Fanny Ardant Biography

MARITAL STATUS
Professions Actress , Director , Screenwriter
French nationality
Birth March 22, 1949 (Saumur – France)

BIOGRAPHY
Fanny Ardant, daughter of a cavalry officer, spent her childhood traveling in Europe. A student at Science-Po in the International Relations section , she decided quite late to become an actress in order to satisfy her passion for theater. She has been touring since 1974 where she plays the great texts (Racine, Montherlant, Claudel). She also made her first appearance in the cinema in Marie-poupée by Joël Seria , but it was not until 1979 that the public discovered her, thanks to the television series The Ladies of the Coast by Nina Companeez .

François Truffaut , who fell under the spell of this mysterious brunette, then offered her her first major roles in the cinema in the love drama of The Woman Next Door in 1981, then in Roll on Sunday!, where she played with fantasy a secretary who leads the investigation into the supposed crimes committed by his boss. Married to Truffaut from 1981 to 1984, she gave birth to a daughter, Joséphine, conceived a few months before the director’s death.

She subsequently chose arthouse films which led her to marginalize herself somewhat. She played the role of a pianist for Andre Delvaux ( Benvenuta ) and became the Duchess of Guermantes in Un amour de Swann by Volker Schlöndorff . After having already requested her in 1983 for La Vie est un roman , Alain Resnais called on her again for L’Amour a mort (1985), then Melo (1987), in a particularly dramatic register. She also appeared in front of the camera of Ettore Scola in La Famille (1988) and of Costa-Gavras in Conseil de famille . She then changed her usual image of a passionate and determined woman by playing an indolent seductress in the masterful and disconcerting Paltoquet by Michel Deville .

The beginning of the 90s marked the renewal of a career confined to a somewhat confidential cinema. Twelve years after The Woman Next Door, she reunited with her acting partner Gérard Depardieu for Le Colonel Chabert by Yves Angelo . But it was not until 1995, with Pédale Douce , that she finally triumphed. In the skin of Eva, a funny and moving gay club owner , she finally wins a César after several nominations, and definitively proves the extent of her field of interpretation.

Building on this success,by Patrice Leconte or Elizabeth with Cate Blanchett , and comedies where she alternately plays a woman confronted with her husband’s erection problems in La Debandade (1999) by Claude Berri , a singer lost in the middle of the jungle in Le Fils du Francais (1999) by Gérard Lauzier , her own role in Augustin roi du kung-fu , and a rather wanton duchess in Le Libertin (2000). In 2002, she was one of François Ozon ‘s 8 women , then she lent her serious and deep voice to the diva Maria Callas in Callas forever . She changes register again and joins forces with Emmanuelle Béart in the sulphurous Nathalie… by Anne Fontaine . Fanny Ardant then moved on to projects abroad under the direction of Spanish directors ( Agustín Díaz Yanes in 2003 alongside Victoria Abril and Penélope Cruz ), Italian ( L’heure de pointe by Vincenzo Marra in 2007) or Israeli ( Les secrets by Avi Nesher ).

In 2007, the actress was again directed by Claude Lelouche in Roman de gare , more than twenty-five years after their collaboration for Les Uns et les autres . The following year, she formed a couple for the third time with Gérard Depardieu in Hello Goodbye and played a psychologist in the comedy Trésor . The opportunity to find Claude Berri , who died a week after the start of filming.

2008 was the opportunity for the actress to direct her first feature film Ashes and Blood , screened during a special screening in Cannes. She also climbs the steps for Visage by Malaysian Tsai Ming-liang .

After having made her play the role of Empress Alexandra of Russia in the biopic Raspoutine , Josée Dayan allowed her to make her return to television with Our reunion . A year later, in 2013, the actress starred in Clan des Lanzac , the new France 3 series. Fanny Ardant is also the heroine of Beaux Jours , an adaptation of Fanny Chesnel ‘s novel , “The Young Girl with white hair.

In 2017, Fanny slipped into the skin of a transgender character in Lola Pater . A year later, the actress played Nina in My mother is crazy , a road movie alongside Vianney . Very active, she continues with the moving La Belle époque by Nicolas Bedos, the zany Perdrix by Erwan Le Duc, the family drama ADN by Maïwenn, the impossible romance Les Jeunes amants by Carine Tardieu, the portrait of an actor Les Volets greens by Jean Becker and the historical film Colors of the Fire by Clovis Cornillac.