The Real 10 Female French Cinema Superstars!
The real female superstars of French cinema, based exclusively on their acting skills, their choices of roles, their total dedication and their massive careers and not on their public image!
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Isabelle Huppert was born March 16, 1953, in Paris, France, but spent her childhood in Ville d'Avray. Encouraged by her mother Annick Huppert (who was a teacher of English), she followed the Conservatory of Versailles and won an acting prize for her work in Alfred de Musset's "Un caprice". She then studied at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique and followed an illustrious theatrical career, which includes Ivan Turgenev's "A Month in the Country", Euripides' "Medea" (title role) etc. She made her movie debut in Le Prussien (1971) and soon became one of the top actresses of her generation, giving fine performances in important films, like Claude Goretta's The Lacemaker (1977), as a simple-minded girl who falls in love with - and is betrayed by - a student, Jean-Luc Godard's Every Man for Himself (1980), as a prostitute, and Maurice Pialat's Loulou (1980), as an upper-class woman who is physically attracted by a young vagabond. She made an inconsequential US debut in Otto Preminger's Rosebud (1975) before playing a brothel madam in Michael Cimino's disastrous Heaven's Gate (1980), but she fared better in Curtis Hanson's The Bedroom Window (1987) (as an adulteress who witnesses an attack). Huppert has an extremely productive collaboration with Claude Chabrol, who cast her in several movies, including Violette (1978), in which she played a woman who murders her parents, and Story of Women (1988), in which she gave an excellent performance as a shameless abortionist, the last woman to be executed in France. More recent good films include Patricia Mazuy's Saint-Cyr (2000) and Michael Haneke's controversial The Piano Teacher (2001), as a sexually repressed piano teacher.So far, Isabelle Huppert is the most active French actress of all time! She won her first acting prize as a child and that later led to an incredible movie career. In four decades of activity she won a record-breaking amount of awards (more than 60!) for her acting, including César, BAFTA, 2 Palme d'or, 3 European Film Awards, 2 Volpi Cup prizes and many, many more around the whole world. Beside in her home country, she had acted in numerous movies in the United States, Italy, Africa, United Kingdom, South Korea, Germany and the list goes on. She was the muse of legendary French director Claude Chabrol, with whom she did 7 movies. She's known worldwide for her work with Michael Haneke in the movies "The piano teacher" (2001), "Le temps du loup" (2003) and "Amour" (2012). In parallel with her movie career she has a massive stage career, her latest work being the Australian play "The Maids", a Sidney Theater production, in which she acts alongside Cate Blanchett.- Actress
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Isabelle Yasmine Adjani was born in Gennevilliers, Hauts-de-Seine, a suburb of Paris, to Emma Augusta "Gusti" (Schweinberger) and Mohammed Adjani. Her father was a Kabyle Algerian, from Iferhounène, and her mother was a Bavarian German. She grew up speaking German fluently. After winning a school recitation contest, she began acting in amateur theater by the age of twelve. At the age of 14, she starred in her first motion picture, Le Petit Bougnat (1970). Adjani has appeared in 30 films since 1970. She holds the record for most César Award for Best Actress (5), which she won for Possession (1981), One Deadly Summer (1983) (aka "One Deadly Summer"), Camille Claudel (1988), Queen Margot (1994) (aka "Queen Margot") and Skirt Day (2008) (aka "Skirt Day"). She was also given a double Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award in 1981. She also received two Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. She performs in French, English, Italian and German. Adjani was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 2010.Isabelle Adjani is the only actress who have won five César awards. She admitted that she has been obsessed by some of her movie and stage roles, which automatically makes her an extraordinary individual in the world cinema. She always cares so much about her characters, which is comparatively rare among actors in the movie industry. Daniel Day-Lewis is having a similar approach to his characters and probably that's one of the reasons why she had an intense love affair and a son with him after they met. Adjani works much less than most of the other actresses, but is always making the right choices of characters to interpret. She's been nominated for Oscar twice. Among her most memorable movies are: "The story of Adele H." (1975), "The tenant" (1976), "Les soeurs Brontë" (1979, she acted alongside Isabelle Huppert in that movie), "Camille Claudel" (1988), "La journée de la jupe" (2008) and "David et Madame Hansen" (2012).- Actress
- Producer
- Talent Agent
Catherine Fabienne Deneuve was born October 22, 1943 in Paris, France, to actor parents Renée Simonot and Maurice Dorléac. She made her movie debut in 1957, when she was barely a teenager and continued with small parts in minor films, until Roger Vadim gave her a meatier role in Vice and Virtue (1963). Her breakthrough came with the excellent musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), in which she gave an unforgettable performance as a romantic middle-class girl who falls in love with a young soldier but gets imprisoned in a loveless marriage with another man; the director was the gifted Jacques Demy, who also cast Deneuve in the less successful The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967). She then played a schizophrenic killer in Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965) and a married woman who works as a part-time prostitute every afternoon in Luis Buñuel's masterpiece Belle de Jour (1967). She also worked with Buñuel in Tristana (1970) and gave a great performance for François Truffaut in Mississippi Mermaid (1969), a kind of apotheosis of her "frigid femme fatale" persona. In the seventies she didn't find parts of that caliber, but her magnificent work in Truffaut's The Last Metro (1980) as a stage actress in Nazi-occupied Paris revived her career. She was also very good in the epic drama Indochine (1992), for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination (Best Actress). Although the elegant and always radiant Deneuve has never appeared on stage, she is universally hailed as one of the "grandes dames" of French cinema, joining a list that includes such illustrious talents as Simone Signoret, Jeanne Moreau, Isabelle Huppert, Isabelle Adjani and the younger Juliette Binoche.Catherine Deneuve is the biggest female French movie star in the world. Originally she didn't study acting and didn't intend to be an actress either. But her astonishing beauty and natural skills turned her into a super star very soon after being noticed. Some call her the French Meryl Streep, but in fact she's very different. She's known for her free and cold behavior, but she, as well as people close to her, admitted several times that inside she's a very good and honest person and she's very serious and professional on the movie set. She speaks fluent English and Italian. During the years of her relationship with iconic Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni she acted in numerous Italian movies to a great success. She won the Golden Globe and was nominated for Oscar for her role in "Indochine" (1992). Won two César awards (for "The last metro" (1980) and "Indochine" (1992)), a Volpi Cup for "Place Vendôme" (1998) and two special prizes on the Cannes Film Festival, among other. She's currently on the set of her 117th movie. For several years Deneuve was the highest paid French actress and said ironically in an Italian interview "I make a lot of money, but I'm not rich". Among her most notable movies are:
"The umbrellas of Cherbourg" (1964)
"Repulsion" (1965)
"Belle de jour" (1967)
"Heartbeat" (1968)
"Mississippi Mermaid" (1969)
"Tristana" (1970)
"Liza" (1972)
"Le sauvage" (1975)
"The last metro" (1980)
"Indochine" (1992)
"My favorite season"(1993)
"Généalogies d'un crime" (1996)
"Place Vendôme" (1998)
"Après lui" (2007)
"Hidden diary" (2009)
"Potiche" (2010)
"Les yeux de sa mère" (2011)- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Emmanuelle Béart was born August 14, 1963, in Gassin, France. She lived with her mother, brothers, and sister on a farm not far from Saint-Tropez in Provence (southern France), because her father, singer and poet Guy Béart, did not want his children to be affected by the glamour world of Paris. When Emmanuelle was thirteen, she saw Romy Schneider in the movie Mado (1976). From that time on, she wanted to be an actress. In Emmanuelle's teens, her parents sent her to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, for four years, so she could learn English. There, she was engaged for a Robert Altman movie that was never made. After returning to France, she took drama classes and got her first TV role, in Raison perdue (1984). David Hamilton, the photographer/director, was impressed by her beauty and gave her a role in First Desires (1983). She met her spouse-to-be, Daniel Auteuil, while making Love on the Quiet (1985). The film that made her famous in France was Manon of the Spring (1986), in which she played the role of a blonde shepherd dancing nude in the fields. Director Tom McLoughlin chose her out of 5,000 candidates for her first Hollywood picture, Date with an Angel (1987). Emmanuelle is a very sensitive and a perfectionist. For the part of Camille in the film A Heart in Winter (1992), she took violin lessons for a whole year. Her biggest success was as a nude model in the art film La Belle Noiseuse (1991), which starred Michel Piccoli and was directed by Jacques Rivette.Emmanuelle Béart is known for her extreme sensibility and strong sex appeal. Those two qualities gained her international fame, but she has proved many times that she's very serious and dedicated interpreter and that money is not among her priorities. Her first major movie role was in David Hamltion's erotic film "Premiers désirs" in 1984 and despite she continued to being offered sexy roles, she was also given the chance to prove herself as a professional actress with the movie "L'amour en douce" in 1985. She won the César awards as best supporting actress for her role in "Manon of the spring" in 1988. During the 90's she acted in a plenty of very successful movies, gaining many awards. The most remarkable movie from that era is "Une femme française" for which she won the Silver St. George award at the Moscow International Film Festival. She then split with her partner in real life and in the movie, Daniel Auteuil, and many people joked that it was because she was too convincing in that movie. In 1996 Béart made her breakthrough in the United States with her role as Claire Phelps in "Mission: Impossible" alongside Tom Cruise. Among her best movies are: "La belle noiseuse" (1991), "Un coeur en hiver" (1992), "L'enfer" (1994), "Une femme française" (1995), "Marcel Proust's Time Regained" (1999), "Les destinées" (2000), "8 women" (2002), "Replay" (2001), "It begins with the end" (2010), "Ma compagne de nuit" (2011).- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Nathalie Baye was born on 6 July 1948 in Mainneville, Eure, France. She is an actress and writer, known for Catch Me If You Can (2002), Laurence Anyways (2012) and Venus Beauty Institute (1999).Nathalie Baye is second only to Isabelle Adjani to have won most César awards - she won 4. She has very own way of acting, which according to some is because of her very determinate personality. She won her first César for her part in Jan-Luc Godard's "Every man for himself" (1980) in which her skills were shown in an extraordinary way. Her remarkable career full of successful roles includes movies in which she was directed by masters such as Nadine Trintignant, François Truffaut, Marco Ferreri, Bertrand Tavernier, Damiano Damiani, Claude Chabrol and many more. In 2002 she starred in Steven Spielberg's "Catch me if you can" alongside Leonardo DiCaprio.- Actress
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- Director
Clémentine Célarié was born on 12 October 1957 in Dakar, Senegal. She is an actress and writer, known for Pierre & Jeanne, Betty Blue (1986) and Two Is a Family (2016).- Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Karin Viard was born on 24 January 1966 in Rouen, Seine-Maritime, France. She is an actress and writer, known for Polisse (2011), The Bélier Family (2014) and Paris (2008).- Actress
- Writer
Anémone was born on 9 August 1950 in Paris, France. She was an actress and writer, known for Lautrec (1998), The Grand Highway (1987) and Death in a French Garden (1985). She was married to Philippe Galland and X. She died on 30 April 2019 in Poitiers, Vienne, France.- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Sandrine Bonnaire was born on 31 May 1967 in Gannat, Allier, France. She is an actress and director, known for La Cérémonie (1995), To Our Loves (1983) and Vagabond (1985). She was previously married to Guillaume Laurant.- Actress
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Catherine Frot was born on 1 May 1956 in Paris, France. She is an actress and writer, known for Marguerite (2015), Le Dîner de Cons (1998) and Family Resemblances (1996). She has been married to Michel Couvelard since 1987. They have one child.