Quick Facts
Biography
Sandrine Bonnaire (born 31 May 1967) is a French actress, film director and screenwriter, who has appeared in more than 40 films. She won the César Award for Most Promising Actress for À nos amours (1983), the César Award for Best Actress for Vagabond (1985) and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for La Cérémonie (1995). Her other films include Under the Sun of Satan (1987), Monsieur Hire (1989), East/West (1999) and The Final Lesson (2015).
Life and career
Bonnaire was born in the town of Gannat, Allier, in the Auvergne region. She was born into a working-class family, the seventh of eleven children. Her acting career began at the age of 16 in 1983, when she starred in the Maurice Pialat film À nos amours. She played a girl from Paris beginning her sexual awakening. In 1984, she was awarded the César Award for Most Promising Actress.
Her international breakthrough came in 1986 when she played the main character in Sans toit ni loi (Vagabond), directed by Agnès Varda, for which she won her second César Award. She portrays a vagrant who fails both physically and morally. The film Monsieur Hire directed by Patrice Leconte followed in 1989, along with further work with directors Jacques Doillon and Claude Sautet.
In 1995, she starred as an apparently simple maid in Claude Chabrol's widely acclaimed thriller La Cérémonie. The film and its stars won awards internationally, including for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for both Bonnaire and co-star Isabelle Huppert.
In 2004, she starred in another Patrice Leconte's film: Intimate Strangers, which was an arthouse box office hit in the United States.
Personal life
Bonnaire has a daughter, Jeanne, from a relationship with actor William Hurt, whom she met in 1991 during filming of the Albert Camus novel La Peste (The Plague). They acted together in Secrets Shared with a Stranger (1994). Since March 2003 she has been married to actor and screenwriter Guillaume Laurant, with whom she has had a second daughter, Adèle.
Selected filmography
As actress
| Year | Title | Role | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | À nos amours | Suzanne | Maurice Pialat |
| 1984 | Tir à vue ("Fire on Sight") | Marilyn | Marc Angelo |
| 1985 | Blanche et Marie | Marie | Jacques Renard |
| Le meilleur de la vie ("A better Life") | Veronique | Renaud Victor | |
| Police | Lydie | Maurice Pialat | |
| Sans toit ni loi ("Vagabond") | Mona Bergeron | Agnès Varda | |
| 1986 | La Puritaine ("The Prude") | Manon | Jacques Doillon |
| 1987 | Sous le soleil de Satan | Mouchette | Maurice Pialat |
| Jaune revolver | Angèle | Olivier Langlois | |
| Les Innocents | Jeanne | André Téchiné | |
| 1988 | Quelques jours avec moi ("A Few Days With Me") | Francine | Claude Sautet |
| Peaux de vaches | Annie | Patricia Mazuy | |
| 1989 | Monsieur Hire | Alice | Patrice Leconte |
| 1990 | La Captive du désert | the captive | Raymond Depardon |
| Verso sera (a.k.a. Dans la soirée) | Stella | Francesca Archibugi | |
| 1991 | Le ciel de Paris ("The Sky Above Paris") | Suzanne | Michel Béna |
| La Peste ("The Plague") | Martine | Luis Puenzo | |
| 1992 | Prague | Elena | Ian Sellar |
| 1994 | Joan the Maiden, Part 1: The Battles and Joan the Maiden, Part 2: The Prisons | Joan of Arc | Jacques Rivette |
| 1995 | Les Cent et une Nuits de Simon Cinéma | the female vagabond | Agnès Varda |
| La Cérémonie | Sophie | Claude Chabrol | |
| 1996 | Never Ever | Katherine | Charles Finch |
| 1997 | Die Schuld der Liebe ("Debt of Love") | Monika | Andreas Gruber |
| 1998 | Secret défense | Sylvie | Jacques Rivette |
| 1998 | Stolen Life | Olga | Yves Angelo |
| 1999 | Au cœur du mensonge | Vivianne | Claude Chabrol |
| Est-Ouest | Marie | Régis Wargnier | |
| 2001 | Mademoiselle | Claire | Philippe Lioret |
| C'est la vie | Suzanne | Jean-Pierre Améris | |
| 2002 | Femme fatale | As herself | Brian De Palma |
| 2003 | Resistance | Lucette | Todd Komarnicki |
| 2004 | Confidences trop intimes | Anna | Patrice Leconte |
| Le Cou de la girafe ("The Giraffe’s Neck") | Hélène | Safy Nebbou | |
| L'Équipier | Mabé | Philippe Lioret | |
| 2006 | Je crois que je l'aime ("Could This Be Love?") | Elsa | Pierre Jolivet |
| Demandez la permission aux enfants | Marie | Eric Civanyan | |
| 2007 | Un Coeur Simple ("Simple Heart") | Félicité | Marion Laine |
| 2008 | L'Empreinte de l'ange | Claire | Safy Nebbou |
| 2009 | Joueuse | Hélène | Caroline Bottaro |
| 2013 | Adieu Paris | Françoise Dupret | Franziska Buch |
| 2014 | Salaud, on t'aime | Nathalie Béranger | Claude Lelouch |
| Soul of a Spy | Jacqueline | Vladimir Bortko | |
| Rouge sang (TV movie) | Jacqueline | Xavier Durringer | |
| 2015 | The Final Lesson | Diane | Pascale Pouzadoux |
| 2016 | Heaven Will Wait |
As director/screenwriter
| Year | Title | Cast | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Elle s'appelle Sabine (Her Name is Sabine) | Sabine Bonnaire | Documentary Cannes Film Festival - Directors' Fortnight or Critics' Week French Syndicate of Cinema Critics - Best First Film Globe de Cristal for Best Documentary Nominated - Cannes Film Festival - Golden Camera Nominated - Chicago International Film Festival - Best Documentary Nominated - César Award for Best Documentary Film |
| 2011 | J'enrage de son absence | William Hurt, Alexandra Lamy | feature film |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Film | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | César Award | Most Promising Actress | À nos amours | Won |
| 1986 | César Award | Best Actress | Sans toit ni loi | Won |
| 1988 | César Award | Best Actress | Sous le soleil de Satan | Nominated |
| 1990 | César Award | Best Actress | Monsieur Hire | Nominated |
| 1995 | César Award | Best Actress | Joan the Maiden | Nominated |
| Volpi Cup (Venice Film Festival) | Best Actress | La Cérémonie | Won | |
| 1996 | César Award | Best Actress | La Cérémonie | Nominated |
| 2000 | César Award | Best Actress | Est-Ouest | Nominated |