Charlotte Gainsbourg

Charlotte Gainsbourg

born on 21/7/1971 in London, England, United Kingdom

Charlotte Gainsbourg

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Birth name Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg
Born July 21 1971
London, UK
Origin Paris, France
Genres French pop
Occupations actress, singer-songwriter
Years active 1986present
Labels Phonogram Records, Atlantic Records, Because Music, Vice Recordings

Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg (born 21 July 1971) is an Anglo-French actress and singer-songwriter.

Personal life

Gainsbourg was born in London,[1] and was raised in Paris. She attended École Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel in Paris. She is the daughter of British actress and singer Jane Birkin and French singer-songwriter, actor and director Serge Gainsbourg. Her maternal grandmother was actress Judy Campbell and her uncle is the screenwriter Andrew Birkin, who directed her in The Cement Garden. Gainsbourg's longtime partner is the French actor/director Yvan Attal,[2] with whom she has two children, Ben (born on 12 June 1997) and Alice (born on 8 November 2002).[3]

On 5 September 2007, Gainsbourg was rushed to a Paris hospital where she underwent surgery for a cerebral hemorrhage. She had been experiencing headaches since a minor water skiing accident in the United States several weeks prior.[4]

Career

Acting

Gainsbourg made her motion picture debut playing Catherine Deneuve's daughter in the film Paroles et musique (1984). In 1986, Gainsbourg won a César Award for "Most Promising Actress" for L'effrontée, and, in 2000, she won "Best Supporting Actress" for the film La Bûche.

In 1993, Gainsbourg made her English speaking debut in The Cement Garden, written and directed by her uncle, Andrew Birkin.

In 1994, Gainsbourg made her stage debut in David Mamet's Oleanna at the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse. Gainsbourg has sung the title song in three of her films.

In 1996, Gainsbourg starred as the title character in Jane Eyre, the acclaimed film adaption of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel.

In 2005 she gained critical praise for her role alongside Charlotte Rampling in the surreal thriller Lemming.

In 2007, Gainsbourg appeared alongside Gael Garcia Bernal in Michel Gondry's La Science des rêves and as Claire in the Todd Haynes directed Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There, also contributing a cover of the Dylan song "Just Like a Woman" to the film's soundtrack.

In 2008, she appeared alongside Anthony Hopkins and Laura Linney in the film The City of Your Final Destination. She later began filming for the Patrice Chereau film project Persecution.

In 2009, she won the award for Best Actress at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for the film Antichrist.[5]

Patrice Chereau's Persecution premiered in September 2009 at the 66th Venice International Film Festival in competition for the Golden Lion. The film is an intense study of a relationship, also starring Romain Duris and Jean-Hugues Anglade. Gainsbourg's mother Jane Birkin also had a film screening in competition, Jacques Rivette's 36 Views from the Pic Saint-Loup.

She has finished filming an Australian production, The Tree scheduled for a 2010 release. Her next project will be the Lars von Trier Sci-fi-disaster film, Melancholia.[6]

Music

Gainsbourg made her musical debut with her father on the song "Lemon Incest" in 1984.[7] Two years later, she released her debut album Charlotte for Ever, which was produced by her father.

In 2000, Gainsbourg was featured on the Madonna album, Music on the track "What It Feels Like For A Girl". There is a lengthy spoken intro by Gainsbourg, taken from the film The Cement Garden, which inspired the title of the song. The track was further remixed for the single version of this song in 2001, with Gainsbourg's The Cement Garden speech repeated during the song.

In 2004, she sang a duet with French pop star Étienne Daho on his single "If".

In 2006, Gainsbourg released her second album 5:55 to critical acclaim and commercial success, reaching the top spot on the French charts and achieving platinum status in the country. In the UK, the album was moderately successful, reaching #78 (The single "The Songs That We Sing" only made #129).

In late 2009, Gainsbourg released her third studio album, IRM,[8] which was produced by Beck.[9][10] One of the influential factors in the album's creative process was her time spent filming Antichrist.[11]. Gainsbourg's head injury in 2007 influenced the title of the album "IRM," which is the French translation of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). While receiving a brain scan, she began to think about music. "When I was inside that machine, she said, it was an escape to think about music. Its rhythm. It was very chaotic.[12]

Her song Heaven Can Wait was chosen as the Starbucks iTunes Pick of the Week on March 2, 2010.[13]

Filmography

Film

Year Film Role Notes
1984 Paroles et musique Charlotte Marker
1985 La tentation d'Isabelle L'enfant
L'Effrontée Charlotte Castang César Award for Most Promising Actress
1986 Charlotte For Ever Charlotte Serge Gainsbourg film
1988 La Petit Amour Lucy aka Kung-fu master!
Jane B. par Agnès V. La fille de J. Agnès Varda film
The Little Thief Janine Castang aka La petite voleuse
1990 Il sole anche di notte Matilda Paolo and Vittorio Taviani film
1991 Merci la vie Camille Pelleveau
Aux yeux du monde Juliette Mangin Éric Rochant film
1992 Amoureuse Marie aka The Lover
1993 The Cement Garden Julie Andrew Birkin film
1994 Grosse Fatigue Herself aka Dead Tired
1996 Jane Eyre Jane Eyre Franco Zeffirelli film
Anna Oz Anna Oz Éric Rochant film
Love etc. Marie Marion Vernoux film
1999 The Intruder Catherine Girard
La Bûche Milla Robin aka Season's Beatings
2000 Passionnément Alice Almeida aka Passionately
2001 Félix et Lola Lola Patrice Leconte film
My Wife Is an Actress Charlotte aka Ma Femme est une actrice
2002 La merveilleuse odyssée de l'idiot Toboggan Voice
2003 21 Grams Mary Rivers
2004 Une star internationale Herself Short film
Ils Se Marièrent et Eurent Beaucoup d'Enfants Gabrielle aka ...And They Lived Happily Ever After
2005 L'un reste, l'autre part Judith aka One Stays, the Other Leaves
Lemming Bénédicte Getty Dominik Moll film
2006 Nuovomondo Lucy Reed aka The Golden Door
Prête-moi ta main Emma aka I Do/Rent a Wife
La Science des rêves Stéphanie aka The Science of Sleep
2007 I'm Not There Claire Todd Haynes film
2008 The City of Your Final Destination Arden Langdon Awaiting release
2009 Antichrist She Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award
Bodil Award for Best Actress
Persécution Sonia Patrice Chéreau film
2010 The Tree Dawn Julie Bertuccelli film Post-Production
2010 Melancholia TBA Lars von Trier film. Pre-production

Television

Year Title Role Notes
2000 Nuremberg Marie Claude Vaillant-Couturier Miniseries
Les Misérables Fantine Miniseries

Discography (album)

  • Charlotte for Ever (1986)
  • 5:55 (2006)
  • IRM (2009)[14]

References

  1. Source of real name and birth date: birth certificate provided by the French Ministère des affaires étrangères, according to this web site
  2. Movie Habit: Interview with Charlotte Gainsbourg and Yvan Attal
  3. http://www.gala.fr/les_stars/leurs_bio/charlotte_gainsbourg
  4. Charlotte Gainsbourg has emergency brain surgery. NME (06 September 07).
  5. Festival de Cannes: Antichrist. festival-cannes.com. Retrieved on 2009-05-09.
  6. Latest On Von Trier's Melancholia Empire online. 25 March 2010
  7. Slater, Lydia, Charlottes web, The Times, 3 June 2007. URL accessed on 28 April 2010.
  8. Une fin d'année sous le signe de Charlotte Gainsbourg (July 29 2009).
  9. BECK TO APPEAR ON CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG ALBUM. Contact Music (19 November 2008).
  10. Beck collaborates with Charlotte Gainsbourg on new album. NME (18 November 2008).
  11. FROM THE DARKNESS OF SHADOWS: CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG INTERVIEWED. The Quietus (4 November 2009).
  12. Charlotte Gainsbourg's Skull Sessions (L.A. Weekly. February 07 2010).
  13. http://www.mark-heringer.com/2010/03/charlotte-gainsbourg-featuring-beck.html
  14. http://pitchfork.com/news/36353-charlotte-gainsbourgbeck-album-details/

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Charlotte Gainsbourg

  • Official website
  • Review of 5:55 on Subculture Magazine
  • Interview with Jean-Paul Enthoven, L'Officiel, September 2001
  • Charlotte Gainsbourg at the Internet Movie Database
  • Fashion Meets Music: Charlotte Gainsbourg
This page was last modified 28.04.2010 21:53:36

This article uses material from the article Charlotte Gainsbourg from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.