Silvia Monfort


Silvia Monfort was a French stage and film actress, theatre director, and cultural organizer. She was noted for her performances in classical tragedy, her leadership in establishing multidisciplinary theatrical institutions, and her recognition with national honours.
She was named a Knight of the Legion of Honour in 1973, an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1979, and a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1983. She died of lung cancer in 1991 and was buried in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.
She was the daughter of medalist Charles-Maurice Favre-Bertin and was married to Pierre Gruneberg.

Early life and education

Silvia Monfort was born in the Le Marais district in Paris, on Rue Elzévir, near Rue de Thorigny. Her family had lived there for several generations. After her mother’s death, Monfort was enrolled in a boarding school, where she first attended the Lycée Victor-Hugo before completing her secondary school education at the Lycée Victor-Duruy.
At the age of 14, Monfort was allowed to take the Baccalaureate examination early due to her academic performance. Although her father had intended that she pursue a career at the Gobelins Manufactory, she instead chose to study theatre. She then began taking acting lessons with Jean Hervé and Jean Valcourt.

World War II and the French Resistance

Monfort was active in the French Resistance during World War II; for this engagement she received the Croix de Guerre and the Bronze Star. After the war, she married Maurice Clavel.

Cocteau, Vilar, and Théâtre National Populaire

In 1945, Monfort appeared in Federico García Lorca's La casa de Bernarda Alba. Her performance drew the attention of Edwige Feuillère, with whom she shared the stage in L'Aigle à deux têtes by Jean Cocteau. The play premiered in 1946 at the in Brussels.
Through Clavel, she met theatre director Jean Vilar in 1947 and became involved with the Théâtre National Populaire. That same year, she performed in the first Festival d'Avignon, appearing in The Story of Tobias and Sarah.
Monfort played Chimène alongside actor Gérard Philipe in Le Cid, performed in Vilar's production of Cinna, and The Marriage of Figaro.

Cinema

Monfort made her film debut in Les Anges du péché directed by Robert Bresson, who would often cast non-professional actors. In 1948, she portrayed Édith de Berg in Jean Cocteau’s adaptation of L'Aigle à deux têtes, appearing alongside Edwige Feuillère and Jean Marais.
In 1955 Agnès Varda, who was a photographer for the TNP at the time, directed her first feature film, La Pointe Courte — often regarded as a forerunner of the French New Wave cinema. Recalling Monfort's involvement, Varda said: “She joined the project with enthusiasm and professionalism,” adding, “I truly believe she was happy to fight for a cinema of the future.”
After her separation from Maurice Clavel, Monfort shared her life with film director Jean-Paul Le Chanois and appeared in several of his productions. Despite an arm injury, she played a Polish prisoner under Le Chanois's direction in Les Évadés opposite François Périer and Pierre Fresnay. She also co-starred with Jean Gabin and Nicole Courcel in Le Cas du Docteur Laurent and appeared in Par-dessus le mur, a drama exploring parent-child relationships.
Monfort also appeared as Éponine in Les Misérables, directed by Le Chanois, alongside Gabin and Bourvil. In 1962, she played Myrtille, a Romani girl, in Mandrin with Georges Rivière and Georges Wilson. This film concluded her cinematic career and her partnership with Le Chanois.

On the road

During the 1960s, Monfort toured with Jean Danet's travelling theatre company, the, performing both classical and contemporary plays. On June the 23rd 1965, Silvia wrote to Pierre Gruneberg: "I've convinced Danet to schedule a series of performances in September of The Prostitute and Suddenly, Last Summer under a big top around Paris. Oh, I would have done what I could."
Monfort maintained extensive correspondence, writing daily to her companion Pierre Gruneberg, later published as Letters to Pierre. Danielle Netter, assistant director, wrote: "The Tréteaux de France, was an extraordinary theatrical tool that gave us the occasion to present Sophocles and other dramatic poets before the tenants of the HLM. And to hear a spectator declare to Silvia: 'It's as beautiful as a Western!' one evening, at the end of Electra, filled our tragedienne with joy."

Tragedienne

Between 1945 and 1989, Monfort appeared in a number of classical and modern works by writers such as Racine, Corneille, Sophocles and Ibsen. She performed the role of Phèdre in five separate productions.
She acted in plays and theatrical adaptations by Maurice Clavel, such as The Isle of Goats and The Noon Terrace. She was directed by Roger Planchon at Villeurbanne in 1959 in Love's Second Surprise and by Luchino Visconti in Paris in 1961 in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, alongside Alain Delon and Romy Schneider. She made appearances in Summer and Smoke and Suddenly, Last Summer by Tennessee Williams. She portrayed the Sphinx of Cocteau's The Infernal Machine in festivals and on television with Claude Giraud in 1963. She was The Respectful Prostitute of Jean-Paul Sartre and The Duchess of Malfi alongside Raf Vallone.
At her theatre, Carré Thorigny, she helped launch the career of Bernard Giraudeau, who debuted in Tom Eyen's Why Doesn't Anna's Dress Want to Come off. She also appeared in The Oresteia and The Persians of Aeschylus. She portrayed Lucrezia Borgia in Victor Hugo, Marguerite de Bourgogne in The Tower of Nesle by Alexandre Dumas, père, Alarica in The Evil Is Spreading, Maid in Jacques Audiberti and Ethel in The Rosenbergs Should Not Die by Alain Decaux. She took on Ionesco with Jacques, or the Submission, When We Dead Awaken by Henrik Ibsen and The Lady from the Sea. To celebrate the centenary of Cocteau's birth, she made her final appearance on the Vaugirard stage in The Two Ways in 1989.

''Phèdre''

Silvia Monfort's portrayal of Phèdre was analysed in a study published by the CNRS in Pour la Science, which examined the delivery and rhythm of several 20th-century interpretations of the role, including those of Sarah Bernhardt, Marie Bell and Natacha Amal. It also studied the fluctuations in delivery and noted that Monfort made extensive use of them, similar to other tragic actresses included in the study. She described her approach to the character as exploring the intensity and mystery inherent in Phèdre, emphasizing personal interpretation.
In 1973, she said of her character: "Phèdre burns in each one of us. We have hardly grasped the image in the mirror when she dims, and the imminence of this obliteration sharpens the acuteness of the reflection What matters is that there has been a meeting in mystery even from the first reading. It is like desire, or rather, it is present in the look that provokes it, or rather, there will never be unison. All the opinions, competent, imperious, singular, that were offered to me on the subject of Phèdre, and to which I listened intensely, had no other result with me than to lead me back to my Phèdre, despite her long being hazy, with the obviousness of a pawn moving back to the first square on a board game this is the wonder of Phèdre: to tackle it is to resign oneself to it."

Circus and mime school

In 1972, with support from the Minister of Cultural Affairs Jacques Duhamel, Monfort established and directed the Carré Thorigny, Rue de Thorigny in the Le Marais district of Paris, where she put on multidisciplinary shows. She held a particular interest in the circus world and organized an exhibit, Circus in Color. In 1974, after forming professional relationships with circus artist Alexis Gruss, Monfort organised traditional-style circus performances in the courtyard of the Hôtel Salé, in front of the Carré. In 1974, the public's fancy led Monfort and Gruss to establish the first circus and mime school in France, L'école au Carré. They sought to highlight the historical significance and traditions of the circus arts and were involved in bringing to life an updated old-style circus. The Gruss Circus followed Monfort in her next moves until it became a national circus in 1982.
At the Carré Thorigny, Alain Decaux awarded Monfort the Legion of Honor in 1973, paying homage to "her passion for the theatre and the inflexible will with which she serves it."
Due to the redevelopment of the property in 1974, the Carré relocated to the former Théâtre de la Gaîté-Lyrique, reopening as the Nouveau Carréon 1 October. Monfort then set up the Gruss Circus' big top in the square in front of the theatre. The Nouveau Carré — or "Paris Cultural Center" — eventually encompassed the main theatre, two smaller houses for music and more intimate shows, the circus and schools for circus and mime.
From 1978 to 1979, the circus was moved under a new big top in the Jardin d'Acclimatation. In 1980, when the Gaîté Lyrique theatre was renovated, she had to relocate her Carré to the site of the former Vaugirard's abattoirs, where she set up the theatre under a specially built big top and brought along the Gruss circus' big top. The circus school relocated to another facility. Meanwhile, the project of renovating the Gaîté-Lyrique was abandoned due to a lack of funding.
She continued working to establish a permanent "Carré" at Vaugirard on the site of and in place of the big tops. The decision to build the theatre in its current form was made in 1986. On 7 March 1989, she wrote: "This will be my theatre. Even so, incredible! I don't know a single living person for whom his theatre was built, with his name and of the right size." However, she died a few months before its completion. Inaugurated in 1992, the theatre bears her name: Théâtre Silvia-Monfort.
Monfort died of lung cancer on 30 March 1991, in Courchevel.

The Silvia Monfort Prize

Pierre Gruneberg, whom Silvia Monfort married in 1990, founded the Silvia Monfort Prize Association in 1996. This prize is issued every two years to a young actress by a professional panel. Since its inception, the prize winners have been:
  1. Smadi Wolfman
  2. Rachida Brakni
  3. Mona Abdel Hadi
  4. Isabelle Joly
  5. Marion Bottolier
  6. Gina Ndjemba
  7. Camille de Sablet
  8. Lou Chauvain
  9. Juliet Doucet

Work

Filmography

Theatre

Private theatres, TNP and Tréteaux de France
Carré Thorigny
  • 1972: Opens October 12
  • 1973: Le Bal des cuisinières by Bernard Da Costa
  • 1973: Phèdre by Racine
  • 1973: Cantique des cantiques, oratorio by Roger Frima
  • 1973: Conversations dans le Loir-et-Cher by Paul Claudel
  • 1973: Cirque Gruss at the Hôtel Salé
  • 1973: Jean Cocteau and the Angels, poetic soirée
  • 1973: Louise Labé, poetic soirée
  • 1974: Why Doesn't Anna's Dress Want to Come off by Tom Eyen
  • 1974: Closes at the end of September.
Nouveau Carré Gaîté-Lyrique
Jardin d'Acclimatation
  • Just one season, from 1978 to 1979
Carré Silvia Monfort Vaugirard
Directed by her

Television