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Anne Fontaine

Known For
Directing

Known Credits
13

Gender
Female

Birthday
July 15, 1959 (66 years old)

Place of Birth
Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Anne Fontaine

Biography

Anne Fontaine (born in Luxembourg, 1959) is a filmmaker and screenwriter who used to be an actor. She lives and works in France.

Born Fontaine Sibertin-Blanc, 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 who was born in Vietnam.

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 Céline's Voyage au bout de la nuit (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 (prize). In 1995, she worked with her brother on the comic Augustin. Two years later, she wrote and directed the successful Nettoyage à Sec (Dry Cleaning). This won the Best Screenplay award at the Venice Film Festival 1997 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, Roi Du Kung-Fu (Augustin, King of Kung-Fu). Comment j'ai tué mon père (How I Killed My Father) was released in 2001, and Nathalie... followed in 2003. The 2005 film, Entre Ses Mains (In His Hands) has been 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 La fille de Monaco (The Girl From Monaco) in 2008 and Coco avant Chanel (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."

Description above from the Wikipedia article Anne Fontaine (filmmaker), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

Directing

2024Boléro...Director
2021Presidents...Director
2020Night Shift...Director
2019White as Snow...Director
2017Reinventing Marvin...Director
2016The Innocents...Director
2014Gemma Bovery...Director
2013Adoration...Director
2011My Worst Nightmare...Director
2009Coco Before Chanel...Director
2008The Girl from Monaco...Director
2006Nouvelle chance...Director
2005In His Hands...Director
2003Nathalie......Director
2001How I Killed My Father...Director
1999Augustin, King of Kung-Fu...Director
1997Dry Cleaning...Director
1997Love Reinvented...Director
1996Love Reinvented...Director
1996Night Hustler...Director
1995Augustin...Director
1993Love Affairs Usually End Badly...Director
Monique et Matisse...Director
Le Serpent majuscule...Director

Writing

2024Boléro...Screenplay
2020Night Shift...Screenplay
2019White as Snow...Screenplay
2017Reinventing Marvin...Writer
2016The Innocents...Adaptation
2016The Innocents...Dialogue
2014Gemma Bovery...Screenplay
2011My Worst Nightmare...Screenplay
2010Chloe...Original Film Writer
2009Coco Before Chanel...Screenplay
2008The Girl from Monaco...Writer
2006Nouvelle chance...Scenario Writer
2005In His Hands...Writer
2003Nathalie......Writer
2001How I Killed My Father...Writer
1999Augustin, King of Kung-Fu...Writer
1997Dry Cleaning...Screenplay
1997Love Reinvented...Writer
1996Love Reinvented...Adaptation
1995Augustin...Writer
1993Love Affairs Usually End Badly...Writer
Monique et Matisse...Screenplay
Le Serpent majuscule...Screenplay

Crew

2022A Cooler Climate...Thanks

Acting

2025Conversation avec Anne Fontaineas Self - Filmmaker
2018Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blachéas Self
2018Vidéo Clubas Self
2002A Day in the Life of French Cinemaas Self
1999Keep It Quietas Nathalie
1998Vivement dimancheas Self
1986Softly from Parisas Mathilde
1986Softly from Parisas Sophie
1985P.R.O.F.S.as Marite
1981Si ma gueule vous plaît...as Isabelle
1980Tender Cousinsas Justine
1980Les Mystères de Parisas Sarah
1978The Last Romantic Loveras