Anyone know anything about "Umbrellas of Cherbourg" actress Ellen Farner?

July 9, 2009 9:30 PM

"Umbrellas of Cherbourg" French actress Ellen Farner, M.I.A.

This is driving me crazy.
I just saw The Umbrellas of Cherbourg yet again and instead of looking at Catherine Deneuve like I usually do I was looking at Ellen Farner, who played Madeleine, who took care of Guy's aunt, and ended up marrying him.
Intrigued (read: enchanted) I googled, yahoo'ed, and binged her everywhere and could find nary a trace.
Is it possible that she made one movie then retired? Is she still alive? Did she die young? Did she get married and change her name?
This is the first time I've been unable to find something on the Internet; yeah, I guess it's possible, but there's got to be more to her than than one stunning performance. Dang, I hope there is.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Merci.

posted by holdenjordahl to media & arts (5 comments total)

This might answer your question.
posted by carrienation at 9:50 PM on July 9

carrienation, i think that was probably one of the first avenues of research. my google-fu is faing me and i'm with holden now.. what happened to this woman?
posted by Frasermoo at 9:54 PM on July 9

thanks, carrienation.
so, she's german?
okay, then: anyone know why she hasn't made any films/TV appearances in 42 years?
posted by holdenjordahl at 9:56 PM on July 9

I can't read German and I don't know if this is the same person but on page 223 of the 1962 Shakespeare Jahrbuch the article appears to mention someone named Ellen Farner performing as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet.

Unfortunately the preview clips off too much to tell what it's about but this magazine Filmkunst: Zeitschrift für Filmkultur und Filmwissenschaft appears to mention an Ellen Farner in another film. Perhaps the digital collection of a European library might have it? http://search.theeuropeanlibrary.org/

...but bah, on preview IMDB has much more information.
posted by XMLicious at 10:06 PM on July 9

Just used all my own vaunted Google-fu and came up empty. All I can think is that she must have died shortly after that last 1967 TV episode, and any obits were never digitized. Surely if she'd lived into the age of the internet there would be something online about her life. Interesting question!
posted by languagehat at 5:58 AM on July 10