Biography

Parillaud was born in Paris, France. While in school she studied ballet and her ambition was to become a lawyer, but a role during summer vacation - when she was only 16 - in Michel Lang's L'hôtel de la plage launched her into the world of film. She and director Luc Besson have a daughter, but the couple separated shortly after he directed her in Nikita. Nikita was an especially intense experience for Parillaud:

"For a while she was in me like a demon. I would do things I normally would not do. She was awkward, depressed, full of despair. But to me there was also a spiritual underline to Nikita. In a very excessive way she is a loudspeaker of the youth of society today. She destroys herself because she doesn't believe in anything on Earth."

In preparation for the role, she underwent three months of judo lessons and target practice to hone her skills as a government assassin: "I hate guns, I hate violence, I hate judo." Her early ballet training also came in handy for one amusing scene though she modestly downplays her physical gifts, saying only, "I have a chewing gum kind of body. I just forget about the bones." Despite the glamour and danger of her character, Parillaud cautions, "It never happens to me, this kind of story."

After the international success of Nikita, Parillaud left France to star in three films abroad: Map of the Human Heart, Innocent Blood, and Frankie Starlight. She has said regarding the experience of playing a vampire in John Landis's Innocent Blood:

I fell in love with Marie in Innocent Blood because she wasn't born a vampire; she never decided she wanted to be. For me, it was a parable to talk about how you deal with this problem, which is when you are different. You think or you live or you want something different from everyone else. People don't follow you, because it's scary. You are quite alone in your choices.

In 2010 she starred in the French psychological thriller In Their Sleep which was directed by Caroline du Potet and Eric du Potet.

Personal life

Parillaud's first husband was Luc Besson, with whom she has a daughter, Juliette, born in 1987. In 2005 she married Jean Michel Jarre. They divorced in 2010.

She has two sons, Lou and Theo, with film producer Mark Allan.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director
1977	Un amour de sable	uncredited	Christian Lara
1978	L'Hôtel de la plage	Estelle Delambre	Michel Lang
1979	Écoute voir	Chloé/Moune	Hugo Santiago
1980	Girls	Catherine Flavin	Just Jaeckin
	Patrizia	Patricia Cook	Hubert Frank
1981	Pour la peau d'un flic	Charlotte	Alain Delon
1983	Le Battant	Nathalie	Alain Delon
1988	Juillet en septembre	Marie	Sébastien Japrisot
1989	Che ora è?	Loredana	Ettore Scola
1990	Nikita	Nikita	Luc Besson
1992	Innocent Blood	Marie	John Landis
1993	Map of the Human Heart	Albertine	Vincent Ward
1994	À la folie	Alice	Diane Kurys
1995	Frankie Starlight	Bernadette	Michael Lindsay-Hogg
1996	Passage à l'acte	Isabelle	Francis Girod
	Dead Girl	Helen Catherine Howe	Adam Coleman Howard
1998	The Man in the Iron Mask	Queen Mother Anne of Austria	Randall Wallace
	Shattered Image	Jessie Markham	Raúl Ruiz
1999	Une pour toutes	Olga Duclos	Claude Lelouch
2002	Gangsters	Nina Delgado	Olivier Marchal
	Sex Is Comedy	Jeanne	Catherine Breillat
2004	Deadlines	Julia Müller	Ludi Boeken and Michael A. Lerner
	Promised Land	Anne	Amos Gitai
2005	Tout pour plaire	Florence	Cécile Telerman
2007	Demandez la permission aux enfants	Anna Sebag	Éric Civanyan
	Une vieille maîtresse	Mme de Solcy	Catherine Breillat
2009	L'Imbroglio Nel Lenzuolo	Beatrice	Alfonso Arau
2010	Dans ton sommeil	Sarah	Caroline Du Potet and Eric Du Potet

Awards

• César Award for Best Actress in 1991 for Nikita
• David di Donatello Awards for Best Foreign Actress in 1991 for Nikita
• Paris Film Festival for Best Actress in 2004 for Deadlines
• Tokyo International Film Festival for Special Mention in 1993 for Map of the Human Heart

Bibliography

• Dupont, Joan (September 1992). "Playing with Emotion". Interview.
• Gonzalez, Christian (November 1996). "I'm a Complicated Woman". Madame Figaro.
• Tolédano, Vincent (November 1996). "Anne Parillaud Passes the Act". L'Officiel.
• Heuriger (9 January 1997). "Biographical information compiled from GQ, Entertainment Weekly, Movies USA, L'officiel, and Roadshow". Archived from the original on 25 October 2009.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]