# Elina Labourdette

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

## Biography

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

## 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 | |