Catherine Frot

Biography: life and films

Catherine Frot was born in Paris, France, on 1st May 1957. Upon graduating from the Paris Conservatoire, she embarked on a busy stage career, preferring theatre to cinema. She made her screen debut in Alain Resnais's Mon oncle d'Amérique (1980) and appeared in minor roles in a run of off-beat films that included Psy (1981), Les Babas Cool (1981), Elsa, Elsa (1985) and Escalier C (1985). It was the latter film that earned Frot her first César nomination in a supporting role. Recognition of her talents first came in the mid-1990s when she received a Molière award for her performance in Agnès Jaoui and Jean-Pierre Bacri's hugely popular stage play Un air de famille. Cédric Klapisch's film adaptation of this play proved to be a box office hit and won Frot her first Best Supporting Actress César in 1997. She was nominated for the same award two years later for her role in another hit comedy, Francis Veber's Le Dîner de cons (1998).

Frot's big screen breakthrough came in 1999 when, for the first time, she took the lead role - in Pascal Thomas's popular comedy La Dilettante. It was Thomas who later gave Frot her best known role, as the amateur sleuth Prudence Beresford opposite André Dussollier in Mon petit doigt m'a dit... (2005), the first in a series of popular Agatha Christie adaptations, followed by Le Crime est notre affaire (2008) and Associés contre le crime... (2012). Other prominent comedy roles include playing Didier Bourdon's frigid wife in 7 ans de mariage (2003) and Isabelle Huppert's sister in Alexandra Leclère's Les Soeurs fâchées (2004).

Although she is best known as a comedic actress (and one of exceptional ability), Catherine Frot has also shown she can tackle more demanding, dramatic roles. In Coline Serreau's Chaos (2001) she played a guilt-stricken Good Samaritan; in Lucas Belvaux's Cavale (2002), she is a reformed political activist; in La Tourneuse de pages (2006) she is the victim of an elaborate revenge. In Safy Nebbou's stylish thriller L'Empreinte (2008), Frot delivered one of her most compelling performances to date, as a woman obsessed with establishing her maternity of a young girl who is not her own. Loved by critics and audiences alike, Catherine Frot remains one of France's most popular actresses. Whether it is in oddball comedies such as Le Vilain (2009), tough realist thrillers like Coup d'éclat (2011) or weird dramas like Les Derniers jours du monde (2009), her performances are to be savoured.

Filmography