Marthe Keller


Marthe Keller is a Swiss actress and opera director. She is perhaps best known for her role in the film Marathon Man, which earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination.

Career

Early years

Keller studied ballet as a child, but stopped after a skiing accident at age 16. She changed to acting, and worked in Berlin at the Schiller Theater and the Berliner Ensemble.

Film work

Keller's earliest film appearances were in Funeral in Berlin and the German film '. She appeared in a series of French films in the 1970s, including ', La raison du plus fou and Toute une vie. Her most famous American film appearances are her Golden Globe-nominated performance as Dustin Hoffman's girlfriend in Marathon Man and her performance as a femme fatale Palestinian terrorist who leads an attack on the Super Bowl in Black Sunday. Keller acted alongside Al Pacino in the 1977 romantic drama film Bobby Deerfield, based on Erich Maria Remarque's novel Heaven Has No Favorites, and subsequently the two were involved in a relationship. She also acted alongside William Holden in Billy Wilder's 1978 romantic drama Fedora.
After 1978, Keller did more work in European cinema than in Hollywood. Her later films include Dark Eyes, with Marcello Mastroianni.
In April 2016, she was announced as the President of the Jury for the Un Certain Regard section of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

Theater work

In 2001, Keller appeared in an all-star Broadway adaptation of Abby Mann's play Judgment at Nuremberg, directed by John Tillinger, as Mrs. Bertholt, in the role played by Marlene Dietrich in the 1961 Stanley Kramer film version. She was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Featured Actress for this performance.

Opera work

In addition to her work in film and theatre, Keller has developed a career in classical music as a speaker and opera director. She has performed the speaking role of Joan of Arc in Arthur Honegger's oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher on several occasions, with conductors such as Seiji Ozawa and Kurt Masur. She has recorded the role for Deutsche Grammophon with Ozawa. Keller has also recited the spoken part in Igor Stravinsky's Perséphone. She has performed classical music melodramas for speaker and piano in recital. The Swiss composer Michael Jarrell wrote the melodrama Cassandre, after the novel of Christa Wolf, for Keller who gave the world premiere in 1994.
Keller's first production as an opera director was Dialogues des Carmélites for Opéra national du Rhin in 1999. This production subsequently received a semi-staged performance in London that year. She has also directed Lucia di Lammermoor for Washington National Opera and for Los Angeles Opera. Her directorial debut at the Metropolitan Opera was in a 2004 production of Don Giovanni.

Personal life

Keller has one son, Alexandre, from her relationship with director Philippe de Broca.

Theatre

YearTitleAuthorDirectorNotes
1970A Day in the Death of Joe EggPeter NicholsMichel FagadauThéâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse
1979Three SistersAnton ChekhovLucian PintilieThéâtre de la Ville
1982Emballage perduVera FeyderNelly BorgeaudThéâtre des Mathurins
1983ExilesJames JoyceAndreas VoutsinasThéâtre Renaud-Barrault
1983ExilesJames JoyceAndreas VoutsinasThéâtre Renaud-Barrault
1983-86JedermannHugo von HofmannsthalErnst Haeussermann & Gernot FriedelFestival de Salzbourg
1984BetrayalHarold PinterSami FreyThéâtre des Célestins
1986Don CarlosFriedrich SchillerMichelle MarquaisThéâtre de la Ville
1988HamletWilliam ShakespearePatrice ChéreauThéâtre Nanterre-Amandiers
1997KinkaliArnaud BedouetPhilippe AdrienThéâtre national de la Colline
2001Judgment at NurembergAbby MannJoe TillingerBroadway theatre
2008The StrongerAugust StrindbergWadsworthArclight Theatre
2011Jan Karski Yannick HaenelArthur NauzycielFestival d'Avignon

Filmography