Charlotte Gainsbourg

Biography: life and films

The child of two of the biggest European cultural icons of the 1960s, Charlotte Gainsbourg certainly had a lot to live up to. Since making her screen debut in the mid-1980s, she has led a successful career as a singer and actress, perhaps not quite so subversive as her mother Jane Birkin or father Serge Gainsbourg, but still greatly admired the world over. Her real name is Charlotte Lucy Ginsburg and she was born in London, England, on 21st July 1971. Her mother encouraged her in her acting career from an early age and she made her screen debut at the age of 12 in Élie Chouraqui's Paroles et musique (1984), playing Catherine Deneuve's daughter. After a brief appearance in Jacques Doillon's La Tentation d'Isabelle (1985), she had her first leading role in Claude Miller's L'Effrontée (1985) - her vivid portrayal of a rebellious teenager won her the Most Promising Actress César in 1986. She then played her father's daughter on screen in Serge Gainsbourg's Charlotte for Ever (1986), a film that attracted some controversy on account of its incestuous undertones. Claude Miller then gave her another important role in La Petite voleuse (1988), one of the projects that François Truffaut was unable to complete before his premature death.

Up until this point, Charlotte Gainsbourg had yet to commit herself to a career as an actress. She finally made up her mind to do just that after working with Bertrand Blier on Merci la vie (1991), but, having now reached adulthood, she found it more difficult obtaining work. The next decade was a pretty fallow period in her acting career, although there were some interesting roles that allowed her to extend her repertoire across the dramatic and comedic ranges. It was on Eric Rochant's Aux yeux du monde (1990) that she met her future long-term partner Yvan Attal, who worked with her on two films he directed - Ma femme est une actrice (2001), Ils se marièrent et eurent beaucoup d'enfants (2004) - and also Marion Vernoux's Love, etc (1996).

Charlotte Gainsbourg's career picked up in the 2000s, following her appearance in Danièle Thompson's ensemble comedy La Bûche (1999), for which she received a Best Supporting Actress César. Notable films of this decade include Patrice Leconte's Félix et Lola (2000), Dominik Moll's Lemming (2005), Michel Gondry's La Science des rêves (2006) and Julie Bertuccelli's The Tree (2010) - a wide range of roles which allowed the actress to shed her adolescent image and fashion a new, more mature screen persona. She won the Best Actress award at the 2009 Festival de Cannes for her role in Lars von Trier's Antichrist and later worked with the same director on Melancholia (2011) and the controversial diptych Nymphomaniac (2013). Meanwhile, she continues pursuing a highly successful singing career, whilst also working as an ambassador for Hear the World Foundation, championing the rights of people afflicted with hearing loss.

Filmography