Charlotte Gainsbourg
Actress, Singer, Songwriter, DirectorAbout
“To be a part of this for 38 years and yet still be so… amazed, stunned, surprised, shaken, intimidated, frightened, amused, softened… it is proof that the cinema has its own magic that no one can really explain.”
Charlotte Gainsbourg grew up on film sets and recording studios as both of her parents, Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, were involved in the film and music industry. At the age of 13, she debuted in her first motion picture playing Catherine Deneuve’s daughter in Élie Chouraqui’s Paroles et musique. In 1986, she won the César Award for Most Promising Actress for her performance in Claude Miller’s An Impudent Girl. That same year she appeared in Charlotte for Ever written and directed by her father.
Charlotte expanded her career with various projects such as Andrew Birkin’s The Cement Garden (1993), Franco Zeffirelli’s Jane Eyre (1996), Yvan Attal’s Ma femme est une actrice (2001), Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s 21 Grams (2003), Emanuele Crialese’s Golden Door (2006), Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep (2006), Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There (2007), Julie Bertuccelli’s The Tree (2010), Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano’s Samba (2014), or Lars von Trier films Antichrist (2009), Melancholia (2011), and Nymphomaniac (2013). In 2009, she won the Award for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for Antichrist.
While Charlotte has been working on film projects, she led another rich career in music as a singer-songwriter and released five albums so far: “Charlotte for Ever” (1986), “5:55” (2006), “IRM” (2009), “Stage Whisper” (2011), and “Rest” (2017). For this album, she was awarded Best Female Artist of the Year 2018 at the Victoires de la Musique (the French Grammy Awards). She recently appeared in Yvan Attal’s My Dog Stupid (2019) and Les Choses humaines (2021), and Benoît Jacquot’s Suzanna Andler (2021). Her debut feature Jane by Charlotte, a documentary film about her mother, was presented at the last Cannes Film Festival.
Andrew Birkin’s The Cement Garden (1993), Franco Zeffirelli’s Jane Eyre (1996), Yvan Attal’s Ma femme est une actrice (2001), Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s 21 Grams (2003), Emanuele Crialese’s Golden Door (2006), Michel Gondry’s The Science of Sleep (2006), Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There (2007), Julie Bertuccelli’s The Tree (2010), Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano’s Samba (2014), or Lars von Trier films Antichrist (2009), Melancholia (2011), and Nymphomaniac (2013)
Yvan Attal’s My Dog Stupid (2019) and Benoît Jacquot’s Suzanna Andler (2021)