Sophie Marceau

Sophie Marceau is a French actress. She has worked in international films such as Braveheart and The World is Not Enough.

Contents
Early life
Career
International success
Author and director
Personal life
Filmography
References

Early life

Sophie Marceau was born Sophie Danièle Sylvie Maupu, the second child of Benoît and Simone Maupu. Her father, Benoît, a veteran of the Algerian War, worked as a truck driver, painter, and bartender; her mother, Simone, was a demonstrator in department stores. Her brother Sylvain is three years older.

Career

Marceau started her career at 14 when Claude Pinoteau cast her in the starring role of the teenager movie La Boum.

The family lived a working class life that left Marceau with generally fond memories of childhood. During the week, she helped at the family restaurant. She spent weekends with her family in La Cabane, a small house in Vert-le-Petit in the Essonne.

She collected stray and abandoned animals with her older brother. She had a dog named Scotch, a cat called Bidule and adopted a German shepherd at the Société de Protection des Animaux.

International success

In 1995, Marceau achieved international recognition as Princess Isabelle in Mel Gibson's Braveheart. That year, she was part of an ensemble of international actors in the French film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and Wim Wenders, Beyond the Clouds.

In 1997, Marceau continued with William Nicholson's Firelight, filmed in England, Véra Belmont's Marquise, filmed in France, and Bernard Rose's Anna Karenina.

In 1999, two films defined her as an international star. For A Midsummer Night's Dream, she played Hippolyta. That same year, she became a Bond girl by playing Elektra King in The World Is Not Enough.

In 2000, Marceau teamed up again with her then-boyfriend Andrzej Zulawski to film La Fidélité.

Author and director

In 2001, Marceau wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, Telling Lies, in which the narrator is a beautiful actress who is confident in her beauty and talent and yet insecure. The unnamed narrator takes the reader into a world of memories, fantasies, and impressions, but never reveals herself completely. Marceau describes what the narrator is going through:

It's the day of separation, and from that second she realises she has gone, like an everyday lifetime with memories coming back. Because she's in the middle of something new that hasn't been yet, and something done already. How time can be elastic; how it can betray you, be capricious and play with you.
Marceau produced an exploration of female identity.

Personal life

Marceau married the producer Andrzej Żuławski, who is 26 years her senior. Their son Vincent was born in June 1995. In 2001, Marceau separated from Zulawski and became involved with producer Jim Lemley and later gave birth to her second child, Juliette, born in London in 2002. In 2007, French newspapers and magazines reported that Marceau was dating Christopher Lambert, with whom she acted in La Disparue de Deauville.

Filmography

La Boum (The Party) (1980) – Victoire Beretton
La Boum 2 (1982)
Fort Saganne (1984) – Madeleine de Saint-Ilette
Joyeuses Pâques (Happy Easter) (1984) – Julie
L'Amour braque (Mad Love) (1985) – Mary
Le Flics (Police) (1985) – Norya
Descente aux enfers (Descent Into Hell) (1986) – Lola Kolber
L'étudiante (The Student) (1988) – Valentine Ezquerra
Chouans! (1988) – Céline
Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours (My Nights are more Beautiful than your Days) (1989) – Blanche
Pacific Palisades (1990) – Bernadette
Pour Sacha (For Sacha) (1991) – Laura
La Note bleue (The Blue Note) (1991) – Solange Sand
Fanfan (Fanfan & Alexandre) (1993) – Fanfan
La Fille de d'Artagnan (The Daughter of D'Artagnan) (1994) – Eloïse d'Artagnan
Braveheart (1995) – Princess Isabelle
Al di là delle nuvole (1995)
Beyond the Clouds (1995)
Anna Karenina (1997) – Anna Karenina
Marquise (1997, by Véra Belmont) – Marquise du Parc
Firelight (1997, by William Nicholson) – Élisabeth Laurier
Lost & Found (1999) – Lila Dubois
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999) – Hippolyta
The World Is Not Enough (1999) – Elektra King
La Fidélité (Fidelity) (2000) – Clélia
Belphégor – Le fantôme du Louvre (Belphegor, Phantom of the Louvre) (2001) – Lisa
Alex and Emma (2003) – Polina Delacroix
Je reste! (2003) – Marie-Dominique Delpire
Les clefs de bagnole (The Car Keys) (2003)
A ce soir (2004) – Nelly
Anthony Zimmer (2005) – Chiara Manzoni
La Disparue de Deauville (2007) – Lucie/Victoria
Les Femmes de l'ombre (2007)


References

^ a b Billen, Andrew. "Lies and loves of ma belle Marceau," Sunday Herald, June 10, 2001.
^ a b c d Net Glimpse, Retrieved on December 1, 2007
^ Bennett, Oliver. "Sophie Marceau - The Left Bank ambassador" in The London Independent, May 31, 2001.
^ Features | The First Post