- Born
- Birth nameIsabelle Yasmine Adjani
- Height5′ 5″ (1.65 m)
- Isabelle Yasmine Adjani was born in Gennevilliers, Hauts-de-Seine, a suburb of Paris, to Emma Augusta "Gusti" (Schweinberger) and Mohammed Adjani. Her father was a Kabyle Algerian, from Iferhounène, and her mother was a Bavarian German. She grew up speaking German fluently. After winning a school recitation contest, she began acting in amateur theater by the age of 12. At the age of 14, she starred in her first motion picture, Le Petit Bougnat (1970). Adjani has appeared in 30 films since 1970. She holds the record for most César Award for Best Actress (five), which she won for Possession (1981), One Deadly Summer (1983) (aka One Deadly Summer), Camille Claudel (1988), Queen Margot (1994) (aka Queen Margot) and Skirt Day (2008) (aka Skirt Day). She was also given a double Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award in 1981. She also received two Academy Award nominations for Best Actress. She performs in French, English, Italian, and German. Adjani was made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur in 2010.- IMDb mini biography by: yasmine
- Isabelle Adjani is a French film actress and singer. She is one of the most acclaimed French actresses of all time and is the only actress or actor in history to win five César Awards. She is best known for The Story of Adèle H. (1975), The Driver (1978), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Possession (1981), Camille Claudel (1988) and Queen Margot (1994).
Adjani first son was in 1979 with the cinematographer Bruno Nuytten, and in 1995 she had another son with Daniel Day-Lewis.
For The Story of Adèle H. (1975), Adjani was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress, making her the youngest woman nominated for best actress in a leading role at the time.
In 1988, she co-produced and starred in a biopic of the sculptor Camille Claudel. She received her second Oscar nomination for her role in the film, becoming the first French actress to receive two Oscar nominations. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Her film debut was Le Petit Bougnat (1970).
She also speaks German fluently.- IMDb mini biography by: Pedro Borges - Not yet 14 years old when she shot her first film, Le Petit Bougnat (1970), it was at the Comédie-Française that Adjani rose to fame: entering it at the age of 17, she became the youngest boarder to have ever been hired. Shortly after, Adjani departs to concentrate on her filming career.
She performed in 1974 in La Gifle, which caught the attention of director François Truffaut. He immediately cast her in L'Histoire d'Adèle H. (1975) and offered her her first major role. Adjani, who was only 19 at the time of filming, was nominated for the Oscar for Best Actress, which made her, at the time, the youngest nominee in history. She was awarded the Palme for Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her roles in James Ivory's Quartet, based on the novel by Jean Rhys, and in Possession, by Zulawski.
A year later, she won her first César, again for Possession. Her second César, in 1983, was awarded to her for her performance in Jean Becker's The Murderous Summer. Also in 1983, she co-wrote and performed with Serge Gainsbourg the album Pull Marine, which has sold over a million copies.
In 1988 she co-produced and was the lead actress in Camille Claudel, a film based on a biography of sculptor Camille Claudel, which earned her her third Caesar and her second nomination at the Oscars. Directed by Bruno Nuytten, Camille Claudel was also nominated for the Oscars in the category of Best Foreign Film.
Isabelle Adjani's fourth Cesar is awarded to her for La Reine Margot, a historical drama by Patrice Chéreau (1994), and her fifth for The Day of the Skirt (2009) by Jean-Paul Lilienfeld- IMDb mini biography by: Amazon Studios X-Ray team
- Children
- ParentsEmma Augusta SchweinbergerMohammed Adjani
- RelativesEric Adjani(Sibling)Zoé Adjani(Niece or Nephew)
- Often plays women who have mental problems
- Often plays tragic heroines
- Lived with Daniel Day-Lewis from 1989 to 1994, and gave birth to their son Gabriel-Kane Day Lewis on 9 April 1995.
- Recorded a million-selling album with the hit single "Pull Marine" written by Serge Gainsbourg. The video was shot by Luc Besson.
- Fluent in English and German. German was her first language, but then she forced herself to learn French.
- Very close friends with Sharon Stone.
- Has two children: Barnabé Nuytten, born in 1979 and fathered by Bruno Nuytten, and Gabriel-Kane Day Lewis, born in 1995, fathered by Daniel Day-Lewis.
- It's rare to find a director who really likes and knows how to look at a woman through the camera.
- [in 1977] This is all very funny. Today I am a star - and tomorrow?
- The Method is Judeo-Christian: if you go through pain, you can't miss. Rubbish. I'm more interested in the box itself than what's in it. How vs. why.
- I like films that rest in the memory so I try and choose parts which have some kind of social or emotional force. For me, being an actress is not just a profession but a profession of faith.
- [on the differences between American and French films] For me, there is no difference, for in both cases I remain myself. But as American budgets are more important, everything is in proportion and much more hierarchical, with a star system that, basically, exists only there, and that brings along constraints and a discipline unknown on European sets. In Europe, there are, even for a star, limits that can't be exceeded, or one risks being rejected by the crew. In America, the crew is really a proletariat in service of the star system, a system that functions like a true dictatorship and that no one, by the way, seems to challenge. No one says no, no one says stop. It's very strange.
- Skirt Day (2009) - 150,000 euros
- Toxic Affair (1993) - FRF 10,000,000
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