(1939- )
Actress. Bulle Ogier was born Marie-Thérèse Thielland in Boulogne-sur-Seine. Her mother was a painter and her father a lawyer. She was a leading stage actress and pioneer, with Marc'O, of Parisian café-théâtres. She debuted in cinema in Marc'O's Les Idoles (1964). In the 1960s, she also acted in Jacques Baratier's Piege (1968), René Allio's Pierre et Paul (1969), and Jacques Rivette's L'Amour fou. In the 1970s, she was noted for her work with Rivette in his Out One: Noli mi tangere (1971), Out One: Spectre (1972), Céline et Julie vont en bateau (1974), and Duelle (1976). She coscripted Céline et Julie vont en bateau and would later collaborate on the script of Rivette's Le Pont du Nord (1980).
Bulle acted three times under director Marguerite Duras in her Des journées entières dans les arbres (1977), Le Navire night (1979), and Agatha et les lectures illimitées (1981). She also appeared in films by her partner, Barbet Schroeder, including La Vallée (1972), Maîtresse (1976), and later Tricheurs (1984). Also in the 1970s, her career was enhanced by her roles in Louis Bunuel's Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie (1972), Claude Lelouch's Mariage (1974), André Téchiné's Pauline s'en va (1975), and Philippe Garrel's Un ange passe (1975).
In the 1980s, Ogier worked with emerging directors and in television productions in addition to collaborating with established cinéastes. She performed in Rivette's Le Pont du Nord and La Bande des quatre (1988), Robert Pansard-Bresson's Le Rose et le blanc (1980), Edouardo de Gregorio's La Mémoire courte (1982) and Aspern (1984), Raoul Ruiz's Voyage autour d'une main (1985), Manoel de Oliveira's Mon cas (1986), and Luc Bondy's Terre étrangère (1988). In 1984, she suffered from the tragic death of her daughter, actress Pascale Ogier, who died at the age of twenty-four after winning Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for her role in Éric Rohmerl's Les Nuits de la plein lune.
In the 1990s and after, Ogier remains an energetic actress, appearing often in films by Europe's newer directors. She played in Xavier Beauvois's Nord (1991), Caroline Champetier's Le Sommeil d'Adrian (1993), Marion Vernoux's Personne ne m'aime (1993), Emmanuelle Cuau's Circuit Carole (1994), Marco Nicoletti's Tout va mal (1995), Olivier Assayas's Irma Vep (1995), Werner Schroeter's Deux (2001), Julie Lopes-Curval's Bord de mer (2001), Jean-Paul Civeyrac's Toutes ces belles promesses (2002), Olivier Vinuesa's Le Mal de mer (2004), Rivette's Ne touchez pas la hache (2006), and de Oliveira's Belle toujours (2006). She was nominated for a César Award for Best Supporting Actress in Tonie Marshall's Venus beauté (institut) in 2000.
Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins
Guide to cinema. Academic. 2011.