French actresses: introduction

I know, I know, I should have let this wither away after one short entry more than three years ago. But recently I've felt the temptation to start writing single entries about French actresses, perhaps in emulation of a venerable-but-only-recently-perused film classic, David Thomson's (New) Biographical Dictionary of Film, and this feels like the place to do it. There are one or two disadvantages with this:

1. My French is still, after all these years, a bit ropey. (I shall have to ask one of my new French friends, assuming they are actually friends, or indeed French, what the difference is between actrice, comédienne and vedette.)


2. It makes me look a bit gay. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, etc, etc.)*

On the other hand, it's probably something undemanding** I can do when I've a spare moment, and/or have just been reminded of how much I like a particular actress after catching her in a film.

* I suppose I'm set in my ways, or haven't joined the dots, or something, but I don't really get the actress/gay man link. But hey, that's the world we live in. That bloke from Film Experience is so into actresses that he had to invent a word to describe it.

** Christ almighty, I've already spent ages on this introductory entry. 'Undemanding' perhaps, but time-consuming, too.