child might want to spend time with. Danielle Darrieux gives her affection without the solemnity that can make a screen grandmother seem appointed to dispense wisdom. We were moved by the warmth in her voice, because it made the family's closeness matter without an explanation. She is especially good in a film whose expressive drawings might otherwise take most of the attention. There is pleasure in listening to her, quite apart from anything the character has to teach.
Mayerling (1936) brought her international prominence, but the 1950s work with Ophüls is where her sophistication becomes especially interesting to us. La Ronde (1950) makes use of her comic timing; The Earrings of Madame de... (1953) brings charm and vulnerability to a society wife entangled in romance. She was frequently cast as sophisticated, flirtatious or disenchanted Parisian women. The attraction is that the elegance need not disappear when the woman is hurt.
The singing matters, too: she sang her own parts for Jacques Demy in The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) and A Room in Town (1982). A view of Darrieux that stops at the poised society woman leaves out a substantial part of what she could do with her voice. In 8 Women (2002), she played Catherine Deneuve's mother. Persepolis puts them in successive generations again, with Deneuve voicing Marjane's mother and Darrieux her grandmother.
In Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's film, Darrieux has company that makes the warmth convincing. Simon Abkarian plays Marjane's father, and he and Deneuve give the parents worries of their own; Chiara Mastroianni keeps the older Marjane from sounding like a history lesson. Some episodes pass too quickly, and even this cast cannot make every one feel fully developed. Start with Persepolis if the elegant reputation sounds forbidding; there is nothing forbidding about this voice.
Biography
Danielle Darrieux was a French actress and singer. She was born on 1 May 1917 in Bordeaux and died on 17 October 2017. She made her screen debut in 1931 and appeared in more than 110 films over a career that spanned eight decades.
She studied the cello at the Conservatoire de Musique in Paris. Early roles included Mayerling (1936). Later credits include La Ronde (1950), The Earrings of Madame de... (1953), The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) and 8 Women (2002). She received an Honorary César Award in 1985.
Her final screen appearances were the voice of Marjane's grandmother in the animated film Persepolis (2007) and a role in Pièce montée (2010).
