Showcasing Sandrine Bonnaire

Sandrine Bonnaire is one of the most famous and popular French actresses of her generation. Since her debut in Maurice Pialat's A NOS AMOURS (1983), she has worked with numerous auteurs, including Claude Chabrol, Raymond Depardon, Jacques Doillon, André Téchiné, Jacques Rivette, Claude Sautet and Agnès Varda, and has demonstrated her astounding versatility. She made three films – more than with any other director – with Maurice Pialat who discovered her at a casting session she had accompanied her sister to as a 15-year-old with no intention of auditioning. Her first role propelled Bonnaire, who stemmed from a working class family in Clermont-Ferrand and was the seventh of eleven children, to fame and secured her not only numerous offers of work but her first prize – the César Award for Most Promising Actress. Two years later, she won the César for Best Actress for her impressive interpretation of the vagabond Mona in Agnès Varda's SANS TOIT NI LOI. Her early success is also remarkable because of the fact that the first films Sandrine Bonnaire, who never went to acting school, played in are charac-terized by her courage to take on unattractive roles, her defiance, and a particularly tumultuous physical presence. The physicality of her young years has since given way to a more discreet introverted acting style; but what have remained are her austerity and inscrutability. Bonnaire is neither a downright beauty nor a resplendent heroine. When she acts it is without the pretensions of a star; she is neither facile nor affected, nor is she sentimental, lending her characters depth but also preserving their mystery. Having spent the first 15 years of her career working with great French auteurs, Bonnaire has in recent years worked mainly with young directors. In 2007, she swapped places for the first time to stand behind the camera, directing ELLE S'APPELLE SABINE, a documentary about her autistic sister. She is currently completing her feature film debut.