Élina Labourdette (born Élina Janine Alice Henri-Labourdette, 21 May 1919 – 30 September 2014) was a French actress. Her career consisted mostly of flirtatious roles on stage and screen.Reader p.21 She is best known for her performances in Robert Bresson's Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945) and in Jacques Becker's Edward and Caroline (1951).
Biography Élina Labourdette was born on 21 May 1919 in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The daughter of the renowned coachbuilder and automobile designer , Élina at first wanted to be a dancer, before having to give up her dream of becoming a prima ballerina for health reasons. She learned rhythmic dance with Irène Popard and classical dance with . During her school years, she took her first acting lessons with the actress Ève Francis. In 1938 at the age of nineteen, she made her first film The Shanghai Drama, directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst. She then spent six months in England where, in addition to learning English, she took theatre and singing lessons. René Clair made her the teacher heroine of his film Air pur but the Second World War stopped the project. In 1944, towards the end of the war, she appeared in Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne directed by Robert Bresson, the film for which she became famous and remains best known. She played, with subtlety and great modernity, a cabaret dancer who has become a prostitute and is manipulated by a woman wishing to take revenge on a lover who rejected her, by throwing him into the arms of the dancer.
In 1950, Labourdette joined the theatre company of Madeleine Renaud and Jean-Louis Barrault, with whom she performed alongside her film career. She also did dubbing, notably lending her voice to Grace Kelly in the French versions of John Ford's Mogambo (1953) and Alfred Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief (1955). In 1956 she acted under the direction of Jean Renoir in Elena and Her Men, alongside Ingrid Bergman and Jean Marais. In 1961, she played a notable supporting role in Lola, Jacques Demy's first feature film. Her cinema film career ended with Le Clair de terre, a 1970 film by filmmaker Guy Gilles.She nevertheless agreed to appear for Jacques Burtin in 2011 in Le Dernier Kodachrome, a tribute to cinema and dreams. From the end of the 1950s, she appeared several times in French soap operas and television films, including the popular Les Cousins de la Constance.
During her career, Labourdette worked for several notable directors, including G. W. Pabst, René Clair, Robert Bresson, René Clément, Jacques Becker, Gilles Grangier, Jean-Paul Le Chanois, Jean Renoir, and André Cayatte.
She was the second wife of journalist and writer Louis Pauwels from 1956 until his death in 1997. In 1961, they adopted a daughter, Zoé.
Labourdette died on 30 September 2014 in Le Mesnil-le-Roi, Yvelines, aged 95.
Filmography Year Title Role Notes1938 Prison sans barreaux Uncredited1938 The Shanghai Drama Vera Blonski 1941 The Pavilion Burns Denise 1943 Germaine 1945 Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne Agnès 1947 Hélène 1950 The Adventurers of the Air Gisèle Lesieur 1950 The Glass Castle Marion 1951 Edward and Caroline Florence Borch de Martelie 1951 Monsieur Fabre Countess de La Tour 1951 Caroline, the secretary 1952 The Case Against X Catherine Villard 1952 My Husband Is Marvelous Micheline 1953 Rhine Virgin Geneviève Labbé 1955 To Paris with Love Sylvia Gilbert 1955 Papa, maman, ma femme et moi Marguerite, the florist 1956 It Happened in Aden Simone 1956 Elena and Her Men Paulette Escoffier 1957 The Truth About Women Countess 1960 The Night of Suspects Gaby Farnoux 1961 Lola Mme Desnoyers 1961 Mme Martel 1962 Tales of Paris Jacqueline (segment "Sophie")1962 Mme de Saint-Aigne 1962 Five Miles to Midnight Mme. Lafont 1962 Simone Darbon 1968 Owner of the Au pan coupé bar 1968 The Young Wolves Mme Sinclair 1970 Woman guide
Television Year Title Role Notes 1958La Répétition ou l'Amour puniHortensia Film by 1960Les Cinq Dernières Minutes (series) Jacqueline Masserey Season 1, episode 16: by 1964 Baroness Adeline Hulot d'ErvyFilm by Yves-André Hubert1967 Mme LambertFilm by 1973Laure de Berny Series1974 Cathy FaustFilm by 1974Mme de LamartineFilm by 1974 Madeleine VaindrierFilm by 1975The motherFilm by 1976 EspéranceSeries by Bernard Toublanc-Michel1978 VaninaFilm by 1979Évelyne Film by Bernard Toublanc-Michel1979 (series) Clémence Lavaronnière Episode by 1978 Mme Dandillot Film by 1981 Aunt JoFilm1983Deux amies d'enfance
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