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Beautiful and distinguished, exceptionally talented (she could play piano, dance, ski, practice underwater fishing, and, of course... act!), Danielle Godet had all the makings of a great career. Everything except luck, as a lack of opportunities kept her from fulfilling her considerable potential. Born in Paris in 1927, the daughter of an industrialist and a homemaker passionate about piano and classical music, Danielle inherited her artistic sensibility from her mother. Thanks to Mrs. Godet, young Danielle studied piano and dance, even winning first prize at the Léopold Belland dance contest. But it was the allure of cinema that ultimately captivated her. Her first encounter with film happened by chance during the summer of 1943, when the small village where Danielle and her family vacationed hosted the filming of Léon Mathot’s L'homme sans nom (1943). Extras were needed, and the striking sixteen-year-old was noticed and hired as one. Later, she took acting lessons with Maria Ventura and Jean Martinelli. Her initial break came with René Clair, who tested her for Man About Town (1947), but she was only cast as a spectator, the esteemed French director opting for Marcelle Derrien instead. A similar disappointment occurred two years later when Henri-Georges Clouzot considered her for Manon (1949), only to replace her with Cécile Aubry. In 1947, she starred alongside a then-unknown Yves Montand in the now-forgotten boxing film The Idol (1948). Her true impact came with Henri Calef’s La souricière (1950), a superior but overlooked noir thriller. In this film, Danielle Godet demonstrated she could take on roles beyond the ingénue parts she’d played so far. It was also delightful to see her, like other French beauties such as Anne Vernon and Odile Versois, appear in the English production The Fighting Pimpernel (1949). However, from that point forward, Danielle Godet’s career declined and despite her efforts to secure meaningful roles, it never recovered. Among her later work were a few modest but enjoyable French and Spanish B movies—Votre dévoué Blake (1954), The Versailles Affair (1960), Cuatro en la frontera (1958), Autopsy of a Criminal (1963)—but also numerous flops directed by Maurice de Canonge, Henri Lepage, Walter Kapps, Georges Jaffé, or Gianfranco Parolini. A handful of collaborations with Jean-Pierre Mocky, Jean Dewever, Mauro Bolognini, and Juan Luis Buñuel offered some redemption. What a pity that Danielle Godet never crossed paths with Jean Renoir, Jean-Pierre Melville, Claude Autant-Lara, Louis Malle, Jacques Becker, and other luminaries of French cinema. Had she done so, this story would undoubtedly have been very different.
