Liliane Rovère makes other people’s panic look unnecessary. We rate her dry assurance in Call My Agent, where her veteran agent has seen every crisis before and has little reason to join in the fuss.
Fi1m perspective
In Call My Agent (2015), Arlette Azémar treats the latest agency crisis as something she has already dealt with several times. Liliane Rovère gives the veteran agent a dry assurance that makes the surrounding agitation look faintly unnecessary. We laughed at her lack of surprise, because she makes the panic seem so avoidable. That droll delivery is particularly useful in an ensemble full of people with urgent reasons to be noticed.
Before Arlette, Rovère spent decades in supporting film and television parts, with Bertrand Blier a recurring collaborator. She played Josyane in his Buffet Froid (1979) and Mme Queen in Bertrand Tavernier’s 'Round Midnight (1986). She also worked in experimental theatre, including with Jorge Lavelli, so the familiar comic manner tells us only part of what she has done. Call My Agent brought wider international recognition to an actor whose work already included both commercial comedy and restrained drama.
Chantal Akerman’s The Captive (2000) is another reason to look beyond the comic roles. Rovère plays Françoise, the maid, in a study of jealousy whose careful staging rewards patience, even when the repeated conversations wear it down. Her part is small, and we would not send anyone to the film expecting a leading role for her. It does, however, put her within a much quieter kind of film-making than the agency comedy.
Fanny Herrero’s writing remains the clearest place to start with what we like about Rovère: frank speech, confidence and little inclination to fuss. Alongside Grégory Montel’s anxious Gabriel and Thibault de Montalembert’s assured Mathias, Arlette helps give the agency a convincing spread of temperaments. The programme’s affection for the business softens its satire, and Rovère’s dry wit cannot cure that. Start with Call My Agent, and allow time to get to know her colleagues.
Biography
Liliane Rovère is a French actress born on 30 January 1933 in Paris. She began acting in the mid-1960s after taking theatre classes, initially appearing in television and supporting film roles.
She is known for performances in Buffet Froid (1979), With a Friend Like Harry... (2000) and Anything for Her (2008), as well as recurring roles in the series Call My Agent! (2015–2020) as Arlette Azémar and Emily in Paris (2020–). In 2019 she published the memoir La Folle Vie de Lili.
