Life and career

Bonnaire was born in the town of Gannat, Allier, in the Auvergne region. She was born into a working-class family, the seventh of eleven children. Her acting career began at the age of 16 in 1983, when she starred in the Maurice Pialat film À nos amours. She played a girl from Paris beginning her sexual awakening. In 1984, she was awarded the César Award for Most Promising Actress.

Her international breakthrough came in 1986 when she played the main character in Sans toit ni loi (Vagabond), directed by Agnès Varda, for which she won her second César Award. She portrays a vagrant who fails both physically and morally. The film Monsieur Hire directed by Patrice Leconte followed in 1989, along with further work with directors Jacques Doillon and Claude Sautet.

In 1995, she starred as an apparently simple maid in Claude Chabrol's widely acclaimed thriller La Cérémonie. The film and its stars won awards internationally, including for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for both Bonnaire and co-star Isabelle Huppert.

In 2004, she starred in another Patrice Leconte's film: Intimate Strangers, which was an arthouse box office hit in the United States.

Personal life

Bonnaire has a daughter, Jeanne, from a relationship with actor William Hurt, whom she met in 1991 during filming of the Albert Camus novel La Peste (The Plague). They acted together in Secrets Shared with a Stranger (1994). Since March 2003 she has been married to actor and screenwriter Guillaume Laurant, with whom she has had a second daughter, Adèle.

Selected filmography

As actress

Year	Title	Role	Director
1983	À nos amours	Suzanne	Maurice Pialat
1984	Tir à vue ("Fire on Sight")	Marilyn	Marc Angelo
1985	Blanche et Marie	Marie	Jacques Renard
	Le meilleur de la vie ("A better Life")	Veronique	Renaud Victor
	Police	Lydie	Maurice Pialat
	Sans toit ni loi ("Vagabond")	Mona Bergeron	Agnès Varda
1986	La Puritaine ("The Prude")	Manon	Jacques Doillon
1987	Sous le soleil de Satan	Mouchette	Maurice Pialat
	Jaune revolver	Angèle	Olivier Langlois
	Les Innocents	Jeanne	André Téchiné
1988	Quelques jours avec moi ("A Few Days With Me")	Francine	Claude Sautet
	Peaux de vaches	Annie	Patricia Mazuy
1989	Monsieur Hire	Alice	Patrice Leconte
1990	La Captive du désert	the captive	Raymond Depardon
	Verso sera (aka Dans la soirée)	Stella	Francesca Archibugi
1991	Le ciel de Paris ("The Sky Above Paris")	Suzanne	Michel Béna
	La Peste ("The Plague")	Martine	Luis Puenzo
1992	Prague	Elena	Ian Sellar
1994	Joan the Maiden, Part 1: The Battles and Joan the Maiden, Part 2: The Prisons	Joan of Arc	Jacques Rivette
1995	Les Cent et une Nuits de Simon Cinéma	the female vagabond	Agnès Varda
	La Cérémonie	Sophie	Claude Chabrol
1996	Never Ever	Katherine	Charles Finch
1997	Die Schuld der Liebe ("Debt of Love")	Monika	Andreas Gruber
1998	Secret défense	as Sylvie	Jacques Rivette
1999	Au cœur du mensonge	Vivianne	Claude Chabrol
	Est-Ouest	Marie	Régis Wargnier
2001	Mademoiselle	Claire	Philippe Lioret
	C'est la vie	Suzanne	Jean-Pierre Améris
2002	Femme fatale	as herself	Brian De Palma
2003	Resistance	Lucette	Todd Komarnicki
2004	Confidences trop intimes	Anna	Patrice Leconte
	Le Cou de la girafe ("The Giraffe’s Neck")	Hélène	Safy Nebbou
	L'Équipier	Mabé	Philippe Lioret
2006	Je crois que je l'aime ("Could This Be Love?")	Elsa	Pierre Jolivet
	Demandez la permission aux enfants	Marie	Eric Civanyan
2007	Un Coeur Simple ("Simple Heart")	Félicité	Marion Laine
2008	L'Empreinte de l'ange	Claire	Safy Nebbou
2009	Joueuse	Hélène	Caroline Bottaro
2013	Adieu Paris	Françoise Dupret	Franziska Buch
2014	Salaud, on t'aime	Nathalie Beranger	Claude Lelouch
	Soul of a Spy	Jacqueline	Vladimir Bortko
	Rouge sang (TV movie)	Jacqueline	Xavier Durringer
2015	The Final Lesson	Diane	Pascale Pouzadoux

As director/screenwriter

Year	Title	Cast	Notes
2007	Elle s'appelle Sabine (Her Name is Sabine)	her sister Sabine	documentary about a medical condition
2011	J'enrage de son absence	William Hurt, Alexandra Lamy	feature film

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Film	Result
1984	César Award	Most Promising Actress	À nos amours	Won
1986	César Award	Best Actress	Sans toit ni loi	Won
1988	César Award	Best Actress	Sous le soleil de Satan	Nominated
1990	César Award	César Award	Monsieur Hire	Nominated
1995	César Award	Best Actress	Joan the Maiden	Nominated
	Volpi Cup (Venice Film Festival)	Best Actress	La Cérémonie	Won
1996	César Award	Best Actress	La Cérémonie	Nominated
2000	César Award	Best Actress	Est-Ouest	Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]