She was born in London. She apprenticed cinema as an editor, while at the same time she shot totally independent short films, La police (1988) or Scenes de menage (starring Miou Miou) to name only a few. She discovered the practice of direct cinema at the Ateliers Varan and she shot several documentaries: Les Patients, Recreations and At All Costs, which won a number of first prizes in various festivals. The latter two were theatrically distributed, establishing a new school in documentary making in French cinema. In 1997, she presented her first feature film A Foreign Body, the story of a woman that pretends she’s pregnant and steals a child, in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes. She was commissioned by Arte to create a film for the students of TNS in the European Parliament, That’s Just Like You, a hybrid of fiction film and documentary which was recieved both the best fiction and the best documentary film awards at the Belfort IFF. After a brief spell working in the theater, she revived her skills in documentary making, by shooting 800 km de difference/romance and Mimi (Berlin IFF 2003), which were both theatrically distributed. Her second feature film, Ca brule, was presented at the Directors’ Fortnight in 2006. In 2008 she directed The Offices of God, which brought together Nathalie Baye, Nicole Garcia, Michel Boujenah, Beatrice Dalle, Rachida Brakhni, Isabelle Carre, Emmanuel Mouret and non-professional actors. It was also presented at the Directors’ Fortnight.
Filmography
(Selected)
1980 Tandis que j’agonise/As I Lay Dying (short)
1988 La Police
1989 Les Patients
1991 Scenes de menage (short)
1992 Recreations
1993 Comment acheter une arme (short)
1995 Coute que coute/At All Costs
1997 Sinon, oui/A Foreign Body
1999 Ca c’est vraiment toi/That’s Just Like You
2001 800 Kilometres de difference/Romance
2002 Mimi
2004 Est-ce qu’on a gagne ou est-ce qu’on a encore perdu? (short)
2006 Ca brule/On Fire
2008 Les Bureaux de dieu/The Offices of God
2011-2012 Gare du Nord
2011-2012 Geographie humaine/Human Geography