Performer
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio rank
#99252
of 909177 performers
Top 25%
Stéphane Audran represents the rare performer whose career became more ambitious with every decade — 47 years in, and Stéphane is still choosing the harder script.
The essay
Our editors on the work, the patterns and the reason this body of work holds together.
Stéphane Audran appears in 5 films in the Nutevio catalogue, and none of them would work the same way without Stéphane. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie is the clearest case: a film rated 7.2 by our editors, where the performance carries weight the script only implies.
The recognisable elements are quiet performance, transformation, versatility. Watch two of these films back to back and the method separates from the material — the same instrument, tuned differently for history, documentary, action. It is a style built on what is withheld as much as what is played.
Working with Gabriel Axel, Samuel Fuller, Luis Buñuel, Stéphane Audran helped set a standard other performers now audition against. Awards bodies have been slower than the work, which is usually the sign of a career built on choices rather than campaigns.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) as Alice Sénéchal · Babette's Feast (1987) as Babette · The Big Red One (1980) as Walloon
Career snapshot
Ranked #99252 of 909177 performers tracked in the Nutevio library.
Films in Nutevio
5
1972–2019
Career length
47 yrs
Measured across our catalogue
Academy Awards
—
Unknown
Oscar nominations
—
Unknown
Highest Nutevio score
7.2
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Average Nutevio score
6.5
Across catalogue work
Highest IMDb rating
7.5
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Most frequent director
Gabriel Axel
1 film together
Longest collaboration
1×
With Gabriel Axel
Most common genre
History
2 titles
Average runtime
1h 35m
Across catalogue work
Golden Globe wins
—
Unknown
Nutevio metric
Ten weighted categories, applied identically to everyone we cover.
Nutevio Performer Score
6.8
out of 10
A performer whose catalogue work here is strong, with the fuller case still to be made.
Nutevio metric
Cultural impact and legacy, measured separately from craft — how far the work travelled once it left the cinema.
Nutevio Influence Score
6.8
out of 10
A quieter influence — felt inside the films rather than across the industry.
How far the work travelled past the people who saw it first.
What survives once the release-week conversation has burned off.
Institutional acknowledgement, weighted but never decisive.
Years of chosen, relevant work rather than years merely employed.
Statuettes, read as evidence rather than verdict.
Roles named without needing the film named alongside them.
Directors who wrote parts because this performer existed.
The reading other performers now have to answer.
Actor DNA
A fingerprint derived from the roles themselves — register, range and the kind of film they carry.
The shape of a career
Every performance plotted in time. Hover a point to read the title behind it.
Peak years
Where the scores, the awards and the sheer volume of work agree with each other.
Best decade
1970s
7.2 average MV
The 1970s are where the work and the material meet. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie — the run our editors reach for first when the argument is about range rather than fame.
Highest average Nutevio score
1970s
7.2
Across 1 catalogue film in this decade, our scores never drop below the level a career is judged on.
Highest average IMDb rating
1970s
7.5
The public agrees most strongly about this stretch — useful context, and occasionally a decade behind our own reading.
Most awarded era
1970s
0 Academy Awards
Statuettes for the films themselves, which is the honest way to read an ensemble career. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.
Most productive era
1980s
2 films
The busiest stretch of the catalogue — volume that reads as appetite rather than availability.
Range, mapped
Genres down the side, decades across the top. Warmer cells mean stronger titles.
| Genre | 1970s | 1980s | 1990s | 2010s |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drama | — | 6.82 films | — | — |
| Action | — | — | 5.81 film | — |
| Thriller | — | — | 5.81 film | — |
| Comedy | 7.21 film | 6.91 film | — | — |
| Crime | — | — | 5.81 film | — |
Chronology
Firsts and peaks
The turning points, in the order they happened.
First film in Nutevio · Highest rated performance
1972The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
Where our catalogue meets this career, as Alice Sénéchal. 7.2 on the Nutevio scale, the top of the catalogue for this performer.
Career peak
1987Babette's Feast
Weighing billing against the film's own quality, this is the point where everything aligned at once.
Most recent film
2019Claude Chabrol, the Maverick
The current state of the argument, as Self - Actress (archive footage).
Our order
Every performance in the catalogue, ordered by Nutevio Score.
Every title
Filter by genre or decade, and compare any two titles side by side.
5 of 5 films
as Babette
Directed by Gabriel Axel
as Walloon
Directed by Samuel Fuller
as Self - Actress (archive footage)
Directed by Unknown
as Chantal
Directed by Unknown
From the library
Every movie and TV credit stored for this name in the Nutevio catalogue — filter by media, role or sort by rating.
Loading credits…
The defining work
#1
Babette
Babette's Feast (1987)
Performance score7.5
The performance the rest of the career is read through. Babette gives Stéphane Audran a structure to work against, and the film hands over its centre of gravity without hesitation.
View movie#2
Alice Sénéchal
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
Performance score7.3
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Alice Sénéchal is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#3
Walloon
The Big Red One (1980)
Performance score6.8
The Big Red One asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Walloon is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movie#4
Self - Actress (archive footage)
Claude Chabrol, the Maverick (2019)
Performance score6.5
Claude Chabrol, the Maverick asks for something the previous films did not, and gets it. Self - Actress (archive footage) is played without a single line of pleading for the audience's sympathy — which is exactly why it lands.
View movieStart here
A guided path through the work, ordered so each film explains the next.
Best entry point
as Babette
Start here. Babette's Feast is the clearest statement of what Stéphane Audran does — accessible, 104 minutes, and rated 6.9 by our editors. No context required.
Our editors order this path by accessibility first and chronology second. You meet Stéphane at the most legible performance, then move forward in time so each film reads as a response to the one before it rather than a repetition of it.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
Keeps the comedy register of Babette's Feast but asks for a colder reading of it.
The Big Red One (1980)
A deliberate change of key after The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Maximum Risk (1996)
A deliberate change of key after The Big Red One — same instrument, unfamiliar tuning, and the reason range gets mentioned.
Claude Chabrol, the Maverick (2019)
Same director as Maximum Risk, different problem to solve. Watching them in order shows how much of the effect was the collaboration.
Company kept
The directors and performers this career keeps returning to.
Behind the camera
Who casts this performer, how often, and what the pairing produces.
Luis Buñuel
Director
1 film together · 7.2 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Discreet Charm of the BourgeoisieGabriel Axel
Director
1 film together · 6.9 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
Babette's FeastSamuel Fuller
Director
1 film together · 6.6 avg MV
One film, but the kind that reorganises how a performer is cast afterwards.
Best film together
The Big Red OneSix degrees
Follow the thread outward — director, film, co-star, and the film after that.
Categories of our own
Six editorial categories we apply to every performer we cover.
Most rewatchable
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
as Alice Sénéchal
The one that survives a fourth viewing. Nothing in the performance depends on surprise, which is why it keeps paying out.
Most emotional performance
Babette's Feast
as Babette
Grief played at conversational volume. The film never asks the audience to cry; the performance simply makes it difficult not to.
Most influential performance
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
as Alice Sénéchal
You can hear this reading in other actors' auditions a decade later — the surest measure of influence there is.
Best ensemble performance
Claude Chabrol, the Maverick
as Self - Actress (archive footage)
Work that makes everyone else in the frame better without ever pulling the camera towards itself.
Career defining performance
Babette's Feast
as Babette
If the career had to be argued in a single scene, our editors would pick one from this film and rest the case.
In their films' words
“You can build a whole film around a performer who knows when not to speak. Stéphane Audran has known it for a long time.”
Head to head
Put two careers on the same scale and see where the argument actually sits.
Ours alone
Recognitions handed out by this desk, on criteria no awards body uses.
Career Achievement
Awarded
47 years of relevant work — not merely a long career, but a long career of choices.
History Legend
Awarded
2 catalogue titles in history, each one a reference point for the films that followed.
Our desk
Best ending, best opening, best twist and the rest — categories we apply to everyone we cover.
Best ending
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
as Alice Sénéchal
The last five minutes reorganise everything before them, and hold up when you already know what's coming.
Best opening
Maximum Risk
as Chantal
A first sequence that states the rules of the film without explaining a single one of them.
Most emotional
Babette's Feast
as Babette
The film where the technique steps aside and lets the feeling arrive undefended.
Best twist
Maximum Risk
as Chantal
A reversal earned by information the film gave you and trusted you to misread.
Best visual achievement
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
as Alice Sénéchal
Images that would survive with the sound switched off.
Best action sequence
Maximum Risk
as Chantal
Geography, stakes and consequence held in the same frame — spectacle you can follow.
Best dialogue
Babette's Feast
as Babette
Lines written to be spoken, staged so the pauses do half the work.
Most underrated film
Claude Chabrol, the Maverick
as Self - Actress (archive footage)
The public vote sits below ours on this one, and the direction is the reason for the gap.
If you like this performer
Cillian Murphy
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Matt Damon
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Michael Caine
Built a career in the same territory: drama and thriller
David Krumholtz
Built a career in the same territory: action and drama
Morgan Freeman
Built a career in the same territory: action and crime
Robert Downey Jr.
Built a career in the same territory: drama and history
Have your say
Community
Which Stéphane Audran performance holds up best?
Our readers argue about this one. Make your case, or read the ranked debate already in progress.
Join the conversation
Reference
Continue exploring
Trending performers
Directors they work with
Collections to read next
