Bertrand Bonello

Biography: life and films

For the past twenty years, Bertrand Bonello has had a busy twin career as a film director and composer. Born in Nice, France, on 11th September 1968, he now lives in Paris and Montréal with his Canadian partner and camera operator Josée Deshaies. Originally, he started out as classical musician, and it is in this capacity that he has worked for several prominent artists, including Françoise Hardy, Carole Laure, Gérald de Palmas and Elliot Murphy. He has released a number of albums, including My New Picture (2007) and has written the score not only for his own films but also for those of others, including Ilan Duran Cohen's Petits fils (2004) and Antoine Barraud's Le Dos rouge (2014).

Bonello began his film directing career in the mid-1990s with a number of shorts including Qui je suis (1996). He established himself straight away with his promising debut feature Quelque chose d'organique (1998), a tragic romance starring Romane Bohringer and Laurent Lucas. This was followed by Le Pornographe (2001), which featured Jean-Pierre Léaud at his best as an ageing pornographic filmmaker looking for inspiration. Despite the film's controversial subject matter, it was praised by some critics and proved to be a commercial success. It also received the FIPRESCI prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

The director's distinctive style and fascination with the murkier aspects of human experience became more apparent in his next film, a dark study in sexual identity entitled Tiresia (2003). He then directed Mathieu Amalric and Asia Argento on an autobiographical drama De la guerre (2008), and received further acclaim for L'Apollonide: Souvenirs de la maison close (2011), a huis-clos drama set in a 19th century brothel. The success of this film earned Bonello a commission from the producers Éric and Nicolas Altmayer to direct a lavish biopic of the fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. With Gaspard Ulliel in the lead role, Saint Laurent (2014) was a notable critical and commercial hit, Bonello's most popular film to date. The director courted further controversy with his next film Nocturama (2016). As this depicted a meticulously planned terrorist attack on Paris, it was ill-received in some quarters after the bloody attacks of the previous year. It is, despite that, one of Bonello's most significant films to date - a stark portrait of a society that is heading for self-destruction.

Filmography