# Christophe Honoré

Christophe Honoré (born 10 April 1970) is a French writer and film and theatre director.

## Career

Honoré was born in Carhaix, Finistère. After moving to Paris in 1995, he wrote articles in Les Cahiers du Cinéma. He started writing soon after. His 1996 book Tout contre Léo (Close to Leo) talks about HIV and is aimed at young adults; he made it into a film in 2002. He wrote other books for young adults throughout the late 1990s. His first play, Les Débutantes, was performed at Avignon's Off Festival in 1998. In 2005, he returned to Avignon to present Dionysos impuissant in the "In" Festival, with Joana Preiss and Louis Garrel playing the leads.
A well-known director, he is considered an "auteur" in French cinema. His 2006 film Dans Paris has led him to be considered by French critics as the heir to the Nouvelle Vague cinema. In 2007, Les Chansons d'amour was one of the films selected to be in competition at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. Honoré is openly gay, and some of his movies or screenplays (among them Les Filles ne savent pas nager, Dix-sept fois Cécile Cassard and Les Chansons d'amour) deal with gay or lesbian relations. His film Plaire, aimer et courir vite (Sorry Angel), about a writer who has contracted HIV in the 1990s, won the Louis Delluc Prize for Best Film in 2018. Honoré has been the screenwriter for some of Gaël Morel's films. The actors Louis Garrel and Chiara Mastroianni have each had roles in several of his films.
Honoré has also directed several operas for the stage. For the Opéra de Lyon he directed Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites in 2013, Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande in 2015, and Verdi's Don Carlos in 2018. He also presented his production of Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the Edinburgh Festival in 2016, and Puccini's Tosca at Aix-en-Provence in 2019; both of these productions adopted a radical approach to traditional works.
In the summer of 2020 Honoré's rehearsals of his stage production of Le Côté de Guermantes, based on the third volume of Proust's In Search of Lost Time, were interrupted by restrictions to combat the COVID-19 epidemic and it became impossible to present it at the Comédie-Française as planned. With his troupe of actors he decided to make a film about the production and the uncertainties they were now facing, and the film Guermantes was released in September 2021.

## Filmography

| Year | English title | Original Title | Credited as | Credited as | Notes |
| Year | English title | Original Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
| 2000 | Girls Can't Swim | Les filles ne savent pas nager | | Yes | Directed by Anne-Sophie Birot |
| 2001 | Nous deux | Nous deux | Yes | Yes | Short film |
| 2002 | Seventeen Times Cecile Cassard | 17 fois Cécile Cassard | Yes | Yes | Nominated—Cannes Film Festival - Prix Un certain regard |
| 2002 | Close to Leo | Tout contre Léo | Yes | Yes | Telefilm |
| 2002 | Novo | Novo | | Yes | Directed by Jean-Pierre Limosin |
| 2004 | Ma Mère | Ma Mère | Yes | Yes | |
| 2004 | 3 Dancing Slaves | Le Clan | | Yes | Directed by Gaël Morel. |
| 2006 | Dans Paris | Dans Paris | Yes | Yes | |
| 2007 | Love Songs | Les Chansons d'amour | Yes | Yes | Cabourg Film Festival - Best Director Nominated—Cannes Film Festival - Palme d'Or |
| 2007 | After Him | Après lui | | Yes | Directed by Gaël Morel. |
| 2008 | Hôtel Kuntz | Hôtel Kuntz | Yes | Yes | Short film |
| 2008 | Sunny Spells | Le Bruit des gens autour | | Yes | Directed by Diastème. |
| 2008 | The Beautiful Person | La Belle Personne | Yes | Yes | Telefilm. Nominated—César Award for Best Adaptation |
| 2009 | Making Plans for Lena | Non ma fille tu n'iras pas danser | Yes | Yes | |
| 2010 | Man at Bath | Homme au bain | Yes | Yes | Nominated—Locarno International Film Festival - Golden Leopard |
| 2011 | Beloved | Les Bien-aimés | Yes | Yes | |
| 2011 | Let My People Go! | Let My People Go! | | Yes | Directed by Mikael Buch. |
| 2014 | Métamorphoses | Métamorphoses | Yes | Yes | Nominated—Venice Film Festival - Venice Days Award |
| 2015 | Two Friends | Les Deux Amis | | Yes | Directed by Louis Garrel. |
| 2016 | Sophie's Misfortunes | Les Malheurs de Sophie | Yes | Yes | |
| 2018 | Sorry Angel | Plaire, aimer et courir vite | Yes | Yes | Nominated—Cannes Film Festival - Palme d'Or |
| 2019 | On a Magical Night | Chambre 212 | Yes | Yes | Nominated—Cannes Film Festival - Prix Un certain regard |
| 2021 | Guermantes | Guermantes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2022 | Winter Boy | Le Lycéen | Yes | Yes | |
| 2024 | Marcello Mio | Marcello Mio | Yes | Yes | Nominated—Cannes Film Festival - Palme d'Or |

## Novels

* 1995 : Tout contre Léo (jeunesse), turned into a film in 2002
* 1996 : C'est plus fort que moi (jeunesse)
* 1997 : Je joue très bien tout seul (jeunesse)
* 1997 : L'Affaire petit Marcel (jeunesse)
* 1997 : L’Infamille (Éditions de l'Olivier, ISBN 2-87929-143-7)
* 1998 : Zéro de lecture (jeunesse)
* 1998 : Une toute petite histoire d'amour (jeunesse)
* 1998 : Je ne suis pas une fille à papa (jeunesse)
* 1999 : Les Nuits où personne ne dort (jeunesse)
* 1999 : Mon cœur bouleversé (jeunesse)
* 1999 : Bretonneries (jeunesse)
* 1999 : La Douceur (Éditions de L'Olivier, ISBN 2-87929-236-0)

## Theatre and opera
### Actor

* 1998: Les Débutantes
* 2001: Le Pire du troupeau
* 2004: Beautiful Guys
* 2005: Dionysos impuissant
* 2012: La Faculté
* 2012: Un jeune se tue
* 2012: Nouveau Roman
* 2015: Violentes femmes

### Director

* 2009 : Angelo, Tyrant of Padua by Victor Hugo, Festival d'Avignon
* 2012 : Nouveau Roman, Festival d'Avignon, Théâtre national de la Colline
* 2013 : Dialogues of the Carmelites by Francis Poulenc, Opéra National de Lyon
* 2015 : Fin de l'Histoire by Witold Gombrowicz, Théâtre de Lorient
* 2015 : Pelléas et Mélisande by Claude Debussy, Opéra National de Lyon
* 2016 : Così fan tutte by Mozart, Aix-en-Provence Festival and Edinburgh International Festival
* 2018 : Don Carlos by Verdi, Opéra National de Lyon
* 2019 : Les Idoles by Christophe Honoré, Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe
* 2019 : Tosca by Puccini, Aix-en-Provence Festival