Florelle

Florelle
Florelle in 1939
Born	Odette Élisa Joséphine Marguerite Rousseau (1898-08-09)August 9, 1898 Les Sables-d'Olonne, Vendée, France
Died	September 28, 1974(1974-09-28) (aged 76) La Roche-sur-Yon, Vendée, France
Occupations	Actress singer
Years active	1911–1956
Spouse	Marcel Foucret ​ ​ (m. 1934; div. 1944)​

Florelle (born Odette Élisa Joséphine Marguerite Rousseau, August 9, 1898 – September 28, 1974) was a French soprano singer and actress. She gained fame as Polly Peachum in the French film The Threepenny Opera, after which she had numerous other film roles. In the 1940s, she retired from the stage, but continued to make film appearances during the war.

Early life

She was born as Odette Élisa Joséphine Marguerite Rousseau on August 9, 1898 in Les Sables-d'Olonne, Vendée. She camed from a wealthy family living in the district of La Chaume, the oldest in the town of Sables-d'Olonne. Her father, an employee of the town hall, left his job to go into business and the family came to live in Paris; her mother worked at the café La Cigale.

Career

Odette began her stage career at the age of 13, singing at the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique and the Moulin Rouge. She is notably the partner of Raimu beginning in a sketch entitled "Le Marseillais et la Parigote". She worked in different establishments, then, in 1914, left for her first tour abroad with the troupe of "L’Européen"; It was then that she adopted the pseudonym of Florelle, named after an singer in the troupe, Jean Flor. The tour was interrupted at the beginning of August, in Vienna, Austria, by the outbreak of World War I.

After the war, she was noticed by Maurice Chevalier, with whom she participated in three films in the early 1920s. Florelle nevertheless remained attached to the music hall; in 1925, she was chosen as an understudy for Mistinguett and as such was the leader of the Moulin-Rouge review "This is Paris" in a tour of South America. Back in Paris, she conducted a second version of "This is Paris" from 1927; in 1928-29, she again toured internationally in Europe; It was then that she was noticed by the Austrian filmmaker Georg Wilhelm Pabst.

During the 1930s, she devoted herself a lot to the cinema, where her activity was intense from 1930 to 1936; after L'Opéra de quat'sous, she toured again with Pabst (L'Atlantide), but also with Robert Siodmak (Tumultes), Raymond Bernard ( Les Misérables), Fritz Lang (Liliom) and Jean Renoir (The Crime of Monsieur Lange). On stage, in 1934 she played the title role of the musical Marie Galante by Jacques Deval, in which she found the music of Kurt Weill, but which does not meet with success. She records several discs, whether or not related to the films she was filming.

Florelle's career subsequently declined: with her only notable post-war film was Gervaise (1956) by René Clément.

Death

She lived for a few years running a café in Sables-d'Olonne. She returned to Paris for a while, then returned to Les Sables, living until her death in La Roche-sur-Yon, Vendée at age 76, in a certain oblivion and, it seems, in poverty.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director(s)	Notes
1912	The Mask of Horror		Abel Gance	Credited as Mlle Rousseau
1930	The Prosecutor Hallers	Agnès	Robert Wiene
	Love Songs		Robert Florey	Alternative-language version of the German film Rendezvous
	My Wife's Teacher
1931	Venetian Nights		Pierre Billon Robert Wiene	French-language version of the film The Love Express
	The Threepenny Opera	Polly Peachum	G. W. Pabst	French-language version
	About an Inquest	Erna Kabisch	Henri Chomette Robert Siodmak	French-language version of the film Inquest
	Montmartre	Irène	Raymond Bernard
1932	The Nude Woman	Lolette	Jean-Paul Paulin
	The Improvised Son	Maud	René Guissart
	The Wonderful Day	Gladys	Yves Mirande Robert Wyler	Remake of the 1929 silent film of the same title
	Monsieur, Madame and Bibi	Anne Weber	Jean Boyer Max Neufeld	French-language version of the German film A Bit of Love
1933	La dame de chez Maxim's	La Môme Crevette	Alexander Korda	French-language version of the film The Girl from Maxim's
1934	Les Misérables	Fantine	Raymond Bernard
1936	The Crime of Monsieur Lange	Valentine Cardès	Jean Renoir
1952	Three Women		André Michel
1956	Blood to the Head	Sidonie Vauquier	Gilles Grangier

External links

• Florelle at IMDb
• Florelle - Cinémathèque française
• Photographs and literature