Zouzou, born Danièle Ciarlet on November 29, 1943 in Blida, French Algeria, is a French actress, model, and singer who became one of the most recognizable icons of the 1960s and early 1970s. Her screen name reportedly comes from her zézaiement, a lisp affecting the consonants ‘s’, ‘j’, and ‘z’. She is best known for her lead role as Chloé in Éric Rohmer’s Love in the Afternoon (1972), a film that brought her international prominence.
Leggi tutto: Tribute to Zouzou | Most iconic sensual roles and tickling scenes
Zouzou showed exceptional academic promise from a young age, obtaining her baccalauréat at just 14 years old before enrolling at the Artistic Training Centre of the Académie Charpentier in Paris. As a teenager, she became immersed in the fashionable nightclub scene of 1960s Paris, frequenting venues like Chez Régine, Chez Castel, and the drugstore on the Champs-Élysées.
Working as a model for the Catherine Harlé agency, she was baptized “la twisteuse” by Paris Match magazine and quickly became an emblem of liberated young women during the civil unrest of May 1968. Her relationship with Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones took her to Swinging London, though she eventually left him and returned to Paris to avoid what she described as sinking into that lifestyle.
After appearing in several short films and underground experimental works, particularly under directors like Philippe Garrel and Yves Lagrange, Zouzou achieved her cinematic breakthrough in 1972 with Rohmer’s Love in the Afternoon. Throughout the 1970s, she was featured prominently in French film and television, working with notable directors including Marco Ferreri in The Last Woman (1976) and appearing in international productions like SPYS* (1974) alongside Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould.

Her selected filmography includes Le Lit de la Vierge (1970) directed by Philippe Garrel, where she played both the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene, Lily aime-moi (1975), and Les Apprentis Sorciers (1977). She also appeared in Sky Riders (1976) and had a role cut from Andrzej Żuławski’s L’important c’est d’aimer (1975).
In 1978, Zouzou left Paris for the French Antilles, where she remained for seven years as her career began to wane. She returned to France in 1985 to care for her mother, but struggled with hard drug addiction that had begun in the early 1970s, leading to two brief incarcerations at Fleury-Mérogis prison in 1992 and 1994.
The 2000s brought a cultural rehabilitation and renewed interest in her work. In early 2004, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris organized a retrospective dedicated to her career. That same year, she published her autobiography Jusqu’à l’aube (Until Dawn), co-written with Olivier Nicklaus, which was well-received by critics. She released a compilation of her songs recorded between 1960 and 1990, along with two new tracks, and returned to performing live at Paris’s Sentier des Halles club in 2005.
Zouzou remains beloved today as an authentic icon of an era that celebrated artistic freedom, sexual liberation, and countercultural expression. Her natural charisma, distinctive voice, and willingness to work with avant-garde directors made her a muse for artists and filmmakers of the 1960s and 1970s. Her openness about her struggles with addiction and her candid autobiography have added depth to her public persona, transforming her from a mere celebrity into a figure of genuine human complexity.
Zouzou’s sexy scenes in movies
Zouzou appeared in several films during the 1970s that featured sensual content and nudity, reflecting the more permissive attitudes toward sexuality in European cinema of that period. In Le Lit de la Vierge (1970), Philippe Garrel’s experimental film, she appeared in provocative scenes befitting the film’s exploration of religious and sexual imagery.
Her role in Marco Ferreri’s The Last Woman (1976) opposite Gérard Depardieu included explicit intimate scenes that were characteristic of Ferreri’s provocative filmmaking style. In Lily aime-moi (1975), she appeared in sensual sequences as the title character, a role that showcased her comfort with on-screen intimacy.
In Love in the Afternoon (1972) by Éric Rohmer, Zouzou does indeed have a significant nude scene that has become quite famous.
In the film, her character Chloé invites Frédéric to her apartment and presents herself to him naked in bed. The scene is in the film where the erotic tension reaches its peak. According to reports, Éric Rohmer found this erotic scene particularly difficult to direct: he asked the lead actor Bernard Verley to arrange Zouzou’s naked body on the bed for the shot, while the director himself, embarrassed, retreated upstairs and watched the scene only from a distance.












This scene represents one of the rare moments of explicit nudity in Rohmer’s filmography, as he generally preferred a more subtle eroticism based on suggestion rather than physical exposure. However, in Love in the Afternoon, considered the most erotic of all the films in Rohmer’s “Six Moral Tales,” Zouzou’s nudity plays a fundamental narrative role in representing the temptation that threatens the protagonist’s marriage.
Tickling scenes with Zouzou
S*P*Y*S* is a 1974 American spy comedy film directed by Irvin Kershner and starring Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland, and Zouzou. The plot is set in the world of espionage, with the two agents causing chaos and mayhem as they are pursued by various factions.
The film is a spoof on classic spy films, with the two agents portrayed as inept and bumbling, leading to comedic situations.

The movie follows two inept secret agents who become the targets of the KGB and CIA after a failed mission. Filming took place in Paris and England, and the film was originally titled “Wet Stuff” before being changed. The movie was screened at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival but was not entered into the main competition. Gould and Sutherland’s chemistry in the film has been praised, with reviewers highlighting the banter and humor between the two actors. Despite mixed reviews, the movie has gained a cult following for its comedic elements and the dynamic between the lead characters
Elliott Gould plays the role of Griff, Donald Sutherland plays Bruland, and Zouzou plays Sybil (as Zou Zou) in the film.
Bruland comes home and enters the bedroom: it is nighttime, and his girlfriend, Sybil, is sleeping. She asks him to let her rest but he slips his hand under the covers and tickles her feet. Sybil snaps back as Bruland, starting to undress, tickles her feet with his own feet. Zouzou laughs thunderously without restraint.
Eventually Sutherland lifts the blanket and to her dismay discovers that there are two pairs of feet under the bed: Sybil’s and her lover’s.















