Irène Jacob

Acting

Irène Jacob

Born

1966-07-15 (60)

Place of birth

Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine, France

Known for

Acting

Credits

72 titles

Irène Marie Jacob (born 15 July 1966) is a French-born Swiss actress considered one of the preeminent French actresses of her generation. Jacob gained international recognition and acclaim through her work with Polish film director Krzysztof Kieslowski, who cast her in the lead role of The Double Life of Véronique and Three Colors: Red. She came to represent an image of European sophistication, through her "classic beauty and thoughtful, almost melancholic style of acting." Description above from the Wikipedia article Irène Jacob, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known for

Spécial cinéma poster
9.5

Marcello Mastroianni, Isabelle Adjani, Alain Delon, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen... the biggest stars in cinema were welcomed by Christian Defaye on his show Spécial cinéma. Between intimate confessions from actors and immersion in the world of the greatest filmmakers, Christian Defaye took viewers on a journey into the fascinating world of cinema for nearly thirty years.

Spécial cinéma

1974

The Affair poster
6.7

The emotional effects of an extramarital relationship between Noah, a New York City schoolteacher and budding novelist with a wife of twenty years and four children and Alison, a young waitress and wife from Montauk at the end of Long Island, trying to piece her life back together in the wake of a tragedy.

The Affair

2014

The OA poster
7.5

Seven years after vanishing from her home, a young woman returns with mysterious new abilities and recruits five strangers for a secret mission.

The OA

2016

Patrick Melrose poster
7.5

A critical and often humorous look at the upper class, tracking the protagonist's harrowing odyssey from a deeply traumatic childhood through adult substance abuse and, ultimately, toward recovery.

Patrick Melrose

2018

Liaison poster
6.3

Two agents—and former lovers—must work together to combat international cyberattacks threatening the UK while also confronting the buried secrets of their destructive relationship.

Liaison

2023

A Private Life poster
5.5

When renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner learns of the sudden death of a patient, she suspects murder. She mounts a private investigation, enlisting an odd assortment of quirky characters.

A Private Life

2025

Film credits

2020s · 14 titles

A Private Life poster
5.5

When renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner learns of the sudden death of a patient, she suspects murder. She mounts a private investigation, enlisting an odd assortment of quirky characters.

A Private Life

2025

Maigret and the Dead Lover poster
6.0

Commissioner Maigret rushes to the Quai d’Orsay with Lieutenant Janvier. There, they find Mademoiselle Larrieu in a state of shock. That very morning, she discovered the bullet-riddled body of Mr. Berthier-Lagès, a renowned former ambassador whom she had served as a housekeeper for 46 years. While searching the victim's apartment, Maigret and Janvier uncover hundreds of letters. The diplomat had maintained a fifty-year-long love correspondence with a certain Princess of Vuynes, whose husband - by a strange coincidence - had died just a few days earlier. As he confronts the various members of the two families and the suspicious silence of Mademoiselle Larrieu, Maigret finds himself faced with surprise after surprise, watching his certainties crumble - until the solution to the mystery finally hits him in the face at the very last moment...

Maigret and the Dead Lover

2026

The Road to Jericho poster
NR

A journey from Jerusalem and start going to Jericho, keeping in mind that the first agreement that had been signed by Yitzhak Rabin was first dealing with Gaza and Jericho. We see a little hamlet of some Bedouin tents, called Khan El Ahmar. And it s a small community of 300 members. But recently there were threats to destroy it , which is not so much something that Rabin would like to hear.

The Road to Jericho

2026

Hôtel Silence poster
7.0

Jean, in his fifties, has lost his lust for life. He leaves Canada for a faraway country, somewhere in Europe. A beautiful place to end his days, he thought. But that was without counting on the formidable resilience of the inhabitants and residents of the Hotel Silence.

Hôtel Silence

2024

Meeting with Pol Pot poster
5.9

Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia) - 1978. Three French journalists are invited by the Khmer Rouge to conduct an exclusive interview of the regime's leader, Pol Pot. The country seems ideal. But behind the Potemkin village, the Khmer Rouge regime is declining and the war with Vietnam threatens to invade the country. The regime is looking for culprits, secretly carrying out a large scale genocide. Under the eyes of the journalists, the beautiful picture cracks, revealing the horror. Their journey progressively turns into a nightmare.

Meeting with Pol Pot

2024

Romantic Guide to Lost Places poster
5.7

Benno and Allegra: he's over fifty, English, and drinks like a fish; she's twenty years younger, a travel blogger with lots of imagination. They both live off their lies and have no intention of stopping now. Next-door neighbors who had never met until the day he wound up on the wrong landing, and nothing would ever be the same. Sheer chance leads this odd couple on a flight towards lost or forgotten places, where their mutual support makes for self-discovery.

Romantic Guide to Lost Places

2020

Shoot to Live poster
6.2

A documentary on filmmaker Claude Lelouch, following him over seven years.

Shoot to Live

2022

Who by Fire poster
6.4

Seventeen-year-old Jeff stays at film director Blake Cadieux's wilderness lodge after being invited by friend Max's family. When strange events occur, Jeff suspects something is amiss with the director and his retreat.

Who by Fire

2024

Marie Trintignant : Le Choix du jeu poster
6.3

This film revisits the career and development of Marie Trintignant through the loving and often amused eyes of her father Jean-Louis Trintignant, as well as those of the actors and directors with whom she worked.

Marie Trintignant : Le Choix du jeu

2021

Villa Caprice poster
5.4

Famous lawyer, Luc Germon adds Gilles Fontaine, one of the most powerful bosses in France, to his clients. He is suspected of having acquired a magnificent property, Villa Caprice, under questionable conditions.

Villa Caprice

2021

Les Dominos poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Les Dominos

2020

La Vie Pathé-Baby poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

La Vie Pathé-Baby

2025

No artwork available
1.0

The film was inspired by one of the most important documentaries shot by Krzysztof Kieślowski, Talking Heads (1980). The director asked his interlocutors seemingly simple questions, such as “Who are you?” and “What do you want?”.

Talking Heads 2021

2021

Why War poster
4.0

In 1932, Albert Einstein was invited by the League of Nations to address a letter on any subject to any person. He chose to correspond with Sigmund Freud about avoiding war. To this day, the correspondence about war of two great thinkers of all time proves to be more relevant than ever. Inspired by this correspondence between Albert Einstein and Sigmund Freud almost a century ago, the film Why War traces the roots of war, and embarks on a search for an explanation of the savagery of wars that inhabit our world.

Why War

2025

2010s · 14 titles

Dying of the Light poster
4.7

Evan Lake, a veteran CIA agent, has been ordered to retire. But when his protégé uncovers evidence that Lake's nemesis, the terrorist Banir, has resurfaced, Lake goes rogue, embarking on a perilous, intercontinental mission to eliminate his sworn enemy.

Dying of the Light

2014

We Love You, You Bastard poster
5.5

A war photographer and absent father, who spends more time taking care of his camera than his four daughters, enjoys a happy life in the Alps with his new girlfriend. But his life is turned upside down the day that his best friend tries to reconcile him with his family by telling them a big lie.

We Love You, You Bastard

2014

For the Ones We Loved poster
4.0

At a wedding where the husband runs away, everyone has his own story to tell about the trivial misfortune of a person in love with someone that slips away. The guests paint a full picture of clumsiness, lies, and bad luck, that makes impossible, whatever the age, all attempts of seduction... or close enough !

For the Ones We Loved

2019

Rio Sex Comedy poster
4.5

A group of strangers from different countries end up on Rio's beaches. Seeking self-fulfillment, they look for answers to existential questions. Yet it isn't until their different paths cross that they begin to understand why they came.

Rio Sex Comedy

2010

Love Flesh poster
6.5

During the course of a series of voyages, the pocket cameras of Pippo Delbono capture unique moments, ordinary and extraordinary meetings. From a hotel room in Paris to another in Budapest, from Istanbul to Bucharest, the journeys weave a fabric of the contemporary world. Its testimonials – some famous, others anonymous – say or dance their vision of the universe.

Love Flesh

2013

Eternity poster
5.6

Valentine marries at the end of the 19th century, and love passes through her family from generation to generation.

Eternity

2016

The Lanzac Clan poster
7.7

A war of inheritance in the Lanzac family, a rich industrial family from Bordeaux, against a backdrop of family secrets and the unsaid. Elisabeth Lanzac authoritatively leads an important industrial group specializing in wood. Her eldest son, Nicolas, is her named successor, but he dies in a road accident. When the will is read, the family is stunned to learn that he has left his share to Julien, his secret son...

The Lanzac Clan

2013

Letter to Theo poster
NR

The filmmaker Théo Angelopoulos died on January 24th, 2012, knocked down by a motorbike on the set of his final film. In his unfinished film, he was telling the destinies of the victims of the Greek crisis. The list of victims of the crisis has only grown longer, this destitution echoing another that Théo had sensed was coming: that of the massive arrival of refugees who find themselves trapped in Greece by the closure of the borders. Yet citizen resistance is being organized and fights every day to bring those in danger of obliteration out of the shadows. Ironically, the ambulance supposed to come to his rescue broke down because budgetary restrictions had made it impossible to maintain the vehicle. The crisis itself killed Théo. This is a letter addressed to him in the form of a film.

Letter to Theo

2019

The Easy Way Out poster
5.1

Patrick, a travel agent in his early 30s, lives with Arthur, an immigration lawyer; but for a long time, Patrick has been sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of their bedroom. His younger brother, Tony, plans to marry his high school sweetheart but is having an affair that is far more satisfying than his relationship with his fiancee. Their older brother, Ryan, is divorced, living at home and working at his parents’ hopelessly unprofitable men’s clothing store. And McCauley soon makes achingly clear that the parents’ marriage is far from happy.

The Easy Way Out

2015

Two Snails Set Off poster
6.1

A forest full of animated animals encourage a pair of snails, who are fully clad in black because they are in mourning for a dead leaf, to celebrate the new spring and reclaim the colors of life. Based on the children's poem by Jacques Prévert entitled "Chanson des escargots qui font à l'enterrement" ("Song of the snails who are on their way to a funeral").

Two Snails Set Off

2017

Sayonara poster
5.4

The world's first human-android acting duo, called Android Theater Project, is the collaborative brainchild of noted Japanese playwright Oriza Hirata and the leading robotics scientist Hiroshi Ishiguro. "Sayonara" is a remakable android play and has been adapted to feature film by the acclaimed filmmaker Koji Fukada (Hospitalité, Au revoir l’été). In this film project the setting of the story is largely expanded, depicting time and space in a way which can only be achieved in film, examining life and death though the communication between dying human and immortal android.

Sayonara

2015

François Truffaut l'insoumis poster
5.8

This portrait of the world-famous French director based on his personal correspondance reveals the little known insurgent side of his personnality. Featuring interviews with close collaborators, friends and family, this definitive documentary tells his intimate story, from the streets of Paris to the filmmaking accolades and high profile marriages at the height of his career.

François Truffaut l'insoumis

2014

Home Away From Home poster
NR

A taxi driver, a young girl and a backpacker simultaneously experience a wonderful journey in Tokyo, where they find connections to their own homes in Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia.Throughout their journey, they run into the same Japanese woman named Akiko. Meanwhile, a writer in Paris recalls her encounter with Akiko in Tokyo.

Home Away From Home

2017

Ella Maillart: Double Journey poster
6.8

Summer 1939. Ella Maillart and Annemarie Schwarzenbach leave Europe for Asia. Ella hopes to make an ethnographic film and to help Annemarie get off drugs. In Kabul she realizes to have lost all certainties and faces the difficult search for herself. For a year she travels alone in the British Indies, a keen observer of the colonial system, living from moment to moment while war ravages Europe. Letters, diaries, film footage and photographs reveal a portrait of Ella Maillart (1903-1997), one of the greatest travelers and photographers of the last century. Narrated by the voice of a great actress, Irène Jacob.

Ella Maillart: Double Journey

2015

2000s · 12 titles

Battle of the Brave poster
6.3

In the mid-18th Century, as England and France battle over control of Canada, an epic romance between a peasant woman and a trapper unfurls

Battle of the Brave

2004

Heart of the Festival poster
6.7

A short film containing some of the highlights of the Cannes Film Festival's storied history.

Heart of the Festival

2002

The Dust of Time poster
6.4

To trace the fading past of his parents, a grizzled Greek-American filmmaker decides to shoot a movie. By recounting the painful efforts of his mother to reunite with his musician father, his film spans more than half of the 20th century.

The Dust of Time

2008

Four Play poster
4.2

A romantic comedy about the fleeting attractions between men and women on the set of a popular British sitcom.

Four Play

2001

French Beauty poster
10.0

A story about the riddle of femininity in French cinema.

French Beauty

2005

The French Kissers poster
5.8

An awkward adolescent boy and his angst-ridden friends try their best to fit in amongst a cast of varied characters.

The French Kissers

2009

The Inner Life of Martin Frost poster
4.5

A writer awakens one day to find a strange but beautiful woman in bed with him. He quickly falls in love with her, thinking he has found his muse, but as time passes she becomes more and more unattainable.

The Inner Life of Martin Frost

2007

The Legend of Princess Parva poster
7.2

The island of Kiam was once a paradise place with a kind Maharaja as a ruler. But one day the villainous Malaw killed the island’s ruler and deprived the Crown Prince Shiva of the throne. The insidious Malaw had the prince locked up in a dungeon in the palace’s underground labyrinth, and he announced to the Kiam residents that he would kill Shiva if they only tried to rebel. Then the Old Sage Swami, aided by programmer Agni, came into contact with the Light of Crystal. That’s what he called a girl named Parva, who embodied radiant innocence and was born of the same astral combination as Prince Shiva. Only she and her love could save the prince and bring peace back to the island of Kiam.

The Legend of Princess Parva

2003

Déchaînées poster
6.4

Lucy, a 19-year old law student and intern at a Swiss television network in Geneva, comes across her double in archival footage about the woman’s liberation movement in the 70’s. Her family’s resistance to talk about this time convinces Lucy that a secret lurks behind this mysterious woman, named Geneviève.

Déchaînées

2009

Fallen Heroes poster
4.4

Forty year-old Bruno Ledeux, seen sitting across from the doctor, gives the impression of a man who is no longer young but not yet old.Condemned to remain nothing more than a son, he begins his downward slide, as if a fog had shut him in a cage from which there is no escape. Bruno can never have children .He says nothing about this diagnosis to Anne, his beloved wife. Nor does he tell her about a large debt he has taken out. It is as if Bruno were a man without any qualities or talents. A mediocre man who has lost all pride. Though now everything appears hazy in his memory. Like a river that flows peacefully, showing no signs of the hidden currents at work below. But at times those currents can return to the surface. Without warning.

Fallen Heroes

2008

Letter from an Unknown Woman poster
5.2

Vienna, in the 1930s. The attractive and famous writer Albert Rank receives the letter from a stranger. He discovers that she devoted her entire life to her boundless love. In her letter, Rose looks back on a variety of meetings with Albert: Since childhood, she is slavishly in love with him and she never got away from her throughout her life. In many encounters Rank could not recognize them, even if the shared moments had been wonderful. As an adult woman, Rose's love is too painful to go on, and she has dire consequences.

Letter from an Unknown Woman

2002

The Landlords poster
6.0

Directed by Rémi Waterhouse, Mille Millièmes is centered around an eccentric ensemble of apartment residents. Kindness is noticeably absent among their quarters, as demonstrated by a dating pair of neighbors whose request to have their apartments connected was flatly denied. To make matters worse, beggars gathering at a charity event are cruelly tormented by various tenants during the Christmas season. Last but not least is the Portuguese concierge whose services are in danger of being replaced by a more cost-effective alternative, and a widow whose recent loss earns her no sympathy from the rent-demanding landlords.

The Landlords

2002

1990s · 17 titles

U.S. Marshals poster
6.6

U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard is accompanying a plane load of convicts from Chicago to New York. The plane crashes spectacularly, and Mark Sheridan escapes. But when Diplomatic Security Agent John Royce is assigned to help Gerard recapture Sheridan, it becomes clear that Sheridan is more than just another murderer.

U.S. Marshals

1998

Three Colors: Red poster
7.9

Part-time model Valentine unexpectedly befriends a retired judge after she runs over his dog. At first, the grumpy man shows no concern about the dog, and Valentine decides to keep it. But the two form a bond when she returns to his house and catches him listening to his neighbors’ phone calls.

Three Colors: Red

1994

The Double Life of Véronique poster
7.5

Véronique is a beautiful young French woman who aspires to be a renowned singer; Weronika lives in Poland, has a similar career goal and looks identical to Véronique, though the two are not related. The film follows both women as they contend with the ups and downs of their individual lives, with Véronique embarking on an unusual romance with Alexandre Fabbri, a puppeteer who may be able to help her with her existential issues.

The Double Life of Véronique

1991

The Secret Garden poster
7.4

A young British girl born and reared in India loses her neglectful parents in an earthquake. She is returned to England to live at her uncle's castle. Her uncle is very distant due to the loss of his wife ten years before. Neglected once again, she begins exploring the estate and discovers a garden that has been locked and forgotten. Aided by one of the servants' boys, she begins restoring the garden, and eventually discovers some other secrets of the manor.

The Secret Garden

1993

Spy Games poster
4.6

CIA Agent Harry Howe and SVR Agent Natasha Scriabina team up to save the world, their lives and secret love in post Cold War Helsinki.

Spy Games

1999

My Life So Far poster
5.4

A memoir of the lives of a family growing up on a post World War I British estate headed up by a strong disciplinarian, her daughter, her inventor husband, their ten year old son and his older sister. Through the household comes a number of suitors hoping to impress the young woman, including an aviator. When the elder woman's son shows up at the estate with his French fiancé, everything gets thrown into turmoil. The young boy takes a sudden interest in her sexual allure and his father is disturbed by his own non-Victorian feelings.

My Life So Far

1999

Beyond the Clouds poster
6.2

Four tales, each centered on a woman, journey inward to explore the enigmatic reality of their lives, connecting through a single narrative thread.

Beyond the Clouds

1995

Othello poster
6.4

The evil Iago pretends to be friend of Othello in order to manipulate him to serve his own end in the film version of this Shakespeare classic.

Othello

1995

Incognito poster
5.8

Harry Donovan is an art forger who paints fake Rembrandt picture for $500,000. The girl he meets and gets into bed with in Paris, Marieke, turns out to be an arts expert Harry's clients are using to check the counterfeit picture he painted.

Incognito

1997

American Cuisine poster
4.8

Following his discharge from the Navy for hitting a superior officer, Loren takes a chance and moves to France, to learn haute cuisine under a four star chef...

American Cuisine

1998

Kieslowski: Dialogue poster
7.0

Documentary featuring a candid interview with Kieślowski and rare behind-the-scenes footage from the set of The Double Life of Véronique

Kieslowski: Dialogue

1991

All Men Are Mortal poster
6.2

Melodrama about a man cursed with immortality, who tries to declare his undying love for a depressed actress.

All Men Are Mortal

1995

The Big Brass Ring poster
4.6

Blake Pellarin is on the campaign trail to become president of the United States. While making a stop in St. Louis, a chance encounter brings his past back to haunt him.

The Big Brass Ring

1999

Victory poster
5.2

Axel Heyst is an American recluse with a dubious past living in the Dutch East Indies port of Surabaya circa 1913. Staying in a German hotel there, Heyst becomes entranced with a member of the hotel's all-female orchestra.

Victory

1996

To Make a Film Is to Be Alive poster
7.0

A behind-the-scenes look by wife Enrica Antonioni into Michelangelo Antonioni's passion for cinema as he directs Beyond the Clouds (1995), assisted by filmmaker Wim Wenders.

To Make a Film Is to Be Alive

1995

Kieślowski Cannes 94 poster
NR

A documentary about the showing of Krzysztof Kieślowski's film RED at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival, including interviews with the director and the cast of the film.

Kieślowski Cannes 94

1994

Claude poster
6.0

A hapless, bad-luck prone loser meets a free-spirited Frenchwoman who inspires him to get his life back on track.

Claude

1992

1980s · 2 titles

Series credits

Spécial cinéma poster
9.5

Marcello Mastroianni, Isabelle Adjani, Alain Delon, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen... the biggest stars in cinema were welcomed by Christian Defaye on his show Spécial cinéma. Between intimate confessions from actors and immersion in the world of the greatest filmmakers, Christian Defaye took viewers on a journey into the fascinating world of cinema for nearly thirty years.

Spécial cinéma

1974

The Affair poster
6.7

The emotional effects of an extramarital relationship between Noah, a New York City schoolteacher and budding novelist with a wife of twenty years and four children and Alison, a young waitress and wife from Montauk at the end of Long Island, trying to piece her life back together in the wake of a tragedy.

The Affair

2014

The OA poster
7.5

Seven years after vanishing from her home, a young woman returns with mysterious new abilities and recruits five strangers for a secret mission.

The OA

2016

Patrick Melrose poster
7.5

A critical and often humorous look at the upper class, tracking the protagonist's harrowing odyssey from a deeply traumatic childhood through adult substance abuse and, ultimately, toward recovery.

Patrick Melrose

2018

Liaison poster
6.3

Two agents—and former lovers—must work together to combat international cyberattacks threatening the UK while also confronting the buried secrets of their destructive relationship.

Liaison

2023

Capitaine Marleau poster
6.1

Beneath her eccentric appearance, Captain Marleau is a formidable detective. Her Sherlock Holmes deerstalker cap, her character, her unusual appearance, her humor, her unpredictable behavior--Captain Marleau is not your average gendarme. She never rushes an investigation; she becomes the investigation and relentlessly pursues the suspects.

Capitaine Marleau

2015

Capitaine Marleau poster
6.1

Beneath her eccentric appearance, Captain Marleau is a formidable detective. Her Sherlock Holmes deerstalker cap, her character, her unusual appearance, her humor, her unpredictable behavior--Captain Marleau is not your average gendarme. She never rushes an investigation; she becomes the investigation and relentlessly pursues the suspects.

Capitaine Marleau

2015

Cherchez la femme ! poster
8.5

No synopsis available yet.

Cherchez la femme !

2022

Septième Ciel poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Septième Ciel

2023

Log Out poster
7.0

7 years ago, Giulia lost her husband David in a tragic accident. One day, a stranger gets into her cab, reviving long forgotten memories. From then on, Giulia and her 17 years old son are forced to flee in an old car and put themselves in a state of "digital death". They will soon find out that the truth lies in David's past.

Log Out

2025

No artwork available
NR

From Paris’s Belle Époque to New-York and early Hollywood, ALICE follows the remarkable journey of a visionary artist who defied conventions and expectations as a filmmaker, entrepreneur, wife, and mother. Her loves, her battles, and her relentless pursuit of recognition unfold against the birth of modern cinema.

Alice

—

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Peau d’vache

—