French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 13.
Charming, but with a rattlesnake lurking inside her
Suzet Maïs was born Suzette Charlotte Marie Mathilde Roux in 1908 in Paris, in the 5th arrondissement.
Maïs started in film in 1930, as Countess Rita in the comedy Paris la nuit / Paris by Night (Henri Diamant-Berger, 1930) starring Marguerite Moreno and Armand Bernard. She did six more films in the following years.
From 1937 onward, she acted in numerous parts. She was Marie-Louise in the drama Le coupable / Culprit (Raymond Bernard, 1937), the new teacher Aimée Lanthenay in the Colette adaptation Claudine à l'école / Claudine at School (Serge de Poligny, 1937), Ginette in the drama Chéri-Bibi (Léon Mathot, 1938), and Nina in Le joueur / The Player (Gerhard Lamprecht, Louis Daquin, 1938). Maïs most often played the femmes fatales, the pests, the pimbaches, the naughty and/or unworthy girls.
Guy Bellinger at IMDb: Whether or not the film she was in was memorable is not the point, since the memorable thing in it was her. Not on account of her beauty. She was appealing: with a fine silhouette, a smooth and harmonious face and full, sensual lips reminiscent of Ginette Leclerc, she was more than just presentable. No, what really set her apart was her talent for playing the mean ladies, whether scheming or simply haughty, preferably socialites.
Her character might be charming, but in this case, her partner(s) had better beware the rattlesnake lurking in her. A haughty, icy gaze and all of a sudden, she pounced on her prey and bit." In 1943, she played such a haughty socialite kleptomaniac in Au bonheur des dames / Shop Girls of Paris (André Cayatte, 1943).
French postcard, no. 8. Photo: H. Ris, Paris.
French postcard, no. 518. Photo: H. Ris, Paris.
Lively, acute, sparkling, with a piercing comic wit
Suzet Maïs' best-known role was in Père Goriot / Father Goriot (Robert Vernay, 1945), based on the novel by Honoré de Balzac. In the film, she played Anastasie, one of Goriot's daughters, who mistreats her poor father (Pierre Larquey). That same year, in Boule de Suif / Angel and Sinner (Christian-Jaque, 1945), she was Madame Loiseau, a petit-bourgeoise who despised Boule de Suif (Micheline Presle).
Described as "lively, acute, sparkling, with a piercing comic wit", critics asserted that none of the actresses who reprised her early roles managed to make her forget. In the late 1940s, Maïs didn't appear in the cinema, but during the 1950s, she acted in various French films, including the Laurel & Hardy comedy Atoll K (Léo Joannon, 1951).
During the early and mid-1960s, Maïs did a handful of TV movies and series before ending her career. Parallel to her film career, Suzet Maïs acted on stage, between 1929 and the mid-1960s. She made her debut in 'Amphitryon 38' by Jean Giraudoux, staged by Louis Jouvet for the Comédie des Champs-Élysées.
She finally performed in 1966 in 'Les Monstres sacrés' by Jean Cocteau, staged by Henri Rollan. Over the years, she acted in plays by Fernand Crommelynck, Tristan Bernard, Henry Bernstein, and after the war, De Montherlant and again Jean Giraudoux, but also many now forgotten names. Among her directors were Louis Jouvet, Jane Marnac, Robert Dhéry, Pierre Dux, and Bertrand Blier.
Suzet Maïs died in 1989 in Aix-en-Provence. For Colette, she was quite simply without equal: "So many stiff graces, goldsmith's colours, the bite of her voice (I didn't say her articulation), the art, while she was on the telephone, of melting like an azure glacier in spring, everything assures us that Suzet Maïs will never resemble anyone else."
French postcard by Editions Chantal, Rueil, no. 65. Photo: Gray Films.
French postcard by Editions P.I., Paris, no. 24.
Sources: Guy Bellinger (IMDb), Les Archives du Spectacle (French), Wikipedia (French and English), and IMDb.
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