Early life

Irène Jacob was born in Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine, a western suburb of Paris. The youngest child with three older brothers, she was raised in a highly educated and intellectual family and environment: her father, Maurice Jacob, was a physicist; her mother, a psychologist; one brother, Francis Jacob, a musician; and two brothers, scientists. In 1969, at the age of three, Irène moved with her family to Geneva, Switzerland, where she became interested in the arts.

“

My family was very shy with feelings and never spoke about them, but we evolved a little bit. I think part of the reason I was attracted to theater was because I wanted to be close to stories because they could help me relate to my family.

”

Jacob developed an interest in performing after seeing the films of Charlie Chaplin. "They took my heart", she has recalled. "They made me laugh and cry, and that was exactly what I was waiting for in a film: to awaken me to my feelings."

She made her stage debut in 1977 at the age of 11. She attended the Geneva Conservatory of Music and earned a degree in languages (she speaks fluent French, English, German, and Italian). She also studied at the Dramatic Studio in London, England. In 1984, she moved to Paris, where she studied acting at the prestigious Rue Blanche (the French national drama academy).

Film career

In 1987, Jacob returned to Paris, where the 21-year-old drama student obtained her first movie role in the Louis Malle film Au revoir, les enfants, playing the part of a piano teacher. She followed her film debut with six additional French movies—mostly minor roles—in four years.

In 1991, Polish film director Krzysztof Kieślowski cast her in the lead role of his film The Double Life of Véronique, the allegorical story of two young women, one in Poland and the other in France, both of whom are played by Jacob. For her performance, Jacob won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

From 1992 to 1993, despite numerous offers from Hollywood that came in the wake of her success—including the lead role in Indecent Proposal—Jacob focused on smaller French films.

In 1994, Jacob again earned international acclaim as the protagonist in Kieślowski's Three Colors: Red, which received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Screenplay. The film was also named Best Film or Best Foreign Film by the National Board of Review, New York Film Critics Circle Awards, National Society of Film Critics Awards, and Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards. It received César Award nominations for Best Film, Best Actor (Jean-Louis Trintignant), Best Actress (Irène Jacob), Best Director (Krzysztof Kieślowski), Best Writing (Krzysztof Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz). The New York Times included the film in its list of "The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made."

An introvert by nature, Jacob has the remarkable ability to express the emotional turmoil of her characters with very few words. This was very evident in her performance in Three Colors: Red, the third part of Kieślowski's trilogy. Jacob described her unique experience working with the Polish film director:

“

The camera was really like a microscope. Krzysztof was always very close and very precise in his directions. It was not something he talked about beforehand; he would only work on the set. He liked to rehearse just before a take, if at all.

”

Her performance in Three Colors: Red gained huge international recognition, bringing many offers from major American motion-picture studios. But again, Jacob retreated from the growing interest and fame and took nine months off, spending most of her time reading Tolstoy, Balzac, Singer, and several autobiographies.

From 1995 to 1999, Jacob made a series of American and European films that met with varying degrees of commercial and critical success. In 1995, she appeared in six films, including Victory, with Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill; Michelangelo Antonioni's Beyond the Clouds; and Oliver Parker's adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello, in which Jacob spoke all of her lines in English for the first time on film. In the following years, she made several moderately successful American films, including Incognito (1997); U.S. Marshals (1998), starring opposite Wesley Snipes and Tommy Lee Jones; The Big Brass Ring (1999), with William Hurt; and the entertaining History Is Made at Night (1999), with Bill Pullman and Bruno Kirby.

Beginning in 2000, Jacob's film career slowed down, and after a series of independent—mostly European—films, she revived her theatre career. In 2000, she played the title character in Madame Melville opposite Macaulay Culkin in London's West End, which was crucial to her further development as an actress. She continues to make films.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Au revoir, les enfants	Mlle Davenne	English: Goodbye, Children
1988	La Bande des quatre	Marine	English: The Gang of Four
1989	Erreur de jeunesse	Anne
1989	Les Mannequins d'osier	Marie
1989	Nick chasseur de têtes		Television program
1990	La Veillée	Johanna	English: The Van Gogh Wake
1991	Le Secret de Sarah Tombelaine	Sarah	English: The Secret of Sarah Tombelaine
1991	The Double Life of Véronique	Weronika/Véronique	French: La Double vie de Véronique Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress César Award Nomination for Best Actress Sant Jordi Best Foreign Actress Award
1992	Le Moulin de Daudet	Mme Daudet	English: Daudet's Windmill
1992	Enak	Lucille Spaakv
1993	Claude	Beatrice	English: Trusting Beatrice
1993	The Secret Garden	Mrs. Lennox/Lilias Craven
1993	Predskazaniye	Lyuda	English: The Prediction Nika Award Best Actress Nomination
1994	Three Colors: Red	Valentine Dussaut	French: Trois couleurs: Rouge César Award Nomination for Best Actress BAFTA Award Nomination for Best Actress
1995	Victory	Alma
1995	Fugueuses	Prune	English: Runaways
1995	Beyond the Clouds	The girl	French: Par-delà les nuages
1995	All Men Are Mortal	Regina
1995	Faire un film pour moi c'est vivre
1995	Othello	Desdemona
1997	Incognito	Prof. Marieke van den Broeck
1998	Jack's potes
1998	U.S. Marshals	Marie Bineaux
1998	American Cuisine	Gabrielle Boyer	French: Cuisine américaine
1999	Cuisine chinoise	Patricia
1999	The Big Brass Ring	Cela Brandini
1999	My Life So Far	Aunt Heloise
1999	History Is Made at Night	Natasha Scriabina/Anna Belinka	Also known as Spy Games
2000	L'Affaire Marcorelle	Agneska	English: The Marcorelle Affair
2001	Letter from an Unknown Woman	Rose	French: Lettre d'une inconnue Television film
2001	Londinium	Fiona Delgrazia	English: Fourplay
2002	Mille millièmes	Julie	The Landlords
2003	La Légende de Parva	Voice of La mère de Parva
2003	Nés de la mère du monde	Clara Sidowski	Television film
2004	The Pornographer: A Love Story
2004	Automne	Michelle	English: Autumn
2004	Nouvelle-France	Angélique de Roquebrune	English: Battle of the Brave
2006	La Educación de las hadas	Ingrid	English: The Education of Fairies
2007	The Inner Life of Martin Frost	Claire Martin
2007	Nessuna qualità agli eroi	Anne	English: Fallen Heroes
2008	The Dust of Time	Eleni	Directed by Theo Angelopoulos
2009	The French Kissers	Aurore's mother	French: La mère d'Aurore
2010	Rio Sex Comedy	Irène
2014	L'Art de la fugue	Mathilde
2014	Dying of the Light	Michelle Zuberain
2015	Ella Maillart - Double Journey	Ella Maillart	voice over
2015	Sayonara

Awards

• 1991 Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for The Double Life of Véronique
• 1992 César Award Nomination for Best Actress for The Double Life of Véronique
• 1993 Sant Jordi Best Foreign Actress Award for The Double Life of Véronique
• 1994 Nika Award Best Actress Nomination for Predskazaniye
• 1995 César Award Nomination for Best Actress for Three Colors: Red
• 1995 BAFTA Award Nomination for Best Actress for Three Colors: Red
• 2002 Camerimage Krzysztof Kieślowski Special Award

[ Source: Wikipedia ]