Charlotte Gainsbourg

Charlotte Gainsbourg
Background information
Birth name	Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg
Born	21 July 1971 (1971-07-21) London, England, United Kingdom
Origin	Paris, France
Genres	French pop, folk rock, electro
Occupations	actress, singer
Years active	1986–present
Labels	Phonogram Records, Atlantic Records, Because Music, Vice Recordings

Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg (born 21 July 1971) is an Anglo-French actress and singer. After releasing an album with her father at the age of fifteen, more than twenty years passed before she released three albums as an adult (5:55, IRM and Stage Whisper) to commercial and critical success. Gainsbourg has also appeared in many films, including several directed by Lars von Trier, and has received both a César Award and the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award. She is the daughter of British actress Jane Birkin and French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg.

Personal life

Gainsbourg with her mother Jane Birkin in 2010

Gainsbourg was born in London to Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg and was raised in Paris. Her maternal grandmother was actress Judy Campbell and her uncle is the screenwriter Andrew Birkin, who directed her in The Cement Garden. She attended École Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel in Paris.

Gainsbourg's longtime partner is French-Israeli actor/director Yvan Attal, with whom she has three children: Son Ben (born on 12 June 1997) and daughters Alice (born on 8 November 2002) and Joe (born on 16 July 2011).

On 5 September 2007, Gainsbourg was rushed to a Paris hospital where she underwent surgery for a cerebral hemorrhage. She had been experiencing headaches since a minor waterskiing accident in the United States several weeks prior.

Career

Acting

Gainsbourg at the Venice Film Festival in 2007

Gainsbourg made her motion picture debut playing Catherine Deneuve's daughter in the film Paroles et musique (1984). In 1986, Gainsbourg won a César Award for "Most Promising Actress" for L'effrontée, and, in 2000, she won "Best Supporting Actress" for the film La Bûche.

In 1993, Gainsbourg made her English speaking debut in The Cement Garden, written and directed by her uncle, Andrew Birkin. She made her stage debut in 1994 in David Mamet's Oleanna at the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse. In 1996, Gainsbourg starred as the title character in Jane Eyre, a film adaption of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel.

In 2006, Gainsbourg appeared alongside Gael García Bernal in Michel Gondry's La Science des rêves (The Science of Sleep). In 2007, she appeared as Claire in the Todd Haynes-directed Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There, also contributing a cover of the Dylan song "Just Like a Woman" to the film soundtrack.

In 2009, she won the award for Best Actress at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for the film Antichrist.

Gainsbourg has finished filming an French/Australian production, The Tree released in 2010. Her next project will be the Lars von Trier science fiction disaster film, Melancholia. In late December she will begin filming an adaptation of Alfred de Musset's La Confession d'un Enfant du Siècle. She will star alongside the British musician Pete Doherty.

On 19 December 2011, she was announced as being on the jury for the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival, scheduled to be held in February 2012.

Music

Gainsbourg during the Air concert in Melkweg, Amsterdam on 27 March 2007.

Gainsbourg at Webster Hall, NYC, 25 April 2010

Gainsbourg made her musical debut with her father on the song "Lemon Incest" in 1984. Two years later, she released her debut album Charlotte for Ever, which was produced by her father.

In 2000, Gainsbourg was featured on the Madonna album Music on the track "What It Feels Like For A Girl". There is a lengthy spoken intro by Gainsbourg, taken from the film The Cement Garden, which inspired the title of the song. The track was further remixed for the single version of this song in 2001, with Gainsbourg's The Cement Garden speech repeated during the song.

In 2004, she sang a duet with French pop star Étienne Daho on his single "If".

In 2006, Gainsbourg released her second album 5:55 to critical acclaim and commercial success, reaching the top spot on the French charts and achieving platinum status in the country. In the UK, the album was moderately successful, reaching #78 (The single "The Songs That We Sing" only made #129).

In late 2009, Gainsbourg released her third studio album, IRM, which was produced by Beck. One of the influential factors in the album's creative process was her time spent filming Antichrist. Gainsbourg's head injury in 2007 influenced the title of the album "IRM", an abbreviation for the French translation of "magnetic resonance imaging". While receiving a brain scan, she began to think about music. "When I was inside that machine," she said, "it was an escape to think about music. It's rhythm. It was very chaotic."

Her song "Heaven Can Wait" was chosen as the Starbucks iTunes Pick of the Week on 2 March 2010.

Her song "Trick Pony" appeared at the beginning of the Grey's Anatomy episode "Perfect Little Accident" (Season 6, Episode 16 / airdate: 25 February 2010). "Trick Pony" is also featured in the FIFA 11 soundtrack. and was used in the 2012 Teleflora Super Bowl advertisement featuring supermodel Adriana Lima.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1984	Paroles et musique	Charlotte Marker
1985	La tentation d'Isabelle	L'enfant
	L'Effrontée	Charlotte Castang	César Award for Most Promising Actress
1986	Charlotte for Ever	Charlotte
1988	La Petit Amour	Lucy	aka Kung-fu master!
	Jane B. par Agnès V.	La fille de J.	Agnès Varda film
	The Little Thief	Janine Castang	aka La petite voleuse Nominated-César Award for Best Actress
1990	Il sole anche di notte	Matilda
1991	Merci la vie	Camille Pelleveau
	Aux yeux du monde	Juliette Mangin	Éric Rochant film
1992	Amoureuse	Marie	aka The Lover
1993	The Cement Garden	Julie
1994	Grosse Fatigue	Herself	aka Dead Tired
1996	Jane Eyre	Jane Eyre
	Anna Oz	Anna Oz	Éric Rochant film
	Love, etc.	Marie	Marion Vernoux film Nominated-César Award for Best Actress
1999	The Intruder	Catherine Girard
	La Bûche	Milla Robin	aka Season's Beatings César Award for Best Supporting Actress
2000	Passionnément	Alice Almeida	aka Passionately
2001	Félix et Lola	Lola	Patrice Leconte film
	My Wife Is an Actress	Charlotte	aka Ma Femme est une actrice
2002	La merveilleuse odyssée de l'idiot Toboggan	Voice
2003	21 Grams	Mary Rivers
2004	Une star internationale	Herself	Short film
	Ils Se Marièrent et Eurent Beaucoup d'Enfants	Gabrielle	aka ...And They Lived Happily Ever After
2005	L'un reste, l'autre part	Judith	aka One Stays, the Other Leaves
	Lemming	Bénédicte Getty
2006	Nuovomondo	Lucy Reed	aka The Golden Door
	Prête-moi ta main	Emma	aka I Do/Rent a Wife Nominated-César Award for Best Actress
	La Science des rêves	Stéphanie	aka The Science of Sleep Nominated-Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress
2007	I'm Not There	Claire
2008	The City of Your Final Destination	Arden Langdon
2009	Antichrist	She	Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award Bodil Award for Best Actress Sant Jordi Award for Best Foreign Actress Nominated-Scream Award for Best Actress Nominated-Chlotrudis Award for Best Actress Nominated-European Film Award for Best Actress Nominated-Robert Festival for Best Actress
	Persécution	Sonia
2010	The Tree	Dawn	Nominated-César Award for Best Actress
2011	Melancholia	Claire	Robert Festival for Best Supporting Actress Nominated-Bodil Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated-European Film Award for Best Actress

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Nuremberg	Marie Claude Vaillant-Couturier	Miniseries
	Les Misérables	Fantine	Miniseries

Discography

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions										Certifications (sales thresholds)
		FRA	AUT	BE (Vl)	BE (Wa)	GER	NLD	SWE	SWI	UK	US
1986	Charlotte for Ever Released: 1986 Label: Phonogram/Mercury (Re-release)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2006	5:55 Released: 28 August 2006 Label: Because Music/Atlantic/Vice	1	41	15	2	38	99	57	12	-	196	FRA: Platinum
2009	IRM Released: 4 December 2009 Label: Because Music/Elektra	4	-	35	8	-	-	46	28	62	69
2011	Stage Whisper Released: 13 December 2011 Label: Because Music/Elektra

External links

• Official website
• Charlotte Gainsbourg at the Internet Movie Database
• Charlotte Gainsbourg Stage Whisper Album Track Lyrics
• Review of 5:55 on Subculture Magazine
• Interview with Jean-Paul Enthoven, L'Officiel, September 2001