Sylvie Testud
in 2011
Born	(1971-01-17) January 17, 1971 (age 41) Lyon, Rhône, France
Occupation	Actress, director, writer
Years active	1991–present

Sylvie Testud (born January 17, 1971) is a French actress, writer and director. Her film career began in 1991. She was later highly acclaimed, and has twice won César Awards.

Biography[link]

She grew up in La Croix-Rousse quarter of Lyon, an area with many Portuguese, Spanish and Italian immigrants – her mother herself, an immigrant from Italy in the 1960s. Her mother married a Frenchman but he left the family when Sylvie was just two years old. In 2003 when asked if she thought of trying to meet him she said: "I don't see what it would give me. Either the guy is nice, and I shall have lost thirty years, or he is useless, and it is not worth the trouble."^[1]

In 1985, aged 14, she saw Charlotte Gainsbourg in her role of the complex young girl in L'Effrontée, the film of Claude Miller, identified with her, and so took drama classes in Lyon with the actor and director Christian Taponard. In 1989, she moved to Paris and spent three years at the Conservatoire (CNSAD). In the early and mid 1990s, she landed her first small roles in films like L'Histoire du garcon qui voulait qu'on l'embrasse directed by Philippe Harel, and Love, etc. director, Marion Vernoux. In 1997 she had great success in Germany with Caroline Link's Jenseits der Stille for which she learnt German, sign language, and the clarinet. In 1998 she had her first major role in French cinema playing Béa in Thomas Vincent's Karnaval. In 2000 she starred in Chantal Akerman's La Captive, an adaptation of La Prisonièrre, the fifth part of Marcel Proust's A La Recherche du Temps Perdu. In 2001 she won the César Award for Most Promising Actress for her portrayal of Christine Papin, one of the Papin sisters, in Les Blessures assassines (English title: Murderous Maids), The story concerned a young servant woman found guilty of the murder, with her sister's help, of her employer's wife and daughter; it had made sensational headlines in France in 1933.^{[citation needed]}

In 2003, she published the autobiographical book Il n'y a pas beaucoup d'etoiles ce soir, with anecdotes of her day to day life as an actress. The French edition featured a cover designed by her sister Ghislaine.^{[citation needed]}

One of her most noted performances was as the star of the film Stupeur et tremblements, adapted from the novel by Amélie Nothomb, for which she was awarded a César and a Prix Lumière for best actress in 2004. She plays a woman struggling with the difference in culture between the Japanese business world and the western, Belgian world, from which she comes. In 2005 or 2006^{[clarification needed]} she returned to her native Lyon (to the Théâtre de la Croix Rousse), where she played the rôle of Edith in Philippe Faure's adaptation of Stefan Zweig's La Pitié dangereuse. She starred in 2007's two-time Academy Award-winning film La Vie en Rose, as Momone, Edith Piaf's best friend. In the 2008 film Sagan, she portrayed the writer Françoise Sagan, earning unanimous praise for her hauntingly accurate portrayal and for which she was again nominated for the César for best actress.^{[citation needed]}

She was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Ordre national du Mérite in March 2009.^[2]

She has a son, Ruben, born on 15 February 2005, and a daughter Esther, born in January, 2011.^[3]

Filmography[link]

w:fr:La Vie d'une autre (2012) - as director Les Mains de Roxana (Telefilm) (2012) Je m'appelle Hmmmm (2012) dir : agnès b A votre bon coeur, mesdames (2012) Geography of the Hapless Heart (2012) The Scapegoat (2012) dir: Charles Sturridge L'Ordre et la Morale (2011) dir: Mathieu Kassovitz Mumu (2010) Avant l'aube (2010) The Round Up (2010) Louise Michel (2010) dir: Solveig Anspach Gamines (2009) Lucky Luke (2009) Je ne dis pas non (2009) Lourdes (2009) Vengeance (2009) Le Bonheur de Pierre (2009) L'Idiot (2008) Sagan (2008) Ce que mes yeux ont vu (2007) Mange, ceci est mon corps (2007) La France (2007) La Môme (La Vie en Rose in English) (2007) L'Héritage (2006) La Vie est à nous! (2005) Les Mots bleus (2005) Victoire (2004) Cause toujours! (2004) Tout pour l'oseille (2004) Demain on déménage (2004) Dédales (2003) Filles uniques (2003) (Fear and Trembling) Stupeur et tremblements (2003) Vivre me tue (2002) Aime ton père (2002)

At the César Awards 2008. Tangos volés (2002) Les Femmes... ou les enfants d'abord (2002) Un moment de bonheur (2002) Jedermanns Fest (2002) Der Gläserne Blick (2002) Je rentre à la maison (2001) The Château (2001) Ce qui compte pour Mathilde (2001) Julie's Geist (2001) La Chambre obscure (2000) Les Blessures assassines (2000) Sade (2000) Faux contact (2000) La Captive (2000) Scénarios sur la drogue (2000) Lucie (2000) Pünktchen und Anton (1999, after a children's novel by Erich Kästner) Karnaval (1999) Marée haute (1999) Les Pierres qui tombent du ciel (1999) The Misadventures of Margaret (1998) In Heaven (1998) Sentimental Education (1998) Flammen im Paradies (1997) Jenseits der Stille (1996) Love, etc. (1996) Le Plus bel âge... (1995) Éternelles (1995) Délit mineur (1995) Maries Lied: Ich war, ich weiß nicht wo (1994) L'Histoire du garçon qui voulait qu'on l'embrasse (1994) Couples et amants (1993) De montagne (1991) La Violoniste (1991)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sylvie Testud

• Sylvie Testud at the Internet Movie Database
• Sylvie Testud at AlloCiné (French)
• Sylvie Testud at Actricesdefrance.org
• CSOJ - Alain Badiou Sylvie Testud appears on French television's program Ce Soir (En direct, channel 3) in conversation with militant philosopher Alain Badiou. The topic of this episode is "Faut-il réinventer l'amour?". Ms Testud appears 46:18 minutes into the program and is in conversation with Badiou and the program host for about 24 minutes (no commercials, this show is in French).

Mathieu Kassovitz
Kassovitz at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival
Born	(1967-04-03) 3 April 1967 (age 45) Paris, France
Occupation	Actor, director, screenwriter, producer
Years active	1978–present
Website
http://www.mathieukassovitz.com/

Mathieu Kassovitz (born 3 April 1967) is a French director, screenwriter, producer, and actor, best known for his Cannes-winning drama La Haine. Kassovitz is also the founder of MNP Entreprise, a film production company.

Early life[link]

Kassovitz was born in Paris, the son of Chantal Rémy, a film editor, and Peter Kassovitz, a director and writer.^[1] His mother is French and Catholic and his father is a Hungarian Jew who left Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956^[2] (Mathieu Kassovitz has described himself as "not Jewish but I was brought up in a world of Jewish humor").^[2]

Kassovitz was married to French ex-actress Julie Mauduech, whom he directed and acted alongside with in his 1993 film Métisse (Café au lait, English title) and who made a brief appearance in La Haine (during the scene in the Parisian art gallery). They have a daughter, Carmen. Mauduech is now a costume designer for films.

Filmmaker[link]

As a filmmaker, Kassovitz has made several artistic and commercial successes. He wrote and directed La Haine (Hate, 1995), a hugely controversial film in France dealing with themes around class, race, violence, and police brutality. The film won the César Award for Best Film and netted Kassovitz the Best Director prize at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.^[3] When he was compared to Spike Lee because the film was being compared to Lee's Do the Right Thing, he noted the irony:

I don't know if it's really important, or intelligent even, when people say to me I'm a white Spike Lee, because they said to Spike Lee you're a black Woody Allen.^[4]

He later directed Les Rivières Pourpres (2000), a police detective thriller starring Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel, another massive commercial success in France, and Gothika (2003), a fantasy thriller (considered by some to be a commercial failure, although it grossed over twice its roughly $40 million budget), with Halle Berry and Penélope Cruz that he did to earn the money he needed to develop a far more personal project Babylon Babies, the adaptation of one of Maurice Dantec's books. Kassovitz established the film production firm MNP Entreprise in 2000 "to develop and produce feature films by Kassovitz and to represent him as a director and actor."^[5] MNP Entreprise is responsible for the co-productions of a number of films including Avida (2006) in which Kassovitz acts and Babylon A.D. which he directed. Kassovitz purchased the film rights for the novel Johnny Mad Dog by Congolese writer Emmanuel Dongala. The film was also co-produced by MNP Entreprise, and directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. The premiere of the film was made at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival where it was screened within the Un Certain Regard section.^[6]

MNP Entreprise's upcoming titles are Rebellion, MNP and also Dust Motion, that he will co-direct with young director K-Michel Parandi. Kassovitz will both star in and direct Rebellion, a war film based on a true story of French commandos who clashed with tribes in New Caledonia, the Melanesian territory of France. The film will start shooting at the end of 2008. The science fiction film MNP is named after Mir Space Station, whose writing in Cyrillic letters (Мир) look like the letters MNP, and also the production company.^[7]

Actor[link]

Kassovitz is most famous outside France for his role as Nino Quincampoix in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amélie. Among many other credits, he also had small roles in La Haine (which he also directed), Birthday Girl, Café Au Lait and The Fifth Element. He also played one of the main roles in Amen. (2003) by Costa-Gavras. Kassovitz is also recognizable for playing a conflicted Belgian explosives expert in Steven Spielberg's controversial 2005 film Munich, alongside Eric Bana and Geoffrey Rush. He explained several times he accepted acting parts only for the experience of knowing what it is to act, to be able to be a better director of actors afterward, to meet directors he admires and learn from them by working with them, and to take part in great projects.^{[citation needed]} Kassovitz was a jury member for the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.

Views on Sarkozy[link]

In November 2005, riots spread throughout suburbs of Paris following the deaths of two teenagers of North African descent, who were accidentally electrocuted while avoiding police ID checks and questioning. The question of whether young men were victims of racial discrimination set off a chain reaction of violence in schools, gyms, and police stations, and an aggressive response from then - Home Office Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. Sarkozy stirred controversy and outrage when he said the rioters were "scum" and should be "cleansed" from the banlieues (suburbs) with a "fire hose".

Kassovitz, whose film La haine ten years earlier had first highlighted the tensions between police and suburbs population, and stirred national dialogue, publicly responded to Sarkozy via his blog. He took the minister to task, saying that Sarkozy held "ideas that not only reveal his inexperience of politics and human relations, but which also illuminate the purely demagogical and egocentric aspects of a puny, would-be Napoleon."^[8]

In a 2012 interview, he labeled the outgoing Sarkozy administration as "horrible".^[9]

Filmography[link]

As director[link]

Feature films[link]

Short films[link]

As an actor[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

• 1994: Nominated for a César Award for Best Newcomer and Best Debut Film
• 1995: Won Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival for La Haine.^[3]
• 1995: Won a César Award for Best Newcomer
• 2001: Nominated for Best Director for The Crimson Rivers
• 2001: Won Gold Star for Best Director for The Crimson Rivers
• 2003: Nominated for a César Award for Best Actor for Amen.

Sport[link]

In 2009, he won with Tesla Roadster the Rallye Monte Carlo des Véhicules à Énergie Alternative (starting event of the FIA Alternative Energies Cup) in the category reserved to electric vehicles.^[10][11]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official homepage
• Mathieu Kassovitz at the Internet Movie Database

Juliette Binoche
at the Elysee Biarritz movie theatre in Paris on 22 October 2009
Born	(1964-03-09) 9 March 1964 (age 48) Paris, France
Other names	"La Binoche"
Occupation	Actress, artist, dancer, poet, designer, human rights campaigner
Years active	1983–present
Partner	Leos Carax (1986–1991) André Hallé (1991–1993) Benoît Magimel (1998–2003) Santiago Amigorena (2005–2009)
Children	Raphaël Hallé (b 1993) Hana Magimel (b 1999)
Signature	150px

Juliette Binoche (French pronunciation: [ʒyljɛt binɔʃ]; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress, artist and dancer. She has appeared in more than 40 feature films, been recipient of numerous international accolades, is a published author and has appeared on stage across the world. Coming from an artistic background, she began taking acting lessons during adolescence. After performing in several stage productions, she was propelled into the world of auteurs Jean-Luc Godard (Hail Mary, 1985), Jacques Doillon (Family Life, 1985) and André Téchiné, who made her a star in France with the leading role in his 1985 drama Rendez-vous. Her sensual performance in her English-language debut The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), directed by Philip Kaufman, launched her international career.

She sparked the interest of Steven Spielberg, who offered her several parts including a role in Jurassic Park which she declined, choosing instead to join Krzysztof Kieślowski on the set of Three Colors: Blue (1993), a performance for which she won the Venice Film Festival Award for Best Actress and a César. Three years later Binoche gained further acclaim in Anthony Minghella's The English Patient (1996), for which she was awarded an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress in addition to the Best Actress Award at the 1997 Berlin Film Festival. For her performance in Lasse Hallström's romantic comedy Chocolat (2000) Binoche was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

During the 2000s she maintained a successful, critically acclaimed career, alternating between French and English language roles in both mainstream and art-house productions. In 2010 she won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy making her the first actress to win the European "best actress triple crown".

Throughout her career Binoche has intermittently appeared on stage, most notably in a 1998 London production of Luigi Pirandello's Naked and in a 2000 production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal on Broadway for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. In 2008 she began a world tour with a modern dance production in-i devised in collaboration with Akram Khan. Affectionately referred to as "La Binoche"^[1] by the French press, her other notable performances include: Mauvais Sang (1986), Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991), Damage (1992), The Horseman on the Roof (1995), Code Unknown (2000), Caché (2005), Breaking and Entering (2006) and Flight of the Red Balloon (2007).

Biography[link]

Early life and career[link]

Juliette Binoche was born in Paris, the daughter of Jean-Marie Binoche, a director, actor and sculptor, and Monique Stalens, a teacher, director and actress.^[2] Her mother is of Polish descent. Her maternal Polish Catholic grandparents were imprisoned at Auschwitz because they were considered to be intellectuals by the Nazi occupiers.^[3] She also has French, Flemish, Brazilian and Moroccan ancestry.^[4] When her parents divorced in 1968, four year old Binoche and her sister Marion were sent to a provincial boarding school.^[5] During their teens, the Binoche sisters spent their school holidays with their maternal grandmother, not seeing either parent for months at a time. Binoche has stated that this perceived parental abandonment had a profound effect on her.^[6]

She was not particularly academic^[7] and in her teenage years she began acting at school in amateur stage productions. At 17, she directed and starred in a student production of the Eugène Ionesco play, Exit the King. She studied acting at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique (CNSAD), but quit after a short time as she disliked the curriculum.^[7] In the early 1980s, she found an agent through a friend and joined a theater troupe with which she toured France, Belgium and Switzerland under the pseudonym "Juliette Adrienne".^[8] Around this time she began lessons with the famed acting coach Vera Gregh.^[9]

Her first professional screen experience was as an extra in the three part TF1 television series Dorothée, danseuse de corde (1983) directed by Jacques Fensten, which was followed by a similarly small role in the provincial television film Fort bloque directed by Pierrick Guinnard. Following this Binoche secured her first feature film appearance with a minor role in Pascal Kané's Liberty Belle (1983). Her role required just two days on set, but was enough to inspire Binoche to pursue a career in film.^[7]

1984–1991[link]

Juliette Binoche in 1985.

Binoche's early films would see her established as a French star of some renown.^[5] In 1983, she auditioned for the female lead in Jean-Luc Godard's' controversial Hail Mary, a modern retelling of the Virgin birth.^[10] Godard requested a meeting with Binoche having seen a photo of her taken by her boyfriend of the time.^[11] She has said that she spent six months on the set of the film in Geneva, although her role in the final cut is contained to only a few scenes.^[11][12] Further supporting roles followed in a variety of French films: Annick Lanoë's Les Nanas was to give Binoche her most noteworthy role to date, playing opposite established stars Marie-France Pisier and Macha Meril, in a mainstream comedy.^[13] However, she has stated that the experience was not particularly memorable or influential.^[14] She gained more significant exposure in Jacques Doillon's critically acclaimed Family Life, which cast her as the volatile teenage step-daughter of Sami Frey's central character. This film was to set the tone of her early career.^[15] Doillon has commented that in the original screenplay her character was written to be 14 years old, he was so impressed with Binoche's audition he changed the character's age to 17 to allow her take the role.^[14] In April 1985, Binoche followed this with another supporting role in Bob Decout's Adieu Blaireau, a policier thriller starring Philippe Léotard and Annie Girardot. Adieu Blaireau failed to have much impact with critics or audiences.^[13]

It was to be later in 1985 that Binoche would fully emerge as a leading actress with her role in André Téchiné's Rendez-vous. She was cast at short notice when Sandrine Bonnaire had to abandon the film due to a scheduling conflict.^[16] Rendez-vous premiered at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, winning Best Director. The film was a sensation and Binoche became the darling of the festival.^[17] Rendez-Vous is the story of a provincial actress, Nina (Binoche), who arrives in Paris and embarks on a series of dysfunctional liaisons with several men, including the moody, suicidal Quentin (Lambert Wilson). However it is her collaboration with theatre director Scrutzler, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, which comes to define Nina.^[18] In a review of Rendez-Vous in Film Comment, Armond White described it as "Juliette Binoche's career defining performance".^[19] In 1986, Binoche was nominated for her first César for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in the film.^[20] Following Rendez-Vous, she was unsure of what role to take next. She auditioned unsuccessfully for Yves Boisset's Bleu comme l'enfer and Robin Davis's Hors la loi,^[18] but was eventually cast in My Brother-in-law Killed My Sister (1986) by Jacques Rouffio opposite the popular French stars Michel Serrault and Michel Piccoli. This film was a critical and commercial failure.^[21] Binoche has commented that Rouffio's film is very significant to her career as it taught her to judge roles based on the quality of the screenplay and her connection with a director, not on the reputation of other cast members.^[22] Later in 1986, she again starred opposite Michel Piccoli in Leos Carax's Mauvais Sang. This film was a critical and commercial success, leading to Binoche's second César nomination. Mauvais Sang is an avant-garde thriller in which she plays Anna the vastly younger lover of Marc (Piccoli) who falls in love with Alex (Denis Lavant), a young thief.^[23] Binoche has stated that she, "discovered the camera", while shooting this film.^[24]

In August 1986, Binoche began filming Philip Kaufman's adaptation of Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, portraying the young and innocent Tereza.^[25] Released in 1988, this was Binoche's first English language role and was a worldwide success with critics and audiences alike^[26] Set against the Russian invasion of Prague in 1968, the film tells the story of the relationships a Czech surgeon, Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis), has with his wife Tereza and his lover Sabina (Lena Olin). Binoche has stated that at the time her English was very limited and that she relied on a French translation to fully grasp her role.^[27] After this success, Binoche decided to return to France rather than pursue an international career.^[28] In 1988, she filmed the lead in Pierre Pradinas's Un tour de manège, a little-seen French film opposite François Cluzet.^[28] She has stated that her attraction to this film was that it gave her the opportunity to work with close friends and family.^[7] Pradinas is the husband of her sister Marion Stalens who was set photographer on the film and appeared in a cameo role.^[7] In the summer of 1988, Binoche returned to the stage in an acclaimed production of Anton Checkov's The Seagull directed by Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky at Théâtre De L'odéon in Paris.^[29] Later that year she began work on Léos Carax's Les Amants du Pont-Neuf.^[30] The film was beset by problems and took three years to complete, requiring investment from three producers and funds from the French government.^[14] When finally released in 1991, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf was a critical success. Binoche won a European Film Award^[31] as well as securing her third César nomination for her performance. In the film Binoche portrays an artist who lives rough on the famous Parisian bridge where she meets another young vagrant (Denis Lavant). This iconic part of the city becomes the backdrop for a wildly passionate love story and some of the most visually arresting images of the city ever created.^[32] The paintings featured in the film were Binoche's own work.^[14] She also designed the French poster for the film which features an ink drawing of the eponymous lovers locked in embrace.^[14] During a break in filming in 1990, Binoche spent five days shooting Mara for Mike Figgis, based on Henry Miller's Quiet Days at Clichy. This 30 minute film was part of HBO's anthology series Women & Men 2.^[33] The film became somewhat contentious when, according to Mike Figgis, HBO altered it once he had completed it.^[34] The film premiered on HBO in the U.S. on 18 August 1991.^[35]

At this point, Binoche seemed to be at a crossroads in her career. She was recognized as one of the most significant French actresses of her generation.^[36] However, the long production of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf had forced her to turn down several significant roles in international productions including The Double Life of Véronique by Krzysztof Kieślowski, Cyrano de Bergerac by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Night and Day by Chantal Akerman and Beyond the Aegean an aborted project with Elia Kazan.^[37] Now Binoche chose to pursue an international career outside France.^[14]

1992–2000[link]

Juliette Binoche at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.

The 1990s saw Juliette Binoche inaugurated as a European leading lady in a series of international films that were critical and commercial successes winning Binoche much praise and numerous awards for her performances.^[38] This period saw her persona develop from that of a young gamine to a more melancholic, tragic presence. Critics suggested that many of her roles were notable for her almost passive intensity in the face of tragedy and despair.^[28] In fact Binoche has nicknamed her characters from this period as her "sorrowful sisters".^[39] Following the long shoot of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, Binoche relocated to London for the 1992 productions of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and Damage, both of which considerably enhanced her international reputation.^[40] Yet, from a professional and personal point-of-view, both films were significant challenges for Binoche; her casting opposite Ralph Fiennes's Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, in favour of English actresses Helena Bonham Carter^[41] and Kate Beckinsale,^[42] was immediately contentious and drew derision from the British press, unimpressed that a uniquely English role had gone to a French actress.^[43] The film had its world premiere at the 1992 Edinburgh International Film Festival. Reviews were poor, with Binoche being cynically dubbed "Cathy Clouseau" and being derided for her "franglais" accent.^[44] Both Binoche and director Peter Kosminsky distanced themselves from the film, with Binoche refusing to do any promotion for the film or to redub it into French.^[45] Damage, a UK and French co-production, is the story of a British conservative minister played by Jeremy Irons who embarks on a torrid affair with his son's fiancée (Binoche). Based on the novel by Josephine Hart and directed by veteran French director Louis Malle, Damage seemed to be the ideal international vehicle for Binoche; however the production was wrought with difficulties and dogged by rumours of serious conflict. In an on-set interview, Louis Malle stated that it was the "most difficult" film he had ever made, while Binoche commented that "the first day was one big argument".^[46] Damage opened in the UK late in 1992 and debuted early in 1993 on US screens. Reviews were somewhat mixed.^[47] For her performance, Juliette Binoche received her fourth César nomination.

In 1993, she appeared in Krzysztof Kieślowski's Three Colors: Blue to much critical acclaim.^[48] The first film in a trilogy inspired by the ideals of the French republic and the colors of its flag, Three Colors: Blue is the story of a young woman who loses her composer husband and daughter in a car accident. Though devastated she learns to cope by rejecting her previous life in favour of conscious "nothing"; rejecting all people, belongings and emotions.^[49] Three Colors: Blue premiered at the 1993 Venice Film Festival, landing Binoche the Best Actress Prize. She also won a César, and a nomination for the Golden Globe. Binoche has said her inspirations for the role were her friend and coach Vernice Klier who suffered a similar tragedy, and the book The Black Veil by Anny Duperey which deals with the author's grief at losing her parents at a young age.^[50] Binoche made cameo appearances in the other two films in Kieślowski's trilogy, Three Colors: White and Three Colors: Red. Around this time, Steven Spielberg offered her roles in Jurassic Park and Schindler's List. She turned down both parts.^[51] After the success of Three Colors: Blue, Binoche took a short sabbatical during which she gave birth to her son Raphaël in September 1993.^[52]

In 1995, Binoche returned to the screen in a big-budget adaptation of Jean Giono's The Horseman on the Roof directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau. The film was particularly significant in France as it was the first French production to use digital special effects and was at the time the most expensive film in the history of French cinema.^[53] The film was a box-office success around the world and Binoche was again nominated for a César for Best Actress. This role, as a romantic heroine, was to color the direction of many of her subsequent roles in the late 1990s.^[54] In 1996, Binoche appeared in her first comedic role since My Brother-in-Law Killed My Sister a decade before; A Couch in New York was directed by Chantal Akerman and co-starred William Hurt. This screw-ball comedy tells the story of a New York psychiatrist who swaps homes with a Parisian dancer.^[55] The film was a critical and commercial failure.^[56] Three Colors: Blue, The Horseman on the Roof and A Couch in New York all gave Binoche the opportunity to work with prestigious directors she had turned down during the prolonged shoot of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf.^[14] Her next role would significantly reinforce her position as a bona fide international movie star, The English Patient, based on the prize winning novel by Michael Ondaatje and directed by Anthony Minghella, was a worldwide hit.^[57] Produced by Saul Zaentz, producer of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the film reunited Juliette Binoche with Ralph Fiennes, Heathcliff to her Cathy four years previously. Binoche has said that the shoot on location in Tuscany and at the famed Cinecittà in Rome was among the happiest professional experiences of her career.^[5] The film, which tells the story of a badly burned, mysterious man found in the wreckage of a plane during World War II, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche.^[58] With this film, she became the second French actress to win an Oscar, following Simone Signoret's win for Room at the Top in 1960. After this international hit, Binoche returned to France and began work opposite Daniel Auteuil on Claude Berri's Lucie Aubrac, the true story of a French Resistance heroine. Binoche was released from the film six weeks into the shoot due to differences with Berri regarding the authenticity of his script.^[59] Binoche has described this event as being like "an earthquake" to her.^[5]

Binoche at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

Next Juliette Binoche was reunited with director André Téchiné for Alice et Martin (1998), the story of a relationship between an emotionally damaged Parisian musician and her younger lover who hides a dark family secret. The film failed to find an audience in France, although it was critically acclaimed in the UK.^[60] In February 1998 Binoche made her London stage debut in a new version of Luigi Pirandello's Clothe the Naked retitled Naked and adapted by Nicolas Wright. The production, directed by Jonathan Kent, was very favorably received.^[61][62] Following this acclaimed performance, she returned to French screens with Children of the Century (1999), a big budget romantic epic, in which she played 19th-century French proto-feminist author George Sand. The film depicted Sand's affair with the poet and dandy Alfred de Musset played by Benoit Magimel. This lavish costume drama was filmed on location in Paris and Venice and featured couture costumes by the renowned fashion designer Christian Lacroix.^[63] The following year saw Binoche in four contrasting roles, each of which enhanced her reputation. La Veuve de Saint-Pierre (2000) by Patrice Leconte, for which she was nominated for a César for Best Actress, was a period drama which saw Binoche appear opposite Daniel Auteuil in the role of a woman who attempts to save a condemned man from the guillotine.^[64] The film won favourable reviews, particularly in the U.S.^[65] where it was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. The film won the Audience Award at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival^[66] Next she appeared in Michael Haneke's Code Unknown, a film which was made following Binoche's approach to the Austrian director.^[67] The film premiered in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.^[68] This critically acclaimed role was a welcome change from playing the romantic heroine in a series of costume dramas.^[69] Later that year, Binoche made her Broadway debut in an adaptation of Harold Pinter's Betrayal for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. Staged by the Roundabout Theatre Company and directed by David Leveaux, the production also featured Liev Schreiber and John Slattery.^[70] Back on screen, Binoche was the heroine of the Lasse Hallström film Chocolat from the best selling novel by Joanne Harris. For her role Binoche won a European Film Audience Award for Best Actress and was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA.^[71] Chocolat is the story of a mysterious stranger who opens a chocolaterie in a conservative French village in 1959. The film was a worldwide hit.^[72]

Between 1995 and 2000, Binoche was the advertising face of the Lancôme perfume Poème, her image adorning print campaigns photographed by Richard Avedon^[73] and a television advertising campaign,^[74] including an advert directed by Anthony Minghella and scored by Gabriel Yared.^[75]

By the end of this period and following roles in a number of prestige productions, critics were wondering if Binoche was typecast as the tragic, despairing muse. In a feature article entitled "The Erotic Face" in the June 2000 edition of British film criticism magazine Sight and Sound, Ginette Vincendeau pondered Binoche's persona; Vincendeau suggested that the fixation of numerous directors upon her face had led to an erasure of her body, and to her being perceived only as a romantic icon rather than a versatile actress.^[28]

2001–2006[link]

Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno at Cannes, 2002

Following the success of Chocolat, the early 2000s saw Juliette Binoche internationally recognized as an A-list movie star.^[28] However, her persona seemed to be somewhat fixed following a series of period roles where she played the always stoic heroine facing tragedy and desolation.^[28] Ever keen to try something new, Binoche returned to French cinema in 2002 in an unlikely role; Jet Lag opposite Jean Reno saw Binoche play a ditzy beautician.^[76] The film, directed by Daniele Thompson, was a box-office hit in France and saw Binoche once again nominated for a César for Best Actress.^[77] The film tells the story of a couple who meet at an airport during a strike. Initially the pair despises each other, but, over the course of one night, they find common ground and maybe even love. This playful spirit continued when Binoche featured in a 2003 Italian television commercial for the chocolates Ferrero Rocher. The advertisement played upon her Chocolat persona featuring Binoche handing out the chocolates to people on the streets of Paris.^[78]

In a more serious vein, Binoche travelled to South Africa to make John Boorman's In My Country (2004) opposite Samuel L. Jackson. Based on the book Country of My Skull by Antjie Krog, the film examines The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings following the abolition of Apartheid in the mid 1990s.^[79] Although the film premiered at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival, it received much criticism for the inclusion of a fictional romantic liaison and for its depiction of black South Africans.^[80] Despite the negative reception, Binoche was extremely enthusiastic about the film and her connection with Boorman.^[81][82] Her sister, Marion Stalens, also travelled to South Africa to shoot a documentary, La reconciliation?, which explores the TRC process and follows Binoche's progress as she acts in Boorman's film.^[13] Next, Binoche re-teamed with Michael Haneke for Caché. The film was an immediate success, winning best director for Haneke at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival,^[83] while Binoche was nominated for a European Film Award for Best Actress for her role.^[84] The film tells the story of a bourgeois Parisian couple, played by Binoche and Daniel Auteuil, who begin to receive anonymous videotapes containing footage shot over long periods, surveying the outside of their home. Caché went on to feature in the number one position on the "Top 10 of the 2000s" list published by The Times at the end of the decade.^[85] Binoche's next film, Bee Season, based on the celebrated novel by Myla Goldberg, cast her opposite Richard Gere. The film was not a success at the box office taking less than $5 million worldwide.^[86] For many critics the film, although intelligent, was "distant and diffuse".^[87] Bee Season depicts the emotional disintegration of a family just as their daughter begins to win national spelling bees. Mary (2005) featured Binoche in a somewhat unlikely collaboration with the controversial American director Abel Ferrara for an investigation of modern faith and Mary Magdalene's position within the Catholic Church.^[88] Featuring Forest Whittaker, Matthew Modine and Marion Cotillard, Mary was an immediate success, winning the Grand Prix at the 2005 Venice Film Festival. Despite these accolades and favorable reviews, particularly from the influential cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles,^[89] Mary failed to secure a distributor in key markets such as the U.S. and the U.K.^[90]

The Cannes Film Festival in 2006 saw Binoche feature in the anthology film Paris, je t'aime appearing in a section directed by the Japanese director Nobuhiro Suwa. Suwa's Place des Victoires is the story of a grief stricken mother who manages to have a final brief moment with her dead son. The segment also features Willem Dafoe and Hippolyte Girardot. Paris, je t'aime was a popular success, taking over $17 million, at the world box-office.^[91] In September 2006, Binoche appeared at the Venice Film Festival to launch A Few Days in September, written and directed by Santiago Amigorena. Despite an impressive cast including John Turturro, Nick Nolte and up-coming French star Sara Forestier, the film was a failure. A Few Days in September is a thriller set between 5 and 11 September 2001, in which Binoche plays a French secret service agent, who may, or may not, have information relating to impending attacks on the U.S.^[92] The film was the recipient of harsh criticism from the press for its perceived trivialization of the events of 11 September 2001.^[93] While promoting the film in the U.K., Binoche told an interviewer she believed the CIA and other government agencies must have had foreknowledge of the 11 September attacks, as depicted in the film.^[94] Next Binoche traveled to the 2006 Toronto Film Festival for the premiere of Breaking and Entering, her second film with Anthony Minghella in the director's chair, based on his first original screenplay since his break-through film Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991). In Breaking and Entering, Binoche played a Bosnian refugee living in London, while Jude Law co-starred as a well-to-do businessman drawn into her life via an act of deception. In preparation for her role, Binoche travelled to Sarajevo where she met women who had survived the war of the 1990s.^[95] Lushly photographed by Benoît Delhomme, Breaking and Entering portrays intersecting lives amongst the flux of urban renewal in inner-city London.^[96] Despite the fact that Binoche was praised for her performance, the film did not ring true for critics and failed to find an audience.^[97] In a review in Variety, Todd McCarthy writes that, "Binoche, physically unchanged as ever, plays Amira's controlled anguish with skill".^[98] Breaking and Entering also featured Robin Wright, Vera Farmiga, Juliet Stevenson, Rafi Gavron and Martin Freeman.

Although Binoche began the decade on a professional high with an Academy Award nomination for Chocolat, she struggled at the beginning of the 2000s to secure roles that did not confine her to the tragic, melancholic persona developed in the 1990s.^[99] Despite the huge success of Caché, other high profile films such as In My Country, Bee Season and Breaking and Entering failed critically^[100] and commercially,^[101] Binoche seemed to be at a crossroads in her career.^[102]

2007–present[link]

Binoche at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival

2007 was the start of a particularly busy period for Juliette Binoche, one that would see her take on diverse roles in a series of critically acclaimed international movies giving her film career a new impetus, as she shed the restrictions that seemed to have stifled her career in the early part of the decade.^[99] The Cannes Film Festival saw the premiere of Flight of the Red Balloon (2007) by the widely acclaimed Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien. It was originally conceived as a short film to form part of a 20th anniversary tribute to the Musée D'Orsay, to be produced by Serge Lemoine president of the museum. When that idea failed to find sufficient funding, Hou developed it into a feature length film and secured the necessary financing.^[103] The film was well received by international critics and went on to debut around the world early in 2008. Paying homage to Albert Lamorisse's 1957 short The Red Balloon, Hou's film tells the story of a woman's efforts to juggle her responsibilities as a single mother with her commitment to her career as a voice artist. Shot on location in Paris, the film was entirely improvised by the cast.^[104] The film was number one on the influential critic J. Hoberman's "Top 10 List" for 2008 published in The Village Voice.^[105]

Disengagement by Amos Gitai premiered out-of-competition at the 2007 Venice Film Festival. Co-starring Liron Levo and Jeanne Moreau, Disengagement is a political drama charting the story of a French woman, of Dutch/Palestinian origin, who goes in search of a daughter she abandoned 20 years previously on the Gaza strip. She arrives in Gaza during the 2005 Israeli disengagement.^[106] The film won the prestigious Premio Roberto Rossellini^[107] and was critically acclaimed, particularly by the eminent Cahiers du Cinema.^[108] However the film proved more controversial in Israel where state television station Channel 1 withdrew financial support for the film citing the "left-wing nature of Gitai's films".^[109]

In stark contrast, Peter Hedges co-wrote and directed the Disney produced Dan in Real Life, a romantic comedy featuring Binoche alongside Steve Carell. It was released in October 2007, becoming a popular commercial success in the US, before debuting around the world in 2008. The film grossed over $65 million at the worldwide box-office.^[110] Dan in Real Life is the story of a widowed man (Carell) who meets, and instantly falls for, a woman (Binoche), only to discover she is the new girlfriend of his brother. The film also features Dane Cook, Emily Blunt and Diane Weist^[111]

Back in France, Binoche was seen to popular and critical success in Paris directed by Cédric Klapisch. Paris is Klapisch's personal ode to the French capital and features an impressive ensemble of French talent, including Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini and Mélanie Laurent. Paris was one of the most successful French films internationally in recent years, having grossed over $22 million at the world box office.^[112] Binoche and Klapisch had originally met on the set of Mauvais Sang in 1986, where Klapisch was working as a set electrician.^[113]

Also in France, Summer Hours (2008), directed by Olivier Assayas, is the critically acclaimed story of three siblings who struggle with the responsibility of disposing of their late mother's valuable art collection. The film premiered in France in March 2008 and had its U.S. debut at the 2008 New York Film Festival, before going on general release in the U.S. on 19 May 2009. Widely acclaimed, the film was nominated for the Prix Louis Delluc in France and appeared on numerous U.S. "Top 10 lists", including first place on David Edelstein's "Top 10 of 2009" list in New York Magazine, and J.R. Jones's list in the Chicago Reader.^[114] Summer Hours also features Charles Berling, Jérémie Renier and Édith Scob.

In the autumn of 2008, Binoche starred in a theatrical dance production titled in-i, co-created with renowned choreographer Akram Khan. The show, a love story told through dance and dialogue, featured stage design by Anish Kapoor and music by Philip Sheppard. It premiered at the National Theatre in London before embarking on a world tour.^[115] Writing in The Australian, John McCallum wrote that, "Binoche has radiant presence as an actor, her dancing is relaxed and naturalistic",^{[citation needed]} while The Sunday Times in the UK commented that, "Binoche's physical achievement is incredible: Khan is a master mover". The production was part of a 'Binoche Season' titled Ju'Bi'lations, also featuring a retrospective of her film work and an exhibition of her paintings, which were also published in a bilingual book Portraits in Eyes.^[116] The book featured ink portraits of Binoche as each of her characters and of each director she had worked with up to that time. She also penned a few lines to each director.^[117]

In April 2006 and again in December 2007, Binoche travelled to Tehran at the invitation of Abbas Kiarostami.^[118] While there in 2007, she shot a cameo appearance in his film Shirin (2008) which he was shooting at the time. Binoche's visit proved controversial when two Iranian MPs raised the matter in parliament, advising more caution be exercised in granting visas to foreign celebrities which might lead to "cultural destruction".^[119] In June 2009 Binoche began work on Certified Copy directed by Kiarostami.^[120] The film was an Official Selection in competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.^[121] Binoche won the Best Actress Award at the festival for her performance. The film went on general release in France on 19 May 2010 to very positive reviews.^[122] Her win at the 2010 Cannes Film festival makes Binoche the first actress to win the European "best actress triple crown": Best Actress at Venice for Three Colors: Blue, Best Actress at Berlin for The English Patient and Best Actress at Cannes for Certified Copy. The September 2010 UK release of the film was overshadowed when French actor Gérard Depardieu made disparaging comments about Binoche to the Austrian magazine Profil, "Please can you explain to me what the mystery of Juliette Binoche is meant to be?" he said. "I would really like to know why she has been so esteemed for so many years. She has nothing – absolutely nothing".^[123] In response, while promoting Certified Copy, Binoche spoke to movie magazine Empire saying, "I don't know him. I understand you don't have to like everyone and you can dislike someone's work. But I don't understand the violence [of his statements]... I do not understand why he is behaving like this. It is his problem."^[124] Certified Copy proved to be controversial in Kiarostami's homeland when Iranian authorities announced on 27 May 2010 that the film was to be banned in Iran, apparently due to Binoche's attire; Deputy Culture Minister Javad Shamaqdari is quoted as saying, "If Juliette Binoche were better clad it could have been screened but due to her attire there will not be a general screening."^[125]

Following the success of Certified Copy, Binoche appeared in a brief supporting role in The Son of No One for American writer and director Dito Montiel. The film also stars Channing Tatum, Al Pacino and Ray Liotta. The Son of No One premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival to fairly negative reaction.^[126] It was acquired by Anchor Bay Entertainment for distribution in the US and other key territories arriving in selected US cinemas on 4 November 2011.^[127] As of December 2011, according to film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Son of No One is Juliette Binoche's least critically successful film, with only 18% of critics giving it a positive review.^[128] In June 2010, Binoche started work on Elles for Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska. Elles, produced under the working title Sponsoring,^[129][130] is an examination of teenage prostitution with Juliette Binoche playing a journalist for ELLE. The film was released in France on 1 February 2012.^[131] On 12 January 2011, Variety announced that Juliette Binoche would star in The Life of Another loosely based on the novel by Frédérique Deghelt.^[132] The film is the directorial debut of the French actress Sylvie Testud and co-stars actor/director Mathieu Kassovitz. In the film, a young woman falls in love, then wakes up 15 years later, the mother of a young boy and on the verge of a divorce. The film began shooting on 4 April 2011 and was released on French screens on 15 February 2012. On 17 February 2011, Screendaily announced that Juliette Binoche has been cast in David Cronenberg's film Cosmopolis with Robert Pattinson, Paul Giamati, Mathieu Amalric and Samantha Morton.^[133] The film, produced by Paulo Branco, began principal photography on 24 May 2011.^[134] In October 2011 Binoche began work on A Cœur Ouvert opposite Edgar Ramirez and directed by Marion Laine. Based on the novel by Mathias Énard, the film is the story of the obsessive relationship between two wildly successful surgeons. When addiction and an unexpected pregnancy almost destroys their relationship, they embark on a cathartic journey to the Orinoco.^[135] In 2012 Juliette Binoche is slated to take the lead in Bruno Dumont's La Créatrice, a drama which recounts three days during the thirty years French artist Camille Claudel spent in a mental asylum despite the fact that she had not been diagnosed with any malady. The film will examine Claudel's fight to maintain her sanity and find creative inspiration. Following this, Binoche will shoot A Stormy Summer Night based on the classic French novel Dix heures et demie du soir en été by Marguerite Duras. The film is to be directed by first time helmer Fabrice Camoin for release in early 2013.^[136]

"I don't look back on the past because I like to live in the present. I know this makes some people think I probably never cared, but I need my freedom and I like to keep moving." - Juliette Binoche^[137]

Personal life[link]

Binoche has two children: a son Raphaël (born on 2 September 1993), whose father is André Halle, a professional scuba diver, and a daughter Hana (born on 16 December 1999), whose father is actor Benoît Magimel, with whom Binoche starred in the 1999 film Children of the Century. Her sister, Marion Stalens, born 1960, is a professional photographer with Corbis, as well as a director of documentary films, including; La réconciliation?, a documentary shot on the set of John Boorman's film In My Country,^[13] The Actress and the Dancer, exploring the genesis of Binoche's dance show in-i^[138] and Juliette Binoche - Sketches for a Portrait a documentary which follows Binoche as she paints the portraits that would later appear in her book Portraits in Eyes.^[139] Her half brother Camille Humeau (born 1978) is an acclaimed musician and has been part of the line-up of Oncle Strongle,^[140][141] before top-lining the group Artichaut Orkestra.^[142] In 2007, he appeared in a stage production of Cabaret directed by Sam Mendes.^[45] Stage director Pierre Pradinas is married to her sister Marion.^[7]

Charitable work[link]

Since 1992, Binoche is a patron of the French Cambodian charity Enfants d'Asie (previously ASPECA). Through this charity she is godmother to five Cambodian orphans, and has funded the construction of a children's home in Battambang.^[143] Starting in 2000, Juliette Binoche has been involved with the organization Reporters Without Borders. In 2002, she presided over "Photos of Stars" with Thierry Ardisson. Nearly 100 French stars were given disposable cameras, which were then auctioned, the buyer then having the exclusive photos taken by the star developed.^[144]

Political views and activism[link]

• She supported José Bové in the 2007 French presidential elections which were won by Nicolas Sarkozy.^[145] She has disclosed on a number of occasions that she does not approve of the Sarkozy administration, stating that the president is creating a monarchic republic.^[146][147]
• In April 2002, Binoche and several other French stars including Catherine Deneuve and Mathieu Kassovitz attended a "protest picnic" to object to the firing of Canal+ chairman Pierre Lescure by the Vivendi Universal company.^[148]
• On 7 February 2006, Binoche attented a high profile demonstration organised by Reporters Without Borders in support of Jill Carroll and two Iraqi journalists who had been abducted in Baghdad.^[149]
• Binoche and numerous other French personalities including Isabelle Adjani, Yvan Attal, Jane Birkin and Josiane Balasko joined Réseau Education Sans Frontieres (RESF) on 7 January 2010 with a symbolic "cake of solidarity" to highlight the taxation and legitimacy issues being faced by undocumented workers in France.^[150]
• Binoche was a signatory to a June 2010 petition organized by Reporters Without Borders and Shirin Ebadi to protest against the detention of numerous people, including members of the press, who were protesting the occasion of the first anniversary of disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.^[151]
• At the 2010 Cannes Film Festival Binoche spoke out against the detention of Iranian director Jafar Panahi, incarcerated in Teheran's Evin Prison since 1 March 2010 without charge or conviction. At the press conference following the press screening of Copie Conforme, Binoche was informed that Panahi had begun a hunger strike.^[152] The following day Binoche attended a press conference called especially to demand the release of Panahi. Also in attendance were Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Gilles Jacob. Binoche read a letter which pointed out that Panahi's detention was "unwarranted and intolerable".
  When Binoche was awarded the Best Actress award at the festival, brandishing his name on a placard, she used her speech as an opportunity to raise Panahi's plight once again.^[153] On 25 May it was announced that Panahi had been released on bail. It was generally agreed that the publicity Binoche and Kiarostami elicited for his case was a strong factor in his release.^[152] On 20 December 2010 Panahi, after being prosecuted for "assembly and colluding with the intention to commit crimes against the country's national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic," was handed a six-year jail sentence and a 20-year ban on making or directing any movies, writing screenplays, giving any form of interview with Iranian or foreign media as well as leaving the country. Binoche continues to lobby on his behalf.^[154]

Filmography and awards[link]

Other awards[link]

Won[link]

• 1986 – Prix Romy Schneider
• 1992 – European Film Award – Best Actress – Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
• 1993 – Berlin International Film Festival – Berlinale Camera^[155]
• 1993 – Venice Film Festival – Best Actress – Three Colors: Blue
• 1996 – National Board of Review – Best Supporting Actress – The English Patient
• 1997 – Berlin International Film Festival – Best Actress – The English Patient^[156]
• 1997 – European Film Award – Best Actress – The English Patient
• 1997 – Screen Actors Guild Award – Best Supporting Actress – The English Patient
• 2010 – Cannes Film Festival – Best Actress – Certified Copy
• 2010 – Kerry Film Festival – Maureen O'Hara Award^[157]
• 2010 – Cairo International Film Festival – Lifetime achievement^[158]

Nominations[link]

• 2001 – Screen Actors Guild Award – Best Actress – Chocolat
• 2001 – Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role – Chocolat
• 2001 – Screen Actors Guild Award – Outstanding Cast – Chocolat
• 2005 – European Film Award Best Actress; – Caché
• 2005 – London Critics Circle Film Awards – Best Actress – Caché
• 2006 – British Independent Film Award – Best Actress – Breaking & Entering

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Juliette Binoche

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Juliette Binoche

• Juliette Binoche at the Internet Movie Database
• Juliette Binoche at Yahoo! Movies
• Juliette Binoche at AllRovi
• Juliette Binoche at filmsdefrance.com
• Juliette Binoche Interview at AMCtv.com

Awards for Juliette Binoche v t e Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (1981–2000) Maureen Stapleton (1981) Jessica Lange (1982) Linda Hunt (1983) Peggy Ashcroft (1984) Anjelica Huston (1985) Dianne Wiest (1986) Olympia Dukakis (1987) Geena Davis (1988) Brenda Fricker (1989) Whoopi Goldberg (1990) Mercedes Ruehl (1991) Marisa Tomei (1992) Anna Paquin (1993) Dianne Wiest (1994) Mira Sorvino (1995) Juliette Binoche (1996) Kim Basinger (1997) Judi Dench (1998) Angelina Jolie (1999) Marcia Gay Harden (2000) Complete list (1936–1940) (1941–1960) (1961–1980) (1981–2000) (2001–2020) v t e BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (1985–2009) Rosanna Arquette (1985) Judi Dench (1986) Susan Wooldridge (1987) Olympia Dukakis (1988) Michelle Pfeiffer (1989) Whoopi Goldberg (1990) Kate Nelligan (1991) Miranda Richardson (1992) Miriam Margolyes (1993) Kristin Scott Thomas (1994) Kate Winslet (1995) Juliette Binoche (1996) Sigourney Weaver (1997) Judi Dench (1998) Maggie Smith (1999) Julie Walters (2000) Jennifer Connelly (2001) Catherine Zeta-Jones (2002) Renée Zellweger (2003) Cate Blanchett (2004) Thandie Newton (2005) Jennifer Hudson (2006) Tilda Swinton (2007) Penélope Cruz (2008) Mo'Nique (2009) Complete list (1968–1984) (1985–2009) (2010–2034) v t e Festival de Cannes (Cannes Film Festival) Prix d'interprétation féminine (Best Actress) 2000–2019 Björk (2000) Isabelle Huppert (2001) Kati Outinen (2002) Marie-Josée Croze (2003) Maggie Cheung (2004) Hana Laszlo (2005) Penélope Cruz/Carmen Maura/Lola Dueñas/Chus Lampreave/Blanca Portillo/Yohana Cobo (2006) Jeon Do-yeon (2007) Sandra Corveloni (2008) Charlotte Gainsbourg (2009) Juliette Binoche (2010) Kirsten Dunst (2011) Complete list (1946–1959) (1960–1979) (1980–1999) (2000–2019) v t e César Award for Best Actress 1976 Romy Schneider 1977 Annie Girardot 1978 Simone Signoret 1979 Romy Schneider 1980 Miou-Miou 1981 Catherine Deneuve 1982 Isabelle Adjani 1983 Nathalie Baye 1984 Isabelle Adjani 1985 Sabine Azéma 1986 Sandrine Bonnaire 1987 Sabine Azéma 1988 Anémone 1989 Isabelle Adjani 1990 Carole Bouquet 1991 Anne Parillaud 1992 Jeanne Moreau 1993 Catherine Deneuve 1994 Juliette Binoche 1995 Isabelle Adjani 1996 Isabelle Huppert 1997 Fanny Ardant 1998 Ariane Ascaride 1999 Élodie Bouchez 2000 Karin Viard 2001 Dominique Blanc 2002 Emmanuelle Devos 2003 Isabelle Carré 2004 Sylvie Testud 2005 Yolande Moreau 2006 Nathalie Baye 2007 Marina Hands 2008 Marion Cotillard 2009 Yolande Moreau 2010 Isabelle Adjani 2011 Sara Forestier 2012 Bérénice Bejo v t e National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress Nina Foch (1954) Marjorie Rambeau (1955) Debbie Reynolds (1956) Sybil Thorndike (1957) Kay Walsh (1958) Edith Evans (1959) Shirley Jones (1960) Ruby Dee (1961) Angela Lansbury (1962) Margaret Rutherford (1963) Edith Evans (1964) Joan Blondell (1965) Vivien Merchant (1966) Marjorie Rhodes (1967) Virginia Maskell (1968) Pamela Franklin (1969) Karen Black (1970) Cloris Leachman (1971) Marisa Berenson (1972) Sylvia Sidney (1973) Valerie Perrine (1974) Ronee Blakley (1975) Talia Shire (1976) Diane Keaton (1977) Angela Lansbury (1978) Meryl Streep (1979) Eva Le Gallienne (1980) Mona Washbourne (1981) Glenn Close (1982) Linda Hunt (1983) Sabine Azéma (1984) Anjelica Huston (1985) Dianne Wiest (1986) Olympia Dukakis (1987) Frances McDormand (1988) Mary Stuart Masterson (1989) Winona Ryder (1990) Kate Nelligan (1991) Judy Davis (1992) Winona Ryder (1993) Rosemary Harris (1994) Mira Sorvino (1995) Juliette Binoche / Kristin Scott Thomas (1996) Anne Heche (1997) Christina Ricci (1998) Julianne Moore (1999) Lupe Ontiveros (2000) Cate Blanchett (2001) Kathy Bates (2002) Patricia Clarkson (2003) Laura Linney (2004) Gong Li (2005) Catherine O'Hara (2006) Amy Ryan (2007) Penélope Cruz (2008) Anna Kendrick (2009) Jacki Weaver (2010) Shailene Woodley (2011)

Françoise Sagan
Born	Françoise Quoirez (1935-06-21)21 June 1935 Cajarc, France
Died	24 September 2004(2004-09-24) (aged 69) Honfleur, France
Occupation	Novelist, screenwriter and dramatist
Nationality	French

Françoise Sagan (21 June 1935 – 24 September 2004) – real name Françoise Quoirez – was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Hailed as "a charming little monster" by François Mauriac on the front page of Le Figaro,^[1] Sagan was known for works with strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois characters. Her best-known novel was her first – Bonjour Tristesse (1954) – which was written when she was a teenager.

Biography[link]

Sagan was born in Cajarc (Lot) and spent her early childhood in Lot, surrounded by animals, a passion that stayed with her throughout her life. Nicknamed 'Kiki', she was the youngest child of bourgeois parents – her father a company director, and her mother the daughter of landowners. Her family spent the war in the Dauphiné, then in the Vercors.^[2] Her paternal great-grandmother was Russian from Saint Petersburg.^[3][4] She failed her baccalauréat in 1953. Though notorious all her life for her extravagant lifestyle, she would later attend school there but without graduating.

Her first novel, Bonjour Tristesse (Hello Sadness), was published in 1954, when she was 19 years old, and it was an immediate international success. It concerns the life of pleasure-driven 17-year-old Cécile, in particular her relationship with her boyfriend and her adulterous, playboy father. Her pseudonym was taken from a character ("Princesse de Sagan") in Marcel Proust's À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time).

Sagan's characters became something of an icon for disillusioned teenagers, in some ways similar to those of J.D. Salinger. During a literary career lasting until 1998, she produced dozens of works, many of which have been filmed. She maintained the austere style of the French psychological novel even while the nouveau roman was in vogue. The conversations between her characters are often considered to contain existential undertones. In addition to novels, plays, and autobiography, she wrote song lyrics and screenplays.

In the 1960s, Sagan became more devoted to writing plays, which, though lauded for excellent dialogue, were only moderately successful. Afterward, she concentrated on her career as a novelist.

Personal life[link]

Sagan was married twice: to Guy Schoeller (married 13 March 1958, an editor with Hachette, 20 years older than Sagan, divorced June 1960) and to Bob Westhof (a young American playboy and would-be ceramicist, married 10 January 1962, divorced 1963; their son Denis was born in June 1963).^[5] She took a lesbian long-term lover, fashion stylist Peggy Roche, and had a male lover, Bernard Frank, a married essayist obsessed with reading and eating. She added to her self-styled "family" by beginning a long-term lesbian affair with the French Playboy magazine editor Annick Geille, after she approached Sagan for an article for her magazine.^[6]

Fond of traveling in the United States, she was often seen with Truman Capote and Ava Gardner. On 14 April 1957, while driving her Aston-Martin sports car, she was involved in an accident that left her in a coma for some time. She also loved driving her Jaguar automobile to Monte Carlo for gambling sessions.

In the 1990s Sagan was charged with and convicted of possession of cocaine.

At various times of her life, Sagan was addicted to a number of drugs. She was a long-term user of prescription pills, amphetamines, cocaine, morphine, and alcohol. When the police came for an inspection of her house, her dog Banko showed cocaine to them and also licked the cocaine. Sagan told the police, "Look! He likes it too."

Death[link]

Her health was reported to be poor in the 2000s. In 2002 she was unable to appear at a trial that convicted her of tax fraud in a case involving the former French President François Mitterrand, and she received a suspended sentence. Françoise Sagan died of a pulmonary embolism in Honfleur, Calvados, on 24 September 2004 at the age of 69. At her own request she was buried at her beloved birthplace, Cajarc.

In his memorial statement, the French President Jacques Chirac said: "With her death, France loses one of its most brilliant and sensitive writers – an eminent figure of our literary life."

Film[link]

Sagan's life was dramatized in a biographical film, Sagan, directed by Diane Kurys, released in France on 11 June 2008. The French actress Sylvie Testud played the title role.

Quotes[link]

• "To jealousy, nothing is more frightful than laughter."
• When asked if she believed in love: "Are you joking? I believe in passion. Nothing else. Two years, no more. All right, then: three.”
• "A dress makes no sense unless it inspires men to want to take it off you."
• "I have loved to the point of madness, that which is called madness, that which to me is the only sensible way to love."
• "La vitesse n’est ni un signe, ni une preuve, ni une provocation, ni un défi, mais un élan de bonheur" (Speed is no sign, no proof, no provocation, no challenge, but rather a surge of happiness); quote from her book "Avec mon meilleur souvenir"

Works[link]

Novels[link]

• Bonjour tristesse (1954, (Hello Sadness), translated 1955)
• Un certain sourire (1955, A Certain Smile, translated 1956)
• Dans un mois, dans un an (1957, Those Without Shadows, translated 1957)
• Aimez-vous Brahms? (1959, translated 1960)
• Les merveilleux nuages (1961, Wonderful Clouds, translated 1961)
• La chamade (1965, translated 1966 as La Chamade; newly translated 2009 as That Mad Ache)
• Le garde du cœur (1968, The Heart-Keeper, translated 1968)
• Un peu de soleil dans l'eau froide (1969, Sunlight on Cold Water, translated 1971)
• Des bleus à l'âme (1972, Scars on the Soul, translated 1974)
• Un profil perdu (1974, Lost Profile, translated 1976)
• Le lit défait (1977, The Unmade Bed, translated 1978)
• Le chien couchant (1980, translated 1984)
• La femme fardée (1981, The Painted Lady, translated 1983)
• Un orage immobile (1983, The Still Storm, translated 1984)
• De guerre lasse (1985, Engagements of the Heart, translated 1987)
• Un sang d'aquarelle (1987, Painting in Blood, translated 1991)
• La laisse (1989, The Leash, translated 1991)
• Les faux-fuyants (1991, Evasion, translated 1993)
• Un chagrin de passage (1994, A Fleeting Sorrow, translated 1995)
• Le miroir égaré (1996)

Short story collections[link]

• Les yeux de soie (1975, Silken Eyes, translated 1977)
• Musiques de scène (1981, Incidental Music, translated 1983)
• La maison de Raquel Vega (1985)

Plays[link]

• Château en Suède (Château in Sweden) (1960)
• Les violons parfois (1961)
• La robe mauve de Valentine (1963)
• Bonheur, impair et passe (1964)
• L'écharde (1966)
• Le cheval évanoui (1966)
• Un piano dans l'herbe (1970)
• Il fait beau jour et nuit (1978)
• L'excès contraire (1987)

Autobiographical works[link]

• Toxique (1964, journal, translated 1965)
• Réponses (1975, Night Bird: Conversations with Françoise Sagan, translated 1980)
• Avec mon meilleur souvenir (1984, With Fondest Regards, translated 1985)
• Au marbre: chroniques retrovées 1952–1962 (1988, chronicles)
• Répliques (1992, interviews)
• ...Et toute ma sympathie (1993, a sequel to Avec mon meilleur souvenir)
• Derrière l'épaule (1998, autobiography)

Published posthumously by L'Herne:

• Bonjour New-York (2007)
• Un certain regard (2008, compilation of material from Réponses and Répliques)
• Maisons louées (2008)
• Le régal des chacals (2008)
• Au cinéma (2008)
• De très bons livres (2008)
• La petite robe noire (2008)
• Lettre de Suisse (2008)

Biographical works[link]

• Brigitte Bardot (1975)
• Sarah Bernhardt, ou le rire incassable (1987, Dear Sarah Bernhardt, translated 1988)

References[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2008)

External links[link]

• Jean-Louis de Rambures, interview with F. Sagan (in French) in: "Comment travaillent les écrivains", Paris 1978
• Litweb.net
• Blair Fuller & Robert B. Silvers (Autumn 1956). "Francoise Sagan, The Art of Fiction No. 15". The Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4912/the-art-of-fiction-no-15-francoise-sagan. 
• French press bids farewell; BBC article

Pierre Arditi
Pierre Arditi in 2009
Born	Pierre Marie Denis Arditi[1] 1 December 1944 (1944-12) (age 67) Paris
Occupation	actor
Partner	Évelyne Bouix
Awards	1987 Molière – Best Actor in a Supporting Role 1987 7 d'Or – Best Actor

Pierre Arditi was born on 1 December 1944 in Paris, child of the French painter Georges Arditi (fr), from Marseille, and a Belgian mother. He is an award-winning French film and stage actor. He is the brother of French actress Catherine Arditi.

Being born before 1967 from a Belgian mother married to a foreign citizen, he is a famous example of non-transmission of Belgian citizenship by mother's blood.

He has often played romantic, womanizing roles, similar to those played by Marcello Mastroianni.

In 1987 he won a César Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his role in Mélo, and in 1994, a César Award for Best Actor for his role in Smoking/No Smoking.

Although his work has primarily been in French film and theater, Arditi is known in the Anglophone world as the French voice of Christopher Reeve. Arditi dubbed Christopher Reeve on the French-language version of the three first Superman movies by Richard Donner and Richard Lester (See the French Wikipedia article on Pierre Arditi for more information). Because of the added footage in the DVD Special Edition of Donner's Superman, the movie had to be re-dubbed with a different voice actor, much to the chagrin of the generation of moviegoers who had grown up with the original soundtrack and identified Superman's voice with Arditi's. He also provided the French voice for Reeve in the comedy/whodunit Deathtrap. Finally, he was the voice of the documentary serie Untamed Africa, written and produced by Frederic Lepage.

He was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur in 2002.^[1] He was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Ordre national du Mérite on 7 April 1994,^[2] and promoted Officier (Officer) in 2005.^[2]

Selected filmography[link]

• Life Is a Bed of Roses (1983)
• The Children (1984)
• Agent trouble (1987)
• Natalia (1988)
• The Little Apocalypse (1993)
• The Horseman on the Roof (1995)
• Chance or Coincidence (1998)
• False Servant (2000)
• Private Fears in Public Places (2006)
• Our Earthmen Friends (2007)
• You Haven't Seen Anything Yet (2012)

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pierre Arditi

• Pierre Arditi at the Internet Movie Database

v t e César Award for Best Actor 1976 Philippe Noiret · 1977 Michel Galabru · 1978 Jean Rochefort · 1979 Michel Serrault · 1980 Claude Brasseur · 1981 Gérard Depardieu · 1982 Michel Serrault · 1983 Philippe Léotard · 1984 Coluche · 1985 Alain Delon · 1986 Christophe Lambert · 1987 Daniel Auteuil · 1988 Richard Bohringer · 1989 Jean-Paul Belmondo · 1990 Philippe Noiret · 1991 Gérard Depardieu · 1992 Jacques Dutronc · 1993 Claude Rich · 1994 Pierre Arditi · 1995 Gérard Lanvin · 1996 Michel Serrault · 1997 Philippe Torreton · 1998 André Dussollier · 1999 Jacques Villeret · 2000 Daniel Auteuil · 2001 Sergi López · 2002 Michel Bouquet · 2003 Adrien Brody · 2004 Omar Sharif · 2005 Mathieu Amalric · 2006 Michel Bouquet · 2007 François Cluzet · 2008 Mathieu Amalric · 2009 Vincent Cassel · 2010 Tahar Rahim · 2011 Éric Elmosnino · 2012 Omar Sy

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