Bonnaire, Sandrine

(1967- )

   Actress. Sandrine Bonnaire first appeared in minor roles in Claude Zidi's Les Sous-doués en vacances (1982) and Claude Pinoteau' La Boum 2 (1982). She rose to acclaim with her leading performance at age sixteen in Maurice Pialat's A Nos amours (1983), for which she won a César for Most Promising Actress in 1984. In 1986, she won the César for Best Actress for her performance in Agnès Varda's Sans toit ni loi (1985). She played key roles in Pialat's Sous le soleil de Satan (1987), Claude Sautet's Quelque jours avec moi (1988), Patrice Leconte's Monsieur Hire (1989), and Raymond Depardon's La Captive du désert (1989). She played Joan of Arc in Jacques Rivette's Jeanne la Pucelle: les prisons (1994) and Jeanne la Pucelle: la bataille (1994), and later acted in Rivette's Secret Défense (1998). In Venice, Bonnaire won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress in Claude Chabrol's La cérémonie (1995). She later played leading roles in Yves Angelo's Voleur de vie (1998), Chabrol's Au coeur du mensonge (1999), Régis Wargnier's Est-Ouest (1999), Philippe Lioret's Mademoiselle (2001), Leconte's Confidences trop intimes (2003) and L'Equipier (2004), Jean-Pierre Améris's C'est la vie (2001) and Maman est folle (2005), and Safy Nebbou's Le Cou de la giraffe (2004). As her performances in Varda's Sans toit ni loi (1985) and Rivette's Jeanne la Pucelle (1994) attest, Bonnaire is an actress known for her ability to play strong women who challenge the rules of society, and for that reason, she is a favorite of several auteurs.

   Historical Dictionary of French Cinema by Dayna Oscherwitz & Mary Ellen Higgins