Anne Fontaine

Personal Info

Known For Director

Gender Female

Birthday 1959-07-15 (65 years old)

Place of Birth Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Also Known As Anne-Fontaine Sibertin-Blanc

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

Director

Monique et Matisse

as Director

2024
Boléro

as Director

2021
Presidents

as Director

2020
Night Shift

as Director

2019
White as Snow

as Director

2017
Reinventing Marvin

as Director

2016
The Innocents

as Director

2014
Gemma Bovery

as Director

2013
Adore

as Director

2011
My Worst Nightmare

as Director

2009
Coco Before Chanel

as Director

2008
2006
Nouvelle chance

as Director

2005
In His Hands

as Director

2003
Nathalie...

as Director

2001
1997
Dry Cleaning

as Director

1997
Love Reinvented

as Director

1996
Night Hustler

as Director

1996
Love Reinvented

as Director

1995
Augustin

as Director

Writer

Monique et Matisse

as Screenplay

2024
Boléro

as Screenplay

2020
Night Shift

as Screenplay

2019
White as Snow

as Screenplay

2017
2016
The Innocents

as Adaptation

2016
The Innocents

as Dialogue

2014
Gemma Bovery

as Screenplay

2011
My Worst Nightmare

as Screenplay

2010
Chloe

as Original Film Writer

2009
Coco Before Chanel

as Screenplay

2008
2006
Nouvelle chance

as Scenario Writer

2005
In His Hands

as Writer

2003
Nathalie...

as Writer

1997
Dry Cleaning

as Screenplay

1997
Love Reinvented

as Writer

1995
Augustin

as Writer