Anne Fontaine

Anne Fontaine (born Anne-Fontaine Sibertin-Blanc; 15 July 1959) is a Luxembourgish film director, screenwriter, and former actress. She lives and works in France.

Life and career Born Anne-Fontaine Sibertin-Blanc in Luxembourg, sister of actor Jean-Chrétien Sibertin-Blanc, she went as a young child to live in Lisbon, where her father, Antoine Sibertin-Blanc, is a music professor and cathedral organist. In adolescence she moved to Paris and trained in dance with Joseph Russillo while continuing her academic education, including philosophy. Her husband is Philippe Carcassonne, the film producer, and they have an adopted son, Tienne, who was born in Cambodia.

While still dancing, she was picked by Robert Hossein to play Esmeralda in a 1980 theatrical production of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and around this time started to use the name Anne Fontaine. She continued with acting and became known for her roles in comedies like Si ma gueule vous plaît... (1981) and P.R.O.F.S.(1985). An opportunity to be assistant director came with a 1986 stage version of Louis-Ferdinand Céline's Journey to the End of the Night at the Renaud-Barrault theatre.

Fontaine's first project as solo director, Les Histoires d'amour finissent mal... en général (Love Affairs Usually End Badly), won the 1993 Prix Jean Vigo. In 1995, she worked with her brother on the comedy Augustin. Two years later, she wrote and directed the successful Dry Cleaning (Nettoyage à Sec). It won the Best Screenplay award at the 1997 Venice Film Festival and is generally considered a milestone on Fontaine's way to becoming "an important figure in contemporary French cinema".

In 1999 the character Augustin (Jean-Chrétien Sibertin-Blanc) re-appeared in Fontaine's film Augustin, King of Kung-Fu. How I Killed My Father was released in 2001, and Nathalie... followed in 2003. The 2005 film, Entre ses mains was widely described as a thriller: an "intimate thriller" according to Fontaine herself. A third Augustin film, Nouvelle chance (also known as Oh La La) was released in 2006. Then came The Girl From Monaco in 2008 and Coco Before Chanel, her biopic of Coco Chanel, in 2009.

Fontaine's work is not easily categorised, though the phrase "psychological drama" is often used. She told a UK newspaper, "I try to work on my characters' blind side, in a kind of Freudian way: to ask, 'What are the things about themselves that they're unaware of?' I'm fascinated by the irony of fate, when something goes into a skid. All my stories have an element of cruelty in them."

While knowing that the movement of "women's cinema" worked as a counter to the classical Hollywood system, Fontaine didn't like to identify with this. During an interview in 1998 with Eve-Laure Moros, she stated: "If people say that 'Nettoyage a sec' is a woman's film, I'm very surprised, I don't know what that means... I think that to be a filmmaker, as far as sexuality, it's something that's really de-sexualizing. That is, you become a bizarre thing, when you're directing a film---during the shooting, you're neither a man nor a woman, you're really something strange and very ambivalent."

Filmography Film Year TitleDirectorWriter Notes Ref. 1993 Les Histoires d'amour finissent mal... en général 1995 Augustin 1997 L'@mour est à réinventer Segment: Tapin du soir Dry Cleaning 1999 Augustin, King of Kung-Fu 2001 How I Killed My Father 2003 Nathalie... 2005 Entre ses mains 2006 Oh La La! 2008 The Girl from Monaco 2009 Coco Before Chanel 2011 My Worst Nightmare 2013 Two Mothers 2014 Gemma Bovery 2016 The Innocents 2017 Reinventing Marvin 2019 White as Snow 2020 Night Shift 2021 Presidents 2024 Boléro

Acting roles Year Title Role Notes 1980 Les Mystères de Paris Sarah TV mini-series Tendres Cousines Justine 1981 Si ma gueule vous plaît... Isabelle 1982 Caméra une première Alba TV series 1984 Le Mystérieux Docteur Cornélius Andrée de Maubreuil TV mini-series 1985 Entre chats et loups Carole Lambert TV movie P.R.O.F.S. Marite 1986 Grand hôtel Marite TV series 1987 Children and the White Whale Claudine TV movie 1988 Carte de presse Pauline TV mini-series 1986–1990 Série rose Mathilde / Mme Orlova TV series 1999 Pas de scandale Nathalie

Awards and nominations BAFTA Awards Year Category Title Result 2009 Best Film Not in the English Language Coco Before Chanel

César Awards Year Category Title Result 1998 Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation Dry Cleaning 2006 Best Adaptation Entre ses mains 2010 Coco Before Chanel 2017 Best Film The Innocents Best Director Best Original Screenplay

Venice Film Festival Year Category Title Result 1997 Golden Osella Dry Cleaning Golden Lion

Lumière Awards Year Category Title Result 2009 Best Film Coco Before Chanel Best Director

Other awards Year Award Category Title Result 1993 Prix Jean Vigo Les Histoires d'amourfinissent mal... en général 1995 Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard Augustin 2001 Locarno International Film Festival Golden Leopard How I Killed My Father 2005 San Sebastián Film Festival Golden Shell Entre ses mains 2009 Critics' Choice Movie Awards Best Foreign Language Film Coco Before Chanel European Film Academy Lux Award 2016 City of Lights, City of Angels Audience Award The Innocents Norwegian International Film Festival Andreas Award Provincetown International Film Festival Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature