| Catherine Breillat | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 13, 1948 Bressuire, France |
| Occupation | film director, novelist |
Catherine Breillat (born 13 July 1948 in Bressuire, Deux-Sèvres) is a French filmmaker, novelist and Professor of Auteur Cinema at the European Graduate School.[1]
Contents |
Breillat was born in Bressuire, Deux-Sèvres, but grew up in Niort. She decided to become a writer and director at the age of 12 after watching Ingmar Bergman's Gycklarnas afton, believing she had found her "'fictional body'" in Harriet Andersson's character, Anna.[2]
She started her career after studying acting at Yves Furet "Studio d'Entraînement de l'Acteur" in Paris together with her sister, actress Marie-Hélène Breillat (born 2 June 1947) in 1967. At the age of 17, she had her novel, l'Homme facile, (Easy Man) published. Ironically the French government banned it for readers under 18 years old. A film based on the novel was made shortly after the publication of the book, but the producer went bankrupt and the distributor Artedis blocked any commercial release of the film for twenty years although it had been given an R rating. [3].
Breillat is known for films focusing on sexuality,[4] intimacy, gender conflict and sibling rivalry. Breillat has been the subject of controversy for her explicit depictions of sexuality and violence. She cast the pornstar Rocco Siffredi in her films Romance (Romance X, 1999) and Anatomie de l'enfer (Anatomy of Hell, 2004). Her novels have been best-sellers.
Her work has been associated with the Cinéma du corps/Cinema of the Body tendency.[5]
In an interview with Senses of Cinema, she described David Cronenberg as another filmmaker she considers to have a similar approach to sexuality in film.
Though Breillat spends most of her time behind the camera, she has been in a handful of movies, making her film debut in 1972 as Mouchette in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris.
In 2004, Breillat suffered a stroke.[6]
In 2007 she directed Asia Argento in The Last Mistress. She described to Screen Comment's Ali Naderzad the process behind creating a wardrobe for the film: "For the film's first scene I inspired myself with Goya, evidently, but also by a pencil drawing of the Duchess D'Albe shaking her hair, totally torrid and modern. So that was an inspiration, and also Marlene Dietrich, of course. The artist has the right to put his imprint, which is to create fantasy. To be merely a historian isn't enough."[7]
A friend of hers, Christophe Rocancourt, a con artist, was to play a role in the upcoming film "Bad Love". However, in 2009 she accused him of taking advantage of her handicap by embezzling €650,000. Breillat documented the incident in her book, published in 2009, called "Abus de faiblesse" (Abuse of Weakness).[8]
As of 2010, Breillat is almost fully recovered from her stroke and still intends to film Bad Love with Naomi Campbell in a lead role.[8][9] Departing from her native French, Breillat plans for the dialogue in the movie to be in both English and Chinese.[9] In September 2010, Breillat's second fairy-tale based film, Sleeping Beauty (La belle endormie), opened in the Orizzonti sidebar in the 67th Venice Film Festival.[10]
| Year | English title | Original title | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | A Real Young Girl | Une Vraie Jeune Fille | Based on Breillat's own novel Le Soupirail. Banned after initial premiere, until 1999. |
| 1979 | Nocturnal Uproar | Tapage nocturne | |
| 1987 | Milan noir | Writer | |
| 1988 | Virgin | 36 Fillette | Based on her novel. |
| 1991 | Dirty Like an Angel | Sale comme un ange | |
| 1996 | Perfect Love | Parfait amour! | |
| 1999 | Romance | Romance | |
| 2001 | Fat Girl | À ma sœur! | |
| 2001 | Brief Crossing | Brève traversée | |
| 2002 | Sex Is Comedy | Sex Is Comedy | |
| 2004 | Anatomy of Hell | Anatomie de l'enfer | Based on her novel Pornocratie. |
| 2007 | The Last Mistress (aka An Old Mistress) | Une vieille maîtresse | Based on the novel by Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly (1851), entered into the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.[11] |
| 2009 | Bluebeard | Barbe bleue | Based on the tale by Charles Perrault |
| 2010 | Sleeping beauty | La Belle Endormie | Based on the tale Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault |
| 2011 | Bad Love | Bad Love | Based on her novel of the same name. (2007) |
About Catherine Breillat
|
||||||||