Anne Fontaine

This article is about the filmmaker and actress. For other uses, see Anne Fontaine (disambiguation).

Anne Fontaine (born Anne-Fontaine Sibertin-Blanc; 15 July 1959) is a Luxembourger film director, screenwriter, and former actress.^[2] She lives and works in France.^[3]

Anne Fontaine
Fontaine in 2020
Born	Anne-Fontaine Sibertin-Blanc (1959-07-15) 15 July 1959 (age 65) Luxembourg, Luxembourg
Occupation(s)	Film director, screenwriter, actress
Years active	1980–present
Spouse	Philippe Carcassonne ​ ​ (m. 1994)​ [1]
Children	1

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,^[4] 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^[5] 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^[6] 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".^[7]

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.^[8] 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."^[9]

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."^[10]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Notes	Ref.
1993	Les Histoires d'amour finissent mal... en général	Yes	Yes
1995	Augustin	Yes	Yes
1997	L'@mour est à réinventer	Yes	Yes	Segment: Tapin du soir
	Dry Cleaning	Yes	Yes		[11][12]
1999	Augustin, King of Kung-Fu	Yes	Yes
2001	How I Killed My Father	Yes	Yes		[13]
2003	Nathalie...	Yes	Yes		[14][15]
2005	Entre ses mains	Yes	Yes
2006	Oh La La!	Yes	Yes
2008	The Girl from Monaco	Yes	Yes		[16]
2009	Coco Before Chanel	Yes	Yes		[17][18]
2011	My Worst Nightmare	Yes	Yes
2013	Two Mothers	Yes	Yes		[19][20][21]
2014	Gemma Bovery	Yes	Yes		[22]
2016	The Innocents	Yes	Yes		[23][24][25][26]
2017	Reinventing Marvin	Yes	Yes		[27]
2019	White as Snow	Yes	Yes		[28]
2020	Night Shift	Yes	Yes
2021	Presidents	Yes	Yes
2024	Boléro	Yes	Yes		[29]

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	Nominated

César Awards

Year	Category	Title	Result
1997	Best Writing	Dry Cleaning	Nominated
2005	Best Adaptation	Entre ses mains	Nominated
2009		Coco Before Chanel	Nominated
2016	Best Film	The Innocents	Nominated
	Best Director		Nominated
	Best Original Screenplay		Nominated

Venice Film Festival

Year	Category	Title	Result
1997	Golden Osella	Dry Cleaning	Won
	Golden Lion		Nominated

Lumières Award

Year	Category	Title	Result
2009	Best Film	Coco Before Chanel	Nominated
	Best Director		Nominated

Other awards

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

See also

• List of female film and television directors
• List of LGBT-related films directed by women

References

1. Diatkine, Anne (9 January 2004). "Femme à fable". Libération (in French). Retrieved 29 March 2023.
2. "Anne Fontaine". TVGuide.com. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
3. Colman, David (13 September 2013). "Upon Reflection, Anne Fontaine's Feminine Touch". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
4. Le Soleil, Canada (10 Feb 2006)
5. Libération (9 Jan 2004)
6. Libération
7. Sexual Politics and "Dry Cleaning" with Directrice Anne Fontaine Archived 20 March 2006 at the Wayback Machine
8. Quoted in a review Archived 4 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine of the 2006 Australian French Film Festival
9. Daily Telegraph (17 July 2004)
10. Ritterbusch, Rachel (2008). "Anne Fontaine and Contemporary Women's Cinema in France". Rocky Mountain Review. 62: 68–81.
11. "Hidden Desires Unfold in Mesmerizing 'Dry Cleaning'". Los Angeles Times. 26 March 1999. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
12. Stratton, David (19 October 1997). "Dry Cleaning". Variety. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
13. O'Hehir, Andrew (31 August 2002). ""How I Killed My Father"". Salon. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
14. Gates, Anita (14 April 2006). "French Star Power and Sex in Anne Fontaine's 'Nathalie'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
15. Elley, Derek (1 October 2003). "Nathalie . . ". Variety. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
16. Elley, Derek (14 August 2008). "The Girl From Monaco". Variety. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
17. September 23, Lisa Schwarzbaum Updated; EDT, 2009 at 04:00 AM. "Coco Before Chanel". EW.com. Retrieved 23 March 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
18. Morris, Wesley (2 October 2009). "Coco Before Chanel". Boston.com. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
19. Wise, Damon (21 January 2013). "Sundance film festival 2013: Two Mothers – first look review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
20. Ebiri, Bilge; York, a film critic for New; Vulture (6 September 2013). "Ebiri on Adore: Two Hot Mothers, Two Hot Sons, Sexy Time". Vulture. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
21. Scott, A. O. (5 September 2013). "A Valentine for One, a Mother's Day Card for Another". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
22. Williams, Joe (9 July 2015). "Flaubert gets a meta-movie makeover in 'Gemma Bovery'". STLtoday.com. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
23. Chang, Justin (31 January 2016). "Film Review: 'The Innocents'". Variety. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
24. Bradshaw, Peter (10 November 2016). "The Innocents review – a fervent drama about a wartime tragedy". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
25. Holden, Stephen (30 June 2016). "Review: In 'The Innocents,' Not Even Nuns Are Spared War Horrors". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
26. "Review: 'The Innocents' strikingly tells of what befell a convent victimized during WWII". Los Angeles Times. 30 June 2016. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
27. Lodge, Guy (3 September 2017). "Venice Film Review: 'Reinventing Marvin'". Variety. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
28. Kennedy, Lisa (12 August 2021). "'White as Snow' Review: The Fairest of Them All". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
29. Marta Balaga (29 January 2024). "'Coco Before Chanel' Director Anne Fontaine Celebrates Premiere of 'Boléro,' Teases New Project About Popular Music (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved 27 February 2024.

External links

• Anne Fontaine at IMDb