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Élina Labourdette
Élina Labourdette
Born	21 May 1919; Paris, France
Died	30 September 2014 (aged 95); Le Mesnil-le-Roi,; Yvelines, France
Other names	Élina Janine Alice Henri-Labourdette
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1938–1983
Known for	Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945); Edward and Caroline (1951)
Spouse	Louis Pauwels (m. 1956; died 1997)
Children	1

Élina Labourdette (born Élina Janine Alice Henri-Labourdette, 21 May 1919 – 30 September 2014) was a French actress.^[1] Her career consisted mostly of flirtatious coquette roles on stage and screen.^[2] She is best known for her performances in Robert Bresson's Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945) and in Jacques Demy's Edward and Caroline (1951).

Biography

Élina Labourdette was born on 21 May 1919 in the 16th arrondissement of Paris.^[3] The daughter of the renowned coachbuilder and automobile designer Jean Henri-Labourdette [fr], Élina at first wanted to be a dancer,^[4] 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 Alexandre Volinine [fr].^[4] 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.^[4] 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.^[5] 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.^[6]

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1938	Prison sans barreaux		Uncredited
1938	The Shanghai Drama	Vera Blonski
1941	The Pavilion Burns	Denise
1943	Des jeunes filles dans la nuit [fr]	Germaine
1945	Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne	Agnès
1947	Les trafiquants de la mer [fr]	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	Tapage nocturne [fr]	Caroline, the secretary
1952	The Case Against X	Catherine Villard
1952	My Husband Is Marvelous	Micheline
1953	La vierge du Rhin [fr]	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	Vacances en enfer [fr]	Mme Martel
1962	Tales of Paris	Jacqueline	(segment "Sophie")
1962	Snobs ! [fr]	Mme de Saint-Aigne
1962	Five Miles to Midnight	Mme. Lafont
1962	Le Glaive et la balance [fr]	Simone Darbon
1968	Au pan coupé [fr]	Owner of the Au pan coupé bar
1968	The Young Wolves	Mme Sinclair
1970	Le Clair de terre [fr]	Woman guide

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1958	La Répétition ou l'Amour puni	Hortensia	Film by Jean-Paul Carrère [fr]
1960	Les Cinq Dernières Minutes (series)	Jacqueline Masserey	Season 1, episode 16: Dernier cri [fr] by Claude Loursais [fr]
1964	La Cousine Bette [fr]	Baroness Adeline Hulot d'Ervy	Film by Yves-André Hubert
1967	Julie de Chaverny ou la Double Méprise [fr]	Mme Lambert	Film by Jean-Pierre Marchand [fr]
1973	Un grand amour de Balzac [fr]	Laure de Berny	Series
1974	Président Faust [fr]	Cathy Faust	Film by Jean Kerchbron [fr]
1974	Julie Charles [fr]	Mme de Lamartine	Film by Jean Kerchbron [fr]
1974	Les Jardins du roi [fr]	Madeleine Vaindrier	Film by Jean Kerchbron [fr]
1975	Monsieur Jadis [fr]	The mother	Film by Michel Polac [fr]
1976	Anne, jour après jour [fr]	Espérance	Series by Bernard Toublanc-Michel
1978	Allégra [fr]	Vanina	Film by Michel Wyn [fr]
1979	Les Moyens du bord [fr]	Évelyne	Film by Bernard Toublanc-Michel
1979	Cinéma 16 [fr] (series)	Clémence Lavaronnière	Episode L'Œil du sorcier [fr] by Alain Dhénaut [fr]
1978	Les Jeunes Filles [fr]	Mme Dandillot	Film by Lazare Iglésis [fr]
1981	Le Piège à loups [fr]	Aunt Jo	Film
1983	Deux amies d'enfance

References

^ "Élina Labourdette". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 5 February 2017.
^ Reader p.21
^ Foucart, Yvan. "Elina Labourdette". Les Gens du Cinéma (in French). Retrieved 6 May 2024.
^ ^a ^b ^c Henry, Pierre (13 November 1945). "Élina Labourdette, telle qu'elle est". Gallica (in French). LaPresse. p. 7. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
^ She nevertheless agreed to appear for Jacques Burtin in 2011 in Le Dernier Kodachrome, a tribute to cinema and dreams.
^ "L'actrice Elina Labourdette, "dame du bois de Boulogne", est morte". Libération (in French). AFP. 30 September 2014. Retrieved 5 May 2024.