# Alessandra Martines

Alessandra Martines (born 19 September 1963) is an Italian French dancer and actress mainly working in the English-, French-, and Italian-speaking worlds. She started young in ballet on opera stages in Switzerland, France, the United States and then Italy before becoming a lead on television for RAI captured ballets and entertainment shows (the Italian national public broadcasting) in the eighties.
She is primarily known for portraying the main role in the cult Fantaghirò series, consisting of five films (1991–1996) still regularly re-run across Europe as of 2020, and for her work in auteur productions such as nine films by Claude Lelouch to whom she was married until 2009.
She was awarded numerous prizes including the Best Actress Telegatto for The Cave of the Golden Rose (1991), the Grolla d'oro for Edda [it] (2005), the Silver Hugo for Best Actress at the Chicago International Film Festival (1998) for Chance or Coincidence, the Diamanti al Cinema Award in Cannes (2007) or the 2009 European Golden Globe in Rome. In 2008, she was made Knight of the Ordre national du Mérite awarded by the President of the French Republic. She received the lifetime achievement Kineo Award at the 71st Venice International Film Festival in 2014.

## Early life

Second cousin of Carla Bruni and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, she moved to France with her family at the age of five. As a teenager, she enrolled at the Conservatoire de Paris where she studied solfeggio, history and theory of dance and classical music and dance.

## Career

Martines debuted at a young age as a dancer at the Zurich Opera House in 1972. After some time working in the United States, including the Chicago City Ballet, she moved to Rome where she worked at the Teatro dell'Opera. In 1985 she began her collaboration with RAI, with the lunchtime chat / quiz show Pronto, chi gioca?; she later gained great popularity with the Saturday Night shows Fantastico and Europa Europa, and then for her portrayal of Princess Fantaghirò in the Fantaghirò series.
In cinema, she is best known for her interpretations under the direction of her ex-husband, the French director Claude Lelouch, in several film including Les Misérables and And now... Ladies and Gentlemen. She also starred on stage, most notably in L'appartamento by Franca Valeri.

## Personal life

Martines has a daughter with Claude Lelouch to whom she was married between 1995 and 2009. In 2012, at the age of 49, she had a son with her partner Cyril Descours.

## Stage
### Dancer

| Year | Company | Director |
| 1972 | Ballett Zürich | Patricia Neary |
| 1975 | New York City Ballet | George Balanchine |
| – | Chicago Ballet | Maria Tallchief & Paul Mejia |
| – | Teatro dell'Opera di Roma (Fedra (Mayr) & Carmen) | Maïa Plissetskaïa |
| – | Opéra de Marseille | Roland Petit |
| | Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi | Roland Petit |

### Theatre

| Year | Play | Playwright | Director |
| 1987–1988 | Adriana Lecouvreur | An opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the 1849 play Adrienne Lecouvreur by Eugène Scribe and Ernest Legouvé. | Mauro Bolognini |
| 1988–1989 | The Apartment | Billy Wilder | Franca Valeri |
| 2016 | Lady Windermere's Fan | Oscar Wilde – Mrs. Erlynne | Jean-Luc Revol [fr] – Théâtre Tête d'or [fr] / France national tour: 3 September – 31 December 2016. |

## Filmography
### Cinema

| Year | Film | Role | Director |
| 1988 | Miss Arizona | Marta | Pál Sándor |
| 1989 | Sinbad of the Seven Seas | Alina | Enzo G. Castellari, Luigi Cozzi |
| 1989 | Saremo felici [it] | Jole | Gianfrancesco Lazotti |
| 1989 | Passi d'amore [it] | Elisa | Sergio Sollima |
| 1993 | Tout ça... pour ça! | Allessandra Barrucq | Claude Lelouch |
| 1995 | Les Misérables | Elise Ziman | Claude Lelouch |
| 1996 | Men, Women: A User's Manual | Doctor Nitez | Claude Lelouch |
| 1998 | Chance or Coincidence | Miriam Lini | Claude Lelouch |
| 1999 | One 4 All | Maxime | Claude Lelouch |
| 2001 | Day Off | Francesca Socoa | Pascal Thomas |
| 2001 | J'ai faim !!! | Anaïs Pommard | Florence Quentin |
| 2002 | Amnèsia | Virginie | Gabriele Salvatores |
| 2002 | And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen | Françoise | Claude Lelouch |
| 2004 | Le genre humain – 1ère partie: Les Parisiens | Herself | Claude Lelouch |
| 2005 | Le courage d'aimer | Alessandra | Claude Lelouch |
| 2007 | L'Heure Zéro | Marie-Adeline | Pascal Thomas |
| 2008 | Love Me No More | Marion Dange | Jean Becker |
| 2011 | Je m'appelle Bernadette [fr] | Louise Soubirous | Jean Sagols |
| 2017 | L'Araignée Rouge [fr] | Sonia Stern | Franck Florino |

### Television

| Year | Film | Role | Director |
| 1988 | Cinema che follia! [it] | | Antonello Falqui [it] |
| 1991 | Fantaghirò | Fantaghirò | Lamberto Bava |
| 1992 | Processo di famiglia | | Giovanni Fabbri |
| 1992 | Fantaghirò 2 | Fantaghirò | Lamberto Bava |
| 1993 | Fantaghirò 3 | Fantaghirò | Lamberto Bava |
| 1993 | Colpo di coda | Paola | José María Sánchez |
| 1994 | Fantaghirò 4 | Fantaghirò | Lamberto Bava |
| 1996 | Fantaghirò 5 | Fantaghirò | Lamberto Bava |
| 2003 | Quelques jours entre nous | Juliette | Virginie Sauveur [fr] |
| 2004 | Saint John Bosco: Mission to Love | Marchesa Barolo | Lodovico Gasparini [it] |
| 2005–2010 | Caterina e le sue figlie | Adele Parisi | Several |
| 2005 | I colori della vita [it] | Giulia | Stefano Reali |
| 2005 | Edda [it] | Edda Ciano | Giorgio Capitani |
| 2006 | L'onore e il rispetto | Francesca De Santis | Alessio Inturri, Luigi Parisi, Salvatore Samperi |
| 2008 | Il sangue e la rosa [it] | Ortensia Damiani | Luciano Odorisio, Luigi Parisi, Salvatore Samperi |
| 2009 | La reine et le cardinal | Anne of Austria | Marc Rivière |
| 2009 | L'onore e il rispetto | Francesca De Santis | Luigi Parisi, Salvatore Samperi |
| 2009 | Panique ! [fr] | Clémentine | Benoît d'Aubert [fr] |
| 2011 | Inspector Rex | Malice Bonomi | Marco Serafini |
| 2012 | Le Romancier Martin | | Jérôme Foulon [fr] |
| 2014 | Furore [it] | Luciana Belgrano | Alessio Inturri |
| 2016 | Il bello delle donne... alcuni anni dopo [it] | Françoise Leroux | Eros Puglielli [it] |

### Presenter or Jury member

| Year | Film | Role | Director |
| 2011 | Danse avec les stars (French version of Strictly Come Dancing) | Jury member for season 1 & season 2. | TF1 – several. |
| 2013–2014 | The Best : Le Meilleur Artiste [fr] | Jury member for season 1 & season 2. | TF1 – several. |