Nathalie Baye

Biography: life and films

Without a doubt, Nathalie Baye is one of France's best-known and best-liked film actresses. Since she made her screen debut in the early 1970s, she has appeared in around eighty films and has worked with some of France's most distinguished film directors and actors. Her warm personality and radiant smile make her one of the most engaging personalities in French cinema, and in the course of a very active career she has shown herself capable of taking on a wide variety of roles, encompassing light comedy and serious drama. Not many actors can claim to have worked with such a diverse assortment of directors as Robert Wise, Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Maurice Pialat, Claude Sautet, Marco Ferreri, Bertrand Blier, Bob Swaim, Diane Kurys, Gabriel Aghion and Steven Spielberg.

Nathalie Baye was born on 6th July 1948 in Mainneville, in the Haute-Normandie region of France. Her parents were bohemian painters. Owing to dyslexia, she was forced to drop out of school at 14 and she subsequently enrolled in a dance school in Monaco. Aged 17, she left for the United States to study Russian ballet. On her return to France, she trained as an actress, first at the René Simon drama school, then at the Conservatoire. She made her first film appearance in 1972, playing a minor role in Nina Companéez's Faustine et le bel été (1972), alongside two other notable debutantes, Isabelle Adjani and Isabelle Huppert. For the next few years, Baye took a variety of supporting roles, notably in François Truffaut's La Nuit américaine (1973), before she finally landed her first leading role in Truffaut's La Chambre verte (1978). Although this film was not a great success, it established Baye as an actress in France and she was soon being offered work by many established film directors, as well as some less experienced filmmakers who were eager to make their mark.

The 1980s got off to a good start for Baye when she won Césars in three success years. She took the Best Supporting Actress award for her performances in Jean-Luc Godard's Sauve qui peut (la vie) (1980) and Pierre Granier-Deferre's Une étrange affaire (1981), and then she was awarded the Best Actress César for Bob Swaim's La Balance (1982). She starred alongside Gérard Depardieu in Daniel Vigne's Le Retour de Martin Guerre (1982), and opposite Alain Delon in Bertrand Blier's Notre histoire (1984). In 1985, she appeared in Jean-Luc Godard's Détective with rock legend Johnny Hallyday, her real-life partner at the time (and the father of her daughter, Laura Smet).

By the late 1990s, Nathalie Baye had gravitated to darker, more complex, more ambiguous roles - characters that appeared implacable and good-natured on the surface, but neurotic, tortured and perhaps even perverse within. Films which exemplify this transition include: Jeanne Labrune's Si je t'aime, prends garde à toi (1998), Tonie Marshall's Vénus beauté (institut) (1999) and Frédéric Fonteyne's Une liaison pornographique (1999), the latter of which won her the Best Actress Award at the 1999 Venice Film Festival. By now, Baye had acquired an international reputation, as is demonstrated by Steven Spielberg's decision to cast her as Leonardo DiCaprio's mother in Catch Me If You Can (2002).

Since 2000, Nathalie Baye continues to be one of the busiest and most popular actresses in France. She especially likes working with women directors, such as: Jeanne Labrune (Ca ira mieux demain, 2000), Noémie Lvovsky (Les Sentiments, 2003), Tonie Marshall (France Boutique, 2003), Josiane Balasko (Cliente, 2008) and Léa Fazer (Ensemble c'est trop, 2010). Although she shows a marked preference for auteur films and serious dramas, Baye has also lent her services to several mainstream comedies, including Paparazzi (1998) and Absolument fabuleux (2001). Of the many male directors she has worked with, she has a particular regard for Xavier Beauvois, even before he won international acclaim for his 2010 film Des hommes et des dieux. Baye has appeared in two of Beauvois's films: Selon Matthieu (2000) and Le Petit lieutenant (2005) - the latter film won her her second Best Actress César. More recently Baye has played the lead character in a prestigious French TV drama series, Les Hommes de l'ombre (2012).

Filmography

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