Sylvie Testud

Biography: life and films

Sylvie Testud was born in the French city of Lyon, on 17th January 1971. She was raised by her mother, an accountant of Italian origin, after her father left them when she was two years old. Testud developed a keen interest in cinema at an early age, so it was perhaps inevitable that she would be drawn to a career in acting, abandoning her studies in history when she went to university in Paris. Not long after she graduated from the Conservatoire, she began appearing in films, her first screen role being alongside Charles Berling and Isabelle Candelier in John Lvoff's Couples et amants (1993). Niko von Glasow gave Testud her first lead role in Maries Lied: Ich war, ich weiß nicht wo (1994), which established her as a film actress in Germany before she had done so in France.

Several supporting roles followed, most notably in Didier Haudepin's Le Plus bel âge... (1995), before Testud had her breakthrough in France with Thomas Vincent's off-beat comedy Karnaval (1999), the film that won her the Prix Michel Simon and earned her a Cesar nomination for Most Promising Actress. The latter award came Testud's way the following year, for her performance in Jean-Pierre Denis's Les Blessures assassines (2000). Just before this, she had played the female lead in Chantal Akerman's La Captive (2000), one of cinema's more successful attempts to adapt a portion of Marcel Proust's massive literary tome À la recherche du temps perdu.

Having played along side Depardieu père et fils in Jacob Berger's Aime ton père (2002) and a terrifyingly muscular Jalil Lespert in Jean-Pierre Sinapi's Vivre me tue (2002), Sylvie Testud demonstrated her flair for comedy in Alain Corneau's Stupeur et tremblements (2003), the film that won her the Best Actress César in 2004 and raised her international profile. By this stage, Testud was firmly established as one of French cinema's leading actresses, her talents highly sought after by both experienced filmmakers like Pierre Jolivet (Filles uniques, 2003) and Jeanne Labrune (Cause toujours!, 2004) and a raft of promising newcomers.

In 2008, Sylvie Testud won further acclaim for her portrayal of the French writer Françoise Sagan in Diane Kurys's lavish biopic Sagan (2008), earning another Best Actress César nomination. She had an important supporting role in another biopic, Olivier Dahan's La Môme (2007), inspired by the life of Édith Piaf, and took on one of her most challenging roles in Jessica Hausner's Lourdes (2009), convincingly playing a woman who miraculously recovers from multiple sclerosis. Although Testud appears naturally drawn to low-key auteur films, in which she consistently excels, she has also appeared in a number of mainstream films, including Rose Bosch's Occupation-era drama La Rafle (2010) and James Huth's Lucky Luke (2009), in which (improbably) she played Calamity Jane.

In 2012, Sylvie Testud made her directing debut with La Vie d'une autre (2012), which paired Juliette Binoche with Mathieu Kassovitz, who had recently directed her in one of his films, L'Ordre et la morale (2011). With over eighty film and television roles already under her belt, Testud has gained a reputation as one of France's most talented and versatile actresses - a charismatic performer who, with her unconventional persona and quirky mannerisms, has a dangerous aura of unpredictability about her, something that makes her delightful to watch, whether it be in off-the-wall comedies or deadly serious dramas.

Filmography

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