Juliet Berto

Biography

Juliet Berto (Grenoble, 1947 - Breux-Jouy, 1990) was a French actress, director and screenwriter who became one of the recognisable faces of the French New Wave's politically charged cinema of the late 1960s and 1970s. Born Annie Jamet, she adopted the stage name by which she is known from her early work on screen.

She made her debut in 1967 in Jean-Luc Godard's Two or Three Things I Know About Her, and went on to appear in several more of his films, including La Chinoise, Week End, Le Gai Savoir and Vladimir and Rosa. That run of work made her a regular presence in Godard's circle. She later became a muse of Jacques Rivette, who cast her in Out 1 and Celine and Julie Go Boating, a film she also co-wrote, and in Duelle. In 1977 she worked on the stage production The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs, directed by Simone Benmussa.

During the 1980s she turned to screenwriting and directing. Her feature Neige (1981), co-directed with Jean-Henri Roger, won a young cinema prize at Cannes that year, and Cap Canaille was shown at the Berlin festival in 1983. In 1987 she sat on the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival. Earlier she had been married to the set designer Michel Berto, and from 1974 to 1975 she lived with Glauber Rocha, with whom she made Claro.

She died of breast cancer in 1990, aged 42. Her legacy lies largely in her contribution to the films of Godard and Rivette, which remain central to the period, and in a directing career that is less widely known outside France. Gérard Courant filmed her in 1984 for his Cinématon series.

Key films

• Two or Three Things I Know About Her (1967): her first screen appearance, in one of Godard's most debated films.
• Out 1 (1971): a lead role in Rivette's lengthy experimental work.
• Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974): Céline, in a Rivette comedy she also co-wrote.
• Neige (1981): her feature as co-director, which won a prize at Cannes.