Writing
Marie Cardinal
Born 1929-03-09 · Algiers, France [now Algeria]
Marie Cardinal (born Simone Odette Marie-Thérèse Cardinal; 9 March 1929 – 9 May 2001) was a French novelist and occasional actress. Cardinal was born in French Algeria and was the sister of the film director Pierre Cardinal. She received a degree in philosophy from the Sorbonne and in 1953 married the French playwright, actor and director Jean-Pierre Ronfard. They had three children; Alice, Benoit, and Benedict. From 1953 to 1960 she taught philosophy at schools in Salonica, Lisbon, Vienna and Montreal. Cardinal published her first novel, Écoutez la Mer (Listen to the Sea), in 1962. During the 1960s she published three more novels and was involved with films as well. In 1967 she had a role in Jean-Luc Godard's film Deux Ou Trois Choses Que Je Sais D'elle and played the memorable role of Mouchette's mother in Robert Bresson's film Mouchette. In 1972 Cardinal published La Clé Sur La Porte (The Key of the Door), followed by Les Mots Pour Le Dire (The Words to Say It) in 1975; these two novels were best sellers and established her reputation. Les Mots Pour Le Dire was the first book by Cardinal to be published in the United States. Source: Article "Marie Cardinal" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Acting credits
7.4A young girl living in the French countryside suffers constant indignities at the hand of alcoholism and her fellow man.
Mouchette
1967
6.2As the city of Paris and the French people grow in consumer culture, a housewife living in a high-rise apartment with her husband and two children takes to prostitution to help pay the bills.
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her
1967
6.7A psychological drama that details the tormented relationship between Marie and her mother, stemming from Marie's childhood on their estate in Algeria. The mother, Eliane had lost a child before Marie was born and was consumed with hatred for her husband who was carrying tuberculosis and may have been the cause of the child's death. That hatred was never resolved, and Marie grew up in a bitter and strained household. As both women grow older, Marie marries and raises a family while her mother sinks ever deeper into anger, frustration, poverty, and isolated despair. She vents her destructive emotions on her daughter and is completely resistant to her daughter's attempts to help her, to make her life better.
Les Mots pour le dire
1983
