Serreau, Coline

(1947- )

   Actress, director, and screenwriter. Coline Serreau is one of France's most well-known women film-makers. Before directing films, Serreau studied music and dance and later worked as an actress and writer in the theater. She wrote the script for Jean-Louis Bertucelli's film, On s'est trompé d'histoire d'amour (1974), in which she starred. Her first film, the short Le rendez-vous, was made for French television. Her debut fictional feature was Pourquoi pas! (1977), which was followed by Qu'est-ce qu'on attend pour être heureux! (1982).

   Serreau's most popular film, and one of the most commercially successful in French cinematic history, is the comedy Trois hommes et un couffin (1985), which sold over 10 million tickets, won César Awards for Best Film and Best Original Screenplay, and was remade in Hollywood as Three Men and a Baby (1987). This film, like her other films, deals with controversial social issues in provocative ways. Although the film deals with gender roles, many feminists consider her earlier film Qu'est-ce qu'elles veulent? (1977) to be a stronger exploration of women's issues. The film is a documentary, based on interviews with women of diverse ages, economic back-grounds, and geographical regions.

   In general, Serreau's work engages in several women's issues and invites reflection on gender roles and societal constructions of masculinity and femininity. Serreau also attempts to bridge the perceived gap between mainstream and auteur films. Her career is quite varied. She has directed films for the cinema, while also working in television and theater. Her fourth feature film, Romauld et Juliette (1989), a very loose adaptation of Shakespeare's drama, portrays an interracial, cross-class romance. Her next feature, La crise (1992), a film that also deals with women's roles, won Best Original Screenplay at the César Awards.

   Serreau has also worked on the science-fiction feature, Le belle verte (1996), for which she composed the score and in which she stars, and Chaos (2001), a film that critiques patriarchal violence against an Algerian woman and the ensuing indifference of French men. Most recently, she directed a sequel to Trois hommes et un couffin, titled 18 ans après (2003) and the film Saint-Jacques . . . La Mècque (2005).

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