Irène Marie Jacob (born 15 July 1966) is a French-Swiss actress known for her work with Polish film director Krzysztof Kieślowski. She won the 1991 Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for the Kieślowski film The Double Life of Veronique, and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her 1994 film Three Colours: Red. Her other film appearances include The Secret Garden (1993), Beyond the Clouds (1995), U.S. Marshals (1998), and Eternity (2016).
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 her other two brothers, scientists.FlintBiography Base. "Irene Jacob Biography." Retrieved on 13 December 2007. In 1969, at the age of three, Irène moved with her family to Geneva, Switzerland, where she became interested in the arts.
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 Drama Studio in London, England.Yahoo Movies. "Irene Jacob Biography." Retrieved on 13 December 2007.Net Glimpse. "Irene Jacob Biography." Retrieved on 13 December 2007. In 1984, she moved to Paris, where she studied acting at the prestigious Rue Blanche (a French national drama academy).
Career In Paris, while a 21-year-old drama student, she obtained her first film role in the Louis Malle film Au revoir les enfants (1987), playing the part of a piano teacher. She followed her film debut with several French movies—mostly minor roles—over the next four years.
Polish film director Krzysztof Kieślowski cast her in the lead role of his film The Double Life of Veronique (1991), 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.Biography Base. "Irene Jacob Biography" Retrieved on 13 December 2007.
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.
Jacob gained international acclaim as the protagonist in Kieślowski's Three Colours: Red (1994), 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 Original Screenplay or Adaptation (Krzysztof Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz). The New York Times included the film in its list of "The Best 1000 Movies Ever Made."Biography Base
Naturally an introvert, Jacob has the ability to express the emotional turmoil of her characters with very few words. This was very evident in her performance in Three Colours: Red, the third part of Kieślowski's trilogy. Jacob described her unique experience working with the Polish film director:
Following the release of Three Colours: Red, Jacob retreated from public attention 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 Spy Games (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. In 2014, she played the mother of an android in The Metamorphosis, Android Version by Japanese director Oriza Hirata and roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro at the Autumn Festival Normandy.
In 2016, she began appearing as a featured character in Season 3 of the Showtime series The Affair.
In August 2018, Jacob appeared at the Edinburgh Festival in a one-hour dramatization of the novella La Maladie de la mort (The Malady of Death) by Marguerite Duras. Jacob played the role of the unseen narrator.
Jacob is author of the book Big Bang published in 2019.
Filmography YearTitleRoleNotes 1987 Au revoir les enfants Mlle Davenne English: Goodbye, Children 1988 La bande des quatre Marine English: The Gang of Four1989 Erreur de jeunesse Anne Les mannequins d'osier Marie Nick chasseur de têtes Television program 1990 La Veillée Johanna English: The Van Gogh Wake1991 The Secret of Sarah Tombelaine Sarah French: Le secret de Sarah Tombelaine The Double Life of Veronique Weronika/Véronique French: La Double vie de VéroniqueCannes Film Festival Award for Best ActressCésar Award for Best Actress nominationSant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actress1992 Le moulin de Daudet Mme Daudet English: Daudet's Windmill Enak Lucille Spaakv 1993 Claude Beatrice English: Trusting Beatrice The Secret Garden Mrs. Lennox/Lilias Craven Predskazaniye Lyuda English: The PredictionNika Award Best Actress nomination 1994 Three Colours: Red Valentine Dussaut French: Trois couleurs: RougeCésar Award for Best Actress nominationBAFTA Award for Best Actress nomination1995 Victory Alma Fugueuses Prune English: Runaways Beyond the Clouds The girl French: Par-delà les nuages All Men Are Mortal Regina Faire un film pour moi c'est vivre Othello Desdemona 1997 Incognito Prof. Marieke van den Broeck 1998 Jack's potes U.S. Marshals Marie Bineaux American Cuisine Gabrielle Boyer French: Cuisine américaine1999 Cuisine chinoise Patricia The Big Brass Ring Cela Brandini My Life So Far Aunt Heloise Spy Games Natasha Scriabina/Anna Belinka 2000 L'Affaire Marcorelle Agneska English: The Marcorelle Affair2001 Letter from an Unknown Woman Rose French: Lettre d'une inconnueTelevision film Fourplay Fiona Delgrazia 2002 Mille millièmes Julie The Landlords2003 La Légende de Parva Voice of La mère de Parva Nés de la mère du monde Clara Sidowski Television film2004 The Pornographer: A Love Story Automne Michelle English: Autumn Battle of the Brave (Nouvelle-France) Angélique de Roquebrune 2006 The Education of Fairies Ingrid2007 The Inner Life of Martin Frost Claire Martin Fallen Heroes Anne 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 Dying of the Light Michelle Zuberain Salaud, on t'aime Printemps Kaminsky 2015 Ella Maillart - Double Journey Ella Maillart voice over Sayonara 2016 The Collection Marianne Eternity Gabrielle's mother The Affair Juliette Le Gall TV series (10 episodes) Capitaine Marleau Sister Maryse TV series (1 episode) 2019 The OA Elodie TV series (3 episodes) 2020 Villa Caprice Nancy Fontaine Romantic Guide to Lost Places Brigitte 2024 Who by Fire (Comme le feu) Hotel Silence (Hôtel Silence) Kristina Meeting with Pol Pot (Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot) Lise Delbo Directed by Rithy Panh 2025 Golem in Pompei Directed by Amos Gitai 2026 Maigret and the Dead Lover Madame Maigret Directed by Pascal Bonitzer TBA Filming
Awards Year Award Category Nominated work Result Ref. 1991 Cannes Film Festival Best Actress The Double Life of Veronique 1992 César Awards Best Actress 1993 Sant Jordi Awards Best Foreign Actress Award 1994 Nika Award Best Actress Predskazaniye 1995 César Awards Best Actress Three Colours: Red British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Actress in a Leading Role 2002 Camerimage Krzysztof Kieślowski Special Award rowspan="2" 2024 Locarno Film Festival Leopard Club Award
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