Celebrity Biographies
Charlotte Gainsbourg
She is the daughter of celebrities, and that influences, for the good –the development of artistic talent– and for the bad –being involved in an atmosphere of scandal from a young age–. But this brunette actress with a languid and vulnerable air, who rubs shoulders with alternative directors, has managed to carve out an interesting acting career with roles of a more or less anguished and suffering woman.
Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg was born in London, England, on July 21, 1971, but was educated in Paris, France, at the Jeannine Manuel Bilingual School. Her artistic dedication is undoubtedly influenced by the identity of her parents, the singing actors Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg , who separated when she was only 9 years old.
She never went to a drama school and made her film debut as a teenager with Palabras y música (1985), by French director Elie Chouraqui , where she was the daughter of Catherine Denueve, and already had a leading role that same year, directed by Claude Miller . in L’effrontée , where she was a young girl forced to grow up too quickly; so good was her composition that she had a revelation award at the César.
Her own father, Serge Gainsbourg, directed her in Charlotte for Ever (1986), and the two were also father and daughter on screen. With her maternal grandmother, Judy Campbell , and her own mother, Jane Birkin , she did under the prestigious Agnès Varda Kung Fu Master! (1988), which despite such a curious title is a family drama. She also with Varda and her parents would make the peculiar fantasy of Jane B. Par Agnès V. that same year. To round off this “family picture” we have to say that Charlotte’s film debut in English was produced with The Cement Garden (1993), which adapted a novel by the prestigious Ian McEwan ., and where she was directed by her uncle Andrew Birkin .
In the musical field, the family heritage was also noticeable in Charlotte. Already in 1984 she sang the scandalous song “Lemon Incest” with her father, and the aforementioned film Charlotte for Ever allowed her to edit her first album with her father. Later, with the new millennium, she has released another two albums, and has inspired artists like Madonna.
But returning to film, after a three-year hiatus, she shone as the orphaned protagonist of Jane Eyre (1996), where Franco Zeffirelli adapted the classic work by Charlotte Brontë . Eric Rochant, who had directed her in Aux yeux du monde (1991) brought her back again, also in 1996, for Anna Oz .
Although she has been in comedies like La Bûche (1999), a Christmas film that gave her a César as a supporting actress, or the miniseries Les Miserables (2000) , where she assumed the role of Fantine from Victor Hugo ‘s work , Charlotte is quite fond of to get involved in groundbreaking films by filmmakers who are not too commercial, although they do sometimes receive the well-worn label of “cult directors”. Of this size are titles such as 21 grams ( Alejandro González Iñárritu , 2003), Lemming ( Dominik Moll , 2005), The Science of Sleep ( Michel Gondry , 2006) and I’m Not There ( Todd Haynes, 2007). Precisely in 2007 he had a major scare, a brain hemorrhage, from which he has happily recovered, but which explains why for a couple of years he had no titles in his filmography. “I was shocked to see how weak and frail she was. This was very new. He had always thought that he was very strong and brave. I had no idea how scared I was to die,” Gainsboroug said. Around that time she crafted her musical album IRM, which she says is inspired by the sounds heard in the hospital, when facing MRIs.
On his return to the screen he returned to The City of Your Final Destination ( James Ivory , 2009), together with Anthony Hopkins , and more surprising, because it was not a film that is called “animating”, Antichrist (2009), extremely violent and hallucinating film directed by Lars von Trier when he was suffering from depression, and which gave Gainsbourg the best actress award at Cannes. With Von Trier she has returned to work on Melancholia (2011), an unclassifiable romantic film. She also plays a woman who must cope with her widowhood in the strange Australian tale The Tree ( Julie Bertucelli , 2010).
The actress is linked to the actor and director, also of Jewish origin, Yvan Attal , both met on the set of Aux yeux du monde ., and have repeated together in titles such as Love, etc. (Love and others) (1996). And precisely, he worked under his orders in the film with a significant title My wife is an actress (2001), which was Attal’s debut behind the camera, and which is inspired by the couple’s own life, in fact their characters have their own Names. They have two children, and a few days ago it was learned that Charlotte was pregnant with the third.