Anne Fontaine

Anne Fontaine
Born Fontaine Sibertin-Blanc
1959
Luxembourg
Occupation Director, Actress, writer
Spouse Philippe Carcassonne

Anne Fontaine (born in Luxembourg, 1959)[1] is a filmmaker and screenwriter who used to be an actor. She lives and works in France.

Born Fontaine Sibertin-Blanc, sister of actor Jean-Chrétien Sibertin-Blanc, she went as a young child to live in Lisbon,[2] where her father, Antoine Sibertin-Blanc, is a music professor and cathedral organist. In adolescence she moved to Paris and trained in dance with Joseph Russillo[3] while continuing her academic education, including philosophy. Her husband is Philippe Carcassonne, the film producer, and they have an adopted son who was born in Vietnam.[4]

While still dancing, she was picked by Robert Hossein to play Esmeralda in a 1980 theatrical production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame[5] and around this time started to use the name Anne Fontaine. She continued with acting and became known for her roles in comedies like Si ma gueule vous plaît... (1981) and P.R.O.F.S.(1985). An opportunity to be assistant director came with a 1986 stage version of Louis-Ferdinand Céline's Voyage au bout de la nuit (Journey to the End of the Night) at the Renaud-Barrault theatre.

Fontaine's first project as solo director, Les histoires d'amour finissent mal... en général (Love Affairs Usually End Badly), won the 1993 Prix Jean Vigo (prize). In 1995, she worked with her brother on the comic Augustin. Two years later, she wrote and directed the successful Nettoyage à Sec (Dry Cleaning). This won the Best Screenplay award at the Venice Film Festival 1997 and is generally considered a milestone on Fontaine's way to becoming "an important figure in contemporary French cinema".[6]

In 1999 the character Augustin (Jean-Chrétien Sibertin-Blanc) re-appeared in Fontaine's film Augustin, Roi Du Kung-Fu (Augustin, King of Kung-Fu). Comment j'ai tué mon père (How I Killed My Father) was released in 2001, and Nathalie... followed in 2003. The 2005 film, Entre Ses Mains (In His Hands) has been widely described as a thriller: an "intimate thriller" according to Fontaine herself.[7] A third Augustin film, Nouvelle chance (also known as Oh La La) was released in 2006. Then came La fille de Monaco (The Girl From Monaco) in 2008 and Coco avant Chanel (Coco Before Chanel), her biopic of Coco Chanel, in 2009.

Fontaine's work is not easily categorised, though the phrase "psychological drama" is often used. She told a UK newspaper, "I try to work on my characters' blind side, in a kind of Freudian way: to ask, 'What are the things about themselves that they're unaware of?' I'm fascinated by the irony of fate, when something goes into a skid. All my stories have an element of cruelty in them."[8]

Filmography

Director
Year Film Genre Other notes
2011 My Worst Nightmare
2009 Coco avant Chanel
2008 The Girl from Monaco
2006 Nouvelle chance
2005 Entre ses mains
2003 Nathalie...
2001 Comment j'ai tué mon père
1999 Augustin, roi du Kung-fu
1997 Nettoyage à sec
1996 L'@mour est à réinventer (TV mini-series)
1995 Augustin
1993 Les histoires d'amour finissent mal... en général (Love affairs usually end badly)
writer
Year Title Genre Notes
2011 My Worst Nightmare
2009 Coco avant Chanel
Chloe
2008 The Girl from Monaco
2006 Nouvelle chance
2005 Entre ses mains
2003 Nathalie...
2001 Comment j'ai tué mon père
1999 Augustin, roi du Kung-fu
1997 Nettoyage à sec
1996 L'@mour est à réinventer (TV mini-series)
1995 Augustin
1993 Les histoires d'amour finissent mal... en général (Love affairs usually end badly)
actress
Year Title Genre Notes
1999 Pas de scandale
1986-1990 Série rose
1988 Carte de presse
1987 Children and the White Whale
1986 Grand hôtel
1985 P.R.O.F.S.
Entre chats et loups
1984 Le mystérieux docteur Cornélius
1982 En votre aimable règlement
1981 Si ma gueule vous plaît...

References

  1. ^ Year uncertain. Click discussion above for more information.
  2. ^ Le Soleil, Canada (10 Feb 2006)
  3. ^ Libération (9 Jan 2004)
  4. ^ Le Courrier, Vietnam (22 Jan 06)
  5. ^ Libération
  6. ^ Sexual Politics and "Dry Cleaning" with Directrice Anne Fontaine
  7. ^ Quoted in a review of the 2006 Australian French Film Festival
  8. ^ Daily Telegraph (17 July 2004)

External links