Delphine Seyrig’s top ten films

Delphine Seyrig as Elizabeth Báthory in Daughters of Darkness.

Is there a more perfect arthouse actress than Delphine Seyrig, who started her acting career in Robert Frank’s cult short Pull my Daisy (1959), the Jack Kerouac-penned film featuring Allen Ginsberg et al, went on to star in Last Year in Marienbad and is the deadpan yet hypnotic presence in an almost four-hour Belgium movie which topped the 2022 Sight and Sound list of best films ever made? Then there’s her work with directors including Bunuel, Truffaut, Jacques Demy, Joseph Losey and Marguerite Duras, and she was also active behind the camera, making documentaries.

Born in Beirut in 1932, the French actress also spoke English and German, enabling her to work easier in both Hollywood and Europe. Seyrig was partly raised in New York, and returned there in the mid-1950s where she was spotted by Alain Resnais at the Actors Studio. Her role in Last Year at Marienbad made her an international star and she worked with key European directors throughout the 60s and 70s.

Seyrig became an outspoken feminist icon in France, and formed a feminist video collective, Les Insoumuses in 1975. She directed the documentary Sois Belle et Tais-toi (Be Pretty and Shut Up) in 1981, in which she interviewed various American actresses about their experiences in a male dominated industry, a forerunner of the #metoo movement decades later.

If a lot of her work sounds demanding, I recommend starting with Daughters of Darkness, a gothic and erotic vampire film recently released on Blu-ray. Seyrig excels as the hypnotic and decadent Countess Báthory, dressed in a series of stunning gowns and looking like Marlene Dietrich as she seduces the wife of a newlywed couple in a deserted Belgium seaside hotel.

Delphine Seyrig died far too young, aged 58, in 1990.

1. Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Akerman, 1975)
2. Last Year at Marienbad (Resnais, 1961)
3. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Bunuel, 1972)
4. Daughters of Darkness (Kümel, 1971)
5. India Song (Duras, 1975)
6. Stolen Kisses (Trauffaut, 1968)
7. Be Pretty and Shut Up! (Seyrig, 1981)
8. Muriel (Resnais, 1963)
9. La Musica (Duras & Séban, 1967)
10. Day of the Jackal (Zinnemann, 1973)

Here’s a YouTube tribute to her.