Miou-Miou

This article is about the actress. For the Prada fashion label, see Miu Miu. For English musician, see Miaoux Miaoux.

Miou-Miou
Miou-Miou in 2013
Born	Sylvette Herry (1950-02-22) 22 February 1950 (age 74) Paris, France
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1971–present
Children	2; including Jeanne Herry

Sylvette Herry (born 22 February 1950), known professionally as Miou-Miou (French: [mjumju]), is a French actress. A ten-time César Award nominee, she won the César Award for Best Actress for the 1979 film Memoirs of a French Whore. Her other films include This Sweet Sickness (1977), Entre Nous (1983), May Fools (1990), Germinal (1993), Dry Cleaning (1997) and Arrêtez-moi (2013). In her career she has worked with a number of international directors, including Michel Gondry, Bertrand Blier, Claude Berri, Jacques Deray, Patrice Leconte, Joseph Losey and Louis Malle.

Early life

Miou-Miou was born Sylvette Herry in Paris. Her stage name, Miou-Miou (a reference to the sound of a cat), was given to her by Coluche.^[1] She was raised in Paris by her mother, a greengrocer.

Career

Miou-Miou with director Jean-Pierre Blanc in 1973

After studying acting Miou-Miou worked in improvisational theater with Coluche and Patrick Dewaere, joining with them to help found the new comedy theatre Café de la Gare.^[2] She made her film debut in La vie sentimentale de Georges Le Tueur and La Cavale (both 1971).^[3]

In 1973 she appeared in three films, Elle court, elle court la banlieue, Les granges brulées and Les aventures de Rabbi Jacob. Her big break came with Blier's Going Places, released in 1974. During the 1970s, she had roles in such films as F comme Fairbanks (1976), Alain Tanner's Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 (1976), and Losey's Roads to the South (1978). In Memoirs of a French Whore (1979), directed by Daniel Duval, she portrayed a young prostitute and received a César Award for the role. Many of these 1970s films were released internationally to art-house venues. In 1976 she appeared in one of the last Spaghetti Westerns, Damiano Damiani's A Genius, Two Friends, and an Idiot.

Through the 1980s she was in such films as La gueule du loup (1981), Guy de Maupassant (1982), Diane Kurys's Entre nous (1983) with Isabelle Huppert, Blanche et Marie (1984), Evening Dress (1986), and Deville's The Reader (1988). She played opposite Lee Marvin (in one of his last roles) in Boisset's Dog Day in 1984.

The 1990s saw her in Louis Malle's May Fools (1990), Deray's thriller Netchaïev is back, the comedy Un indien dans la ville (1994), and The Eighth Day (1996) and Dry Cleaning in 1997. She appeared opposite Gérard Depardieu in a new production of Émile Zola's Germinal (1993). 2001 saw her in Agathe et le grand magasin and in 2004 she appeared in L'après-midi de monsieur Andesmas, among other films.

By the mid-2000s, her film roles abated and she began to appear in theatre.^[2]

Personal life

Miou-Miou in 1976

Miou-Miou has two daughters, Angèle Herry-Leclerc (born 1974), whose father is actor Patrick Dewaere, and Jeanne Herry (born 1978), whose father is singer Julien Clerc.^[4]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1971	La cavale	Little Squirrel
	La vie sentimentale de Georges Le Tueur		Short
1972	Ça va, ça vient	Magic Circus's woman
1973	Quelques messieurs trop tranquilles	Anita Boucher
	Themroc	The young neighbor
	Elle court, elle court la banlieue	The assistant
	The Year 01	The woman at 6 am
	The Burned Barns	Monique Cateux
	The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob	Antoinette Pivert
1974	Going Places	Marie-Ange
	Tender Dracula	Marie
1975	Lily, aime-moi	The girl in the coffee shop
	Pas de problème!	Anita Boucher
	A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe	Lucy
1976	Al piacere di rivederla	Patrizia
	Victory March	Rosanna
	D'amour et d'eau fraîche	Rita Gonzalez
	F comme Fairbanks	Marie	Nominated – César Award for Best Actress
	On aura tout vu	Christine
	Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000	Marie
1977	This Sweet Sickness	Juliette	Nominated – César Award for Best Actress
1978	Les routes du sud	Julia
1979	Traffic Jam	Angela
	Bye, See You Monday	Nicole
	Memoirs of a French Whore	Marie	César Award for Best Actress
1980	The Woman Cop	Inspector Corinne Levasseur
1981	Est-ce bien raisonnable?	Julie Boucher
	La gueule du loup	Marie
1982	Josepha	Josépha Manet	Nominated – César Award for Best Actress
	Guy de Maupassant	Gisèle d'Estoc
1983	Entre Nous	Madeleine	Nominated – César Award for Best Actress
	My Other Husband	Alice
1984	Dog Day	Jessica
	Le vol du Sphinx	Laura
1985	Blanche et Marie	Blanche
	Une vie comme je veux	Laurence	TV movie
1986	Tenue de soirée	Monique	Nominated – César Award for Best Actress
1988	The Revolving Doors	Lauda	Nominated – Genie Award for Best Supporting Actress
	The Reader	Constance / Marie	Nominated – César Award for Best Actress
	L'argent	Caroline Hamelin	TV movie
	Un vrai bonheur		Short
1990	May Fools	Camille	Nominated – César Award for Best Actress Nominated – David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress
1991	Netchaïev est de retour	Brigitte
	La Totale!	Hélène Voisin
1992	Scènes de ménage	The woman	Short
	Le bal des casse-pieds	Louise Sherry
1993	Tango	Marie
	Germinal	Maheude	Nominated – César Award for Best Actress
1994	Montparnasse-Pondichéry	Julie
	Un indien dans la ville	Patricia
1995	Une femme dans la tourmente	Michèle Rouannet	TV movie
	Une page d'amour	Hélène	TV movie
	Court toujours: Joséphine et les gitans	Joséphine	TV short
1996	Ma femme me quitte	Joanna Martin
	The Eighth Day	Julie
1997	Dry Cleaning	Nicole Kunstler	Lumières Award for Best Actress Nominated – César Award for Best Actress
	Elles	Eva
1998	Hors jeu	Herself
2000	Tout va bien, on s'en va	Laure
	Pour une fois		Short
2001	Agathe et le grand magasin	Agathe	TV movie
2003	Ambre a disparu	Eva Lorca	TV movie
2004	Folle embellie	Alida
	Mariages!	Gabrielle
	L'après-midi de monsieur Andesmas	Michel Arc's wife
2005	L'un reste, l'autre part	Anne-Marie
	Riviera	Antoinette
2006	The Science of Sleep	Christine Miroux
	Avril	Sister Bernadette
	Le héros de la famille	Simone Garcia
2007	Les murs porteurs	Judith Rosenfeld
2008	Affaire de famille	Laure Guignebont
	The Great Alibi	Éliane Pages
	Mia and the Migoo	Juliette's voice
2009	Marcher	Herself	Short
	Petites vacances à Knokke-le-Zoute	Micheline	TV movie
	Pour un fils	Catherine
	Le Concert	Guylène de La Rivière
	Une petite zone de turbulences	Anne Muret
2011	Le grand restaurant II	A client	TV movie
	Le choix d'Adèle	Adèle	TV movie
2012	Quand je serai petit	Jacqueline
	Bienvenue parmi nous	Alice
	Avanti	Catherine
	Populaire	Madeleine Échard
2013	Arrêtez-moi	Pontoise
	Bob et les Sex Pistaches
	Landes	Madeleine
2018	In Safe Hands	Irène
2021	The Last Mercenary	Marguerite

References

1. Oscherwitz, Dayna; Higgins, MaryEllen (2 September 2009). The A to Z of French Cinema. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-7038-3.
2. Miou-Miou in the NY Times Archived 7 January 2006 at the Wayback Machine
3. "Miou-Miou – Trailer – Showtimes – Cast – Movies – New York Times". Archived from the original on 15 June 2003. Retrieved 23 February 2006.
4. Famié-Galtier, Héloïse (8 February 2015). "Miou-Miou: Coluche, Patrick Dewaere, Julien Clerc... les hommes de sa vie". Puretrend (in French). Archived from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 10 June 2020.

External links

• Miou-Miou at IMDb