Marie Bell

Marie Bell

Born: December 23, 1900
Died: August 14, 1985
in Bordeaux, Gironde, France
Marie Bell (23 December 1900 – 14 August 1985), born Marie-Jeanne Bellon-Downey, was a French tragedian, comic actor and stage director. She was the director of the Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris from 1962 onwards, and this theatre now bears her name.

Marie Bell was born on 23 December 1900 in Bègles near Bordeaux (France). With her Irish father, she spent her childhood between Bordeaux and England.

Bell was a classical actress. She also appeared in avant-garde theatre, Jean Genet in particular.

Her interpretation of the role of Phèdre is highly noted : "Voir Marie Bell dans Phèdre est une chance unique pour quiconque veut savoir ce qu'est le génie français." André Malraux

During the German Occupation of France (1940–1944), she participated in the French resistance as one of nine directors of the Front national du théâtre. She was awarded the decoration of the Légion d'honneur by President Charles de Gaulle.

Bell married Jean Chevrier, who was also an actor.

Bell died on 14 August 1985 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine, France. She was buried alongside her husband Jean Chevrier at the Monaco Cemetery not far from Josephine Baker.

Source: Article "Marie Bell" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Movies for Marie Bell...

Closed Shutters
Title: Closed Shutters
Character: Aurore
Released: February 1, 1973
Type: Movie
1930. Adelaide is fed up with Paris and founds a 'retreat' for her women friends in a Breton port. They live well and take their pleasure seriously, until the attractive sailor Thomas arrives and nothing is ever the same again.
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Title: Le Grand Échiquier
Character: Self
Released: January 12, 1972
Type: TV
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Phèdre
Title: Phèdre
Character: Phèdre
Released: October 16, 1968
Type: Movie
In the absence of her royal husband Theseus, thought to be dead, Phaedra declares her love to Hippolyte, Theseus's son from a previous marriage.
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Hotel Paradiso
Title: Hotel Paradiso
Character: La Grande Antoinette
Released: March 1, 1966
Type: Movie
Monsieur Feydeau has writer's block, and he needs a new play. But he takes an opportunity to observe the upper class of 1900 Paris - Monsieur Boniface with a domineering wife, and the next-door neglectful husband Henri with a beautiful but ignored wife, Marcelle. Henri traces architectural anomalies (most ghost sounds are drains) and plans a night at the Hotel Paradiso, but this hotel is the assignation spot of Marcelle and Boniface. One wife, two husbands, a nephew, and the perky Boniface maid, all at this 'by the hour' hotel and consummation of the affair is, to say the least, severely compromised (not the least by a police raid). All of this is under Feydeau's eye, and his play is the 'success fou' of the next season.
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Sandra
Title: Sandra
Character: Corinna Gilardini
Released: September 16, 1965
Type: Movie
Sandra returns to her childhood village to take care of family business, but childhood memories and secrets soon overcome her.
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How to Make a French Dish
Title: How to Make a French Dish
Character: Elderly Marie-Paule
Released: January 29, 1964
Type: Movie
In this romantic drama, a middle-aged gambler tells a casino croupier her life story. The story is told in flashback and chronicles the woman's romantic exploits with men. Though she was involved with many men, only one really touched her heart. He was a bartender who was tragically shot and killed during an attempted robbery. She later marries and has a daughter. Unfortunately she alienates herself from her daughter when she has an affair with her daughter's fiance. Her remorse is short lived. The film jumps back to the present with the woman leaving the casino on the arm of a handsome millionaire.
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The Leopard
Title: The Leopard
Character: (uncredited)
Released: March 27, 1963
Type: Movie
As Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life. Proud but pragmatic Prince Don Fabrizio Salina allows his war hero nephew, Tancredi, to marry Angelica, the beautiful daughter of gauche, bourgeois Don Calogero, in order to maintain the family's accustomed level of comfort and political clout.
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Title: Discorama
Character: Self
Released: February 4, 1959
Type: TV
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Colonel Chabert
Title: Colonel Chabert
Character: La comtesse Rosine Ferraud
Released: December 1, 1943
Type: Movie
The story of a French officer who is assumed dead during the Napoleonic Wars, but returns ten years later to a very different France, both on a political and personal level. The film is based on the novel Colonel Chabert by Honoré de Balzac.
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Vie privée
Title: Vie privée
Character: Florence
Released: May 29, 1942
Type: Movie
Beautiful and adored by the public, the great actress Florence once faulted with Remi, a disreputable individual. A little girl was born who lives in the countryside. Dorcier, the director, would like to marry Florence and wonders about her private life and her past existence. A jealous rival unleashes slander.
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Those of the Sky
Title: Those of the Sky
Character: Hélène
Released: March 5, 1941
Type: Movie
An airplane manufacturer asks his son-in-law to try out the prototypes he builds. This one ends up having an accident because of fatigue, and pushes the sacrifice to help his rival.
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The Phantom Wagon
Title: The Phantom Wagon
Character: sœur Maria
Released: September 7, 1939
Type: Movie
French version of the Selma Lagerlof story, most famously filmed in 1921 by Victor Sjostrom, about a poor sinner who only realizes what misery he's wrought when he dies on New Year's Eve and is collected by Death in his carriage.
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Cocoanut
Title: Cocoanut
Character: Caroline
Released: February 17, 1939
Type: Movie
A small town gentleman learns that his prim and proper wife was once a showgirl, and that, even worse, he had enjoyed a one night stand with her in the Orient.
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La Glu
Title: La Glu
Character: Fernande dite La Glu
Released: April 27, 1938
Type: Movie
A young Breton sailor falls in love with a visiting stranger called 'La Glu'. He drops his betrothed, mother and friends so that he can live with her. La Glu is murdered. Who did it? Relatives and friends are all suspects.
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Legions of Honor
Title: Legions of Honor
Character: Simone Dabrau
Released: February 17, 1938
Type: Movie
An officer is tried for self-inflicted injury.He is thrown out of the Foreign Legion .
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Un carnet de bal
Title: Un carnet de bal
Character: Christine Surgère
Released: September 9, 1937
Type: Movie
After the death of her husband, Christine realizes she has possibly wasted her life by marrying him instead of the man towards whom, in her youth, she had a stronger inclination. To overcome these dreary thoughts, she decides to find out about him and the other men who danced with her during a ball that was a turning point in her life, many years ago. She pays a visit to those forgotten acquaintances one after the other; Christine is not only surprised to see how they have fared, but also discovers the impact she had, unknowingly, on the feelings and the destiny of these persons.
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Pantins d'amour
Title: Pantins d'amour
Released: April 23, 1937
Type: Movie
A rich, idle young man falls in love with a cabaret singer. Very skilful, she pretends to remain insensitive to this love, thus hoping to better achieve her ambitious ends.
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Blanchette
Title: Blanchette
Released: March 12, 1937
Type: Movie
Blanchette, unable to find a job, prostitutes herself in Paris. She then finds the man she loves when her morale is at its lowest.
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Les Demi-Vierges
Title: Les Demi-Vierges
Character: Maud de Rouvre
Released: December 4, 1936
Type: Movie
Maxime, heir to an old provincial family, is deeply in love with Maud whom he makes his fiancée. But learning that the young girl's life has not always been beyond reproach, he refuses to marry her and returns to his castle in the company of his sister who, happier than him, has met a man worthy of being in Paris. love.
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Quand minuit sonnera
Title: Quand minuit sonnera
Character: Mattia
Released: November 27, 1936
Type: Movie
A criminal is being blackmailed by his former accomplices. He does everything in his power to gain time because the statutory limitation for the crime he committed starts at midnight.
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Temptation
Title: Temptation
Released: July 26, 1936
Type: Movie
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Sous la Terreur
Title: Sous la Terreur
Released: May 22, 1936
Type: Movie
During the French Revolution in 1793, a member of the Convention, seduced by the Comtesse de Beaulieu, helps her to discover the truth about the relationship between Agnès de Fitz-James and the count who was guillotined.
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The Tomboy
Title: The Tomboy
Character: Monique Lerbier, la garçonne
Released: February 21, 1936
Type: Movie
The eponymous garçonne or flapper is Monique Lerbier, an emancipated French woman who leaves home to escape a marriage of convenience to a man she does not love which her parents have forced on her. She then falls into all sorts of carnal temptations and artificial pleasures previously unknown to her. These include her being seduced into a lesbian love affair by a chanteuse.
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Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre
Title: Le Roman d'un jeune homme pauvre
Character: Marguerite
Released: February 21, 1935
Type: Movie
Maxime de Champcey, a bankrupt marquis, is hired by the wealthy Laroque and falls for his daughter Marguerite. She loves him too but rejects him under the belief he's a fortune hunter.
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Poliche
Title: Poliche
Released: July 27, 1934
Type: Movie
Didier Méreuil, affectionately called Poliche, is in love with Rosine, a beautiful girl, so he does everything to please her. She does not love him, and accepts a seductive airplane pilot who proposes to her. One day, she discovers that the funny man is just a front behind which there is a serious Didier. She will try to make up and live with him - but the gap between them is already too large.
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The Great Game
Title: The Great Game
Character: Florence / Irma
Released: May 2, 1934
Type: Movie
Pierre , a young lawyer, has enormous debts due to his mistress Florence and her whims of luxury life. Pierre has gone too far and put the family firm in jeopardy. They ask him to expatriate. To avoid scandal, Pierre joins the Foreign Legion. In Morocco, near the desert, Pierre goes with his comrades of the Legion to a bar-restaurant-brothel, owned by a shady character, Mr. Clement . Clement lives more or less with Ms.Blanche who is a fortune teller with cards, as a hobby. But Clement is also after his girls now and then. Pierre is still obsessed with Florence but he meets Irma , one of Clement's girls, who is the double of Florence except for hair color. Irma has had an accident and has lost part of her memory at a certain point of her recent past, and Pierre slowly persuades himself she is Florence, but cannot remember it. Advised by Ms.Blanche, Irma finally accepts to act as if she was Florence because she is falling in love with Pierre.
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Fedora
Title: Fedora
Released: March 23, 1934
Type: Movie
Fedora swears to avenge the death of her fiancé, Prince Yarischkine, killed by Ipanoff who fled to Paris. She finds Ipanoff whom she falls in love with and he confesses to having killed her fiancé because Yarischkine was his wife's lover. But learning that her brother was executed because of Fedora, Ipanoff leaves her. Fedora commits suicide.
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The Princess's Whim
Title: The Princess's Whim
Character: Isabelle
Released: January 19, 1934
Type: Movie
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The Man with the Hispano
Title: The Man with the Hispano
Released: March 24, 1933
Type: Movie
The almost financially ruined French gentleman Gaston Dewalter spends several days in Biarritz before going off in the Hispano-Suiza, a luxe car which was a present from his friends. George becomes the lover of Lady Stéphane Oswill pretending he is wealthy. Then Stéphane spends the remaining funds with which the now desperate George hoped to rebuild his fortune in Senegal.
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Luck
Title: Luck
Character: Tania Balieff
Released: December 24, 1931
Type: Movie
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The crazy adventure
Title: The crazy adventure
Released: March 13, 1931
Type: Movie
Fred, a journalist, faces an international intrigue to protect the mysterious Nelly.
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The Man Who Killed
Title: The Man Who Killed
Released: January 16, 1931
Type: Movie
The new French military attaché at the Constantinople embassy helps a young woman being blackmailed by her own husband.
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The Joker
Title: The Joker
Released: November 14, 1930
Type: Movie
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La nuit est à nous
Title: La nuit est à nous
Character: Bettine Barsac
Released: January 10, 1930
Type: Movie
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Figaro
Title: Figaro
Character: Suzanne
Released: March 4, 1929
Type: Movie
A silent adaptation of the 1778 Beaumarchais play The Marriage of Figaro, with material also used from its two sequels.
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La valse de l'adieu
Title: La valse de l'adieu
Released: October 13, 1928
Type: Movie
The life of composer Frédéric Chopin through his youthful love for Maria Wodzińska, a young Polish aristocrat he was unable to marry because of his own situation, considered too modest by the girl's family. On the threshold of death, Chopin remembered his beloved and the piece he composed when he left her: La Valse de l'adieu.
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Madame Récamier
Title: Madame Récamier
Character: Juliette Récamier
Released: June 28, 1928
Type: Movie
The film displays Madame Récamier 's conflict with Napoleon. Twice she was pressed to become one of the Empress's ladies. In revenge for her refusal Napoleon declined to save her husband from ruin.
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Paris
Title: Paris
Released: December 13, 1924
Type: Movie
Jean Fleury, a young engineer who has designed a revolutionary engine for the Revoil motor company, is engaged to Aimée Valois, a seamstress, his neighbor across the hall. But the charming young lady is hired one day by a nightclub and lets herself be lured by the easy life in Paris. So much so that, to Jean's great distress, she breaks up with him. But, along with time, Aimée gets tired of her vain and frivolous lifestyle and comes back to Jean.