# Marie-France Pisier

Marie-France Pisier (10 May 1944 – 24 April 2011) was a French actress, screenwriter, and director. She appeared in numerous films of the French New Wave, and twice earned the national César Award for Best Supporting Actress.

## Early life

Pisier was born on 10 May 1944 in Dalat (now Vietnam), where her father was serving as a colonial official in French Indochina. Her younger brother, Gilles Pisier, is a mathematician and a member of the French Academy of Sciences. Her sister, political scientist Evelyn, was the first wife of Bernard Kouchner, a French politician and the co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières. The family moved to Paris when Marie-France was 12 years old.

## Career

Five years later, Pisier made her screen acting debut for director François Truffaut in his 1962 film Antoine and Colette. She had a brief, but incendiary, romance with the older, married Truffaut. Despite its end, she later appeared in Truffaut's Stolen Kisses (Baisers volés, 1968) and Love on the Run (L'Amour en fuite, 1979), the fifth and final film in Truffaut's series about the character Antoine Doinel. Pisier was credited as a co-writer of the screenplay. In a review in The New York Times, film critic Vincent Canby praised her "ravishing performance".
Pisier later collaborated on the screenplay to Jacques Rivette's Celine and Julie Go Boating (Céline et Julie vont en bateau, 1974); she also played a significant supporting role in the film. Later in the same year, she had a role in Luis Buñuel's Phantom of Liberty.
Pisier gained widespread public recognition in 1975 when she appeared in Jean-Charles Tacchella's popular comedy Cousin Cousine. Her role as the volatile Karine earned her a César Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her subsequent feature films included three with director André Téchiné: French Provincial (Souvenirs en France, 1975); The Bronte Sisters (Les sœurs Brontë, 1979), in which she portrayed Charlotte; and Barocco (1976), for which she won a second César for her performance alongside Isabelle Adjani and Gérard Depardieu.
Pisier attempted to crack the American film industry with The Other Side of Midnight (1977), adapted from a Sidney Sheldon novel. She appeared on American television in the miniseries The French Atlantic Affair (1979), and Scruples the next year. She made two more Hollywood films, French Postcards (1979) with Debra Winger and Chanel Solitaire (1981) with Timothy Dalton.
Returning to France, Pisier made her directorial debut with The Governor's Party (Le bal du gouverneur, 1990), which she adapted from her own novel. She also played Madame Verdurin in Raúl Ruiz's adaptation of Marcel Proust, Time Regained (Le temps retrouvé, 1999). Her final film as director was with Bérénice Bejo (winner of the César Award for Best Actress in The Artist) in Like An Airplane (Comme un avion, 2002).

## Personal life

Pisier's first marriage to Georges Kiejman ended in divorce. She resided in Saint-Cyr-sur-Mer, Var, and was married to Thierry Funck-Brentano. The couple had a son, Mathieu, and a daughter, Iris.
In 1971, Pisier signed the Manifesto of the 343, publicly declaring she had an illegal abortion.

## Death

Pisier died on 24 April 2011, aged 66. She was found dead in her swimming pool by Funck-Brentano and is believed to have drowned. She was survived by her sister Évelyne, brother Gilles, and both children. The local mayor announced her death to the news media and President Nicolas Sarkozy made a public statement honouring "her supreme elegance born of the most perfect simplicity".

## Filmography
### Actress

| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
| 1961 | Qui ose nous accuser? | | Serge Komor | |
| 1962 | Antoine and Colette | Colette | François Truffaut | From Love at Twenty |
| 1962 | The Devil and the Ten Commandments | | Julien Duvivier | |
| 1963 | Les Saintes-Nitouches | Angelica | Pierre Montazel | |
| 1964 | Les Yeux cernés | Klara | Robert Hossein | |
| 1964 | La mort d'un tueur | Maria / Claudia | Robert Hossein | |
| 1964 | Les amoureux du France | Sylvia | Pierre Grimblat & François Reichenbach | |
| 1965 | The Vampire of Düsseldorf | Anna | Robert Hossein | |
| 1966 | Maigret a Pigalle | | Mario Landi | |
| 1966 | Trans-Europ-Express | Eva | Alain Robbe-Grillet | |
| 1967 | Non sta bene rubare il tesoro | Flo | Mario di Nardo | |
| 1968 | Stolen Kisses | Colette Tazzi | François Truffaut | |
| 1968 | L'écume des jours | Alise | Charles Belmont | |
| 1969 | Paulina Is Leaving | Isabelle | André Téchiné | |
| 1969 | Nous n'irons plus au bois | Lise | Georges Dumoulin | |
| 1972 | Le journal d'un suicidé | The young anarchist | Stanislav Stanojevic | |
| 1972 | La mort d'un champion | Jane Herbin | Abder Isker | TV movie |
| 1972 | Pot-Bouille | Berthe Josserand | Yves-André Hubert | TV Mini-Series |
| 1972-1973 | Les gens de Mogador | Ludivine Peyrissac Vernet | Robert Mazoyer | TV series (13 episodes) |
| 1973 | Féminin-féminin | Françoise | Henri Calef & João Correa | |
| 1973 | Juliette? | | Philippe Pilard | Short |
| 1973 | Témoignages | | Paul Siegrist | TV series (1 episode) |
| 1973 | Les aventures du capitaine Luckner | Kim | François Villiers | TV series (1 episode) |
| 1974 | The Phantom of Liberty | Mrs. Calmette | Luis Buñuel | |
| 1974 | Céline and Julie Go Boating | Sophie | Jacques Rivette | Also co-writer |
| 1975 | Cousin Cousine | Karine | Jean-Charles Tacchella | César Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated - New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 1975 | French Provincial | Régina Pedret | André Téchiné | |
| 1976 | Barocco | Nelly | André Téchiné | César Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| 1976 | Surreal Estate | Agathe | Eduardo de Gregorio | |
| 1976 | Body of My Enemy | Gilberte Liégard | Henri Verneuil | |
| 1977 | Les apprentis sorciers | Madame Umlaut | Edgardo Cozarinsky | |
| 1977 | The Other Side of Midnight | Noelle Page | Charles Jarrott | |
| 1978 | Le temps d'une République | Louise Fontas | Michel Mitrani | TV series (1 episode) |
| 1979 | Love on the Run | Colette Tazzi | François Truffaut | Also co-writer |
| 1979 | French Postcards | Madame Catherine Tessier | Willard Huyck | |
| 1979 | The Brontë Sisters | Charlotte Brontë | André Téchiné | |
| 1979 | The French Atlantic Affair | Lisa | Douglas Heyes | TV Mini-Series |
| 1980 | The Lady Banker | Colette Lecoudray | Francis Girod | |
| 1980 | Scruples | Valentine O'Neill | Alan J. Levi | TV Mini-Series |
| 1981 | The Hot Touch | Dr. Simpson | Roger Vadim | Nominated - Genie Award for Best Performance by a Foreign Actress |
| 1981 | Chanel Solitaire | Coco Chanel | George Kaczender | |
| 1981 | 44 ou les récits de la nuit | | Moumen Smihi | |
| 1982 | Ace of Aces | Gaby Delcourt | Gérard Oury | |
| 1982 | The Magic Mountain | Claudia Chauchat | Hans W. Geißendörfer | |
| 1982 | Boulevard des assassins | Hélène Mariani | Boramy Tioulong | |
| 1983 | L'ami de Vincent | Milena | Pierre Granier-Deferre | |
| 1983 | Le prix du danger | Laurence Ballard | Yves Boisset | |
| 1983 | Der Stille Ozean | Florence | Xaver Schwarzenberger | TV movie |
| 1983 | Le crime de Pierre Lacaze | Colette Ribert | Jean Delannoy | TV movie |
| 1985 | Parking | Claude Perséphone | Jacques Demy | |
| 1985 | Miss Right | BeBe | Paul Williams | |
| 1985 | Les Nanas | Christine | Annick Lanoë | |
| 1986 | L'inconnue de Vienne | Florence | Bernard Stora | TV movie |
| 1986-1987 | Le Tiroir secret | Nathalie Duthilleul | Michel Boisrond, Édouard Molinaro, ... | TV Mini-Series |
| 1988 | The Abyss | Martha | André Delvaux | |
| 1989 | Olympe de nos amours | Olympe | Serge Moati | TV movie |
| 1991 | La note bleue | George Sand | Andrzej Żuławski | |
| 1992 | Une maman dans la ville | Sabine | Miguel Courtois | TV movie |
| 1994 | Seven Sundays | Marion | Jean-Charles Tacchella | |
| 1994 | Pourquoi maman est dans mon lit? | Véronique | Patrick Malakian | |
| 1994 | Printemps de feu | Caroline Clairval | Claude Boissol | TV movie |
| 1994 | La couleur du mensonge | Alice | Hugues de Laugardière | TV movie |
| 1995 | La fidèle infidèle | Claire | Jean-Louis Benoît | TV movie |
| 1996 | Notre homme | Violaine | Élisabeth Rappeneau | TV movie |
| 1997 | Marion | Audrey | Manuel Poirier | |
| 1997 | La vérité est un vilain défaut | Monique | Jean-Paul Salomé | TV movie |
| 1998 | The Ice Rink | Producer | Jean-Philippe Toussaint | |
| 1998 | Les marmottes | Marie-Claire | Jean-Denis Robert & Daniel Vigne | TV Mini-Series |
| 1999 | Why Not Me? | Irene | Stéphane Giusti | |
| 1999 | Time Regained | Madame Verdurin | Raúl Ruiz | |
| 1999 | Les boeuf-carottes | Judge Roesh | Claude-Michel Rome | TV series (1 episode) |
| 2000 | Love Torn in a Dream | Mother | Raúl Ruiz | |
| 2000 | Sur un air d'autoroute | Dr. Rouget | Thierry Boscheron | |
| 2000 | Un jeune Français | Léna | Michel Sibra | TV movie |
| 2001 | Inch'Allah Dimanche | Madame Manant | Yamina Benguigui | |
| 2002 | Comme un avion | Claire Forestier | Marie-France Pisier | |
| 2004 | Ordo | Louise's mother | Laurence Ferreira Barbosa | |
| 2005 | Vénus & Apollon | Madame Pommerand | Pascal Lahmani | TV series (3 episodes) |
| 2006 | Paid | Gislaine | Laurence Lamers | |
| 2006 | Dans Paris | The mother | Christophe Honoré | |
| 2006 | Pardonnez-moi | Lola | Maïwenn | |
| 2006 | Un ami parfait | The widow | Francis Girod | |
| 2006 | Les enfants, j'adore! | Jacqueline | Didier Albert | TV movie |
| 2007 | Dombais et fils | Cléopâtre | Laurent Jaoui | TV movie |
| 2008 | Miroir, mon beau miroir | Marie-Line | Serge Meynard | TV movie |
| 2008 | Clara Sheller | Iris | Alain Berliner | TV series (1 episode) |
| 2009 | Paradis criminel | Anne Lermercier | Serge Meynard | TV movie |
| 2009 | Revivre | Léa Goldenberg | Haim Bouzaglo | TV Mini-Series |
| 2010 | Bacon on the Side | Nicole Lacroix | Anne Depétrini | |
| 2010 | Le chasseur | Natacha Delaunay | Nicolas Cuche | TV Mini-Series |

### Filmmaker

| Year | Title | Notes |
| 1974 | Celine and Julie Go Boating | As a writer |
| 1979 | Love on the Run | As a writer |
| 1990 | Le bal du gouverneur | As a director & writer |
| 2002 | Comme un avion | As a director & writer |

## Theater

| Year | Title | Author | Director |
| 1993 | Ce qui arrive et ce qu'on attend | Jean-Marie Besset | Patrice Kerbrat |
| 1995 | Le Pain dur & Le Père humilié | Paul Claudel | Marcel Maréchal |
| 2002 | Liaison transatlantique | Fabrice Rozié | Sandrine Dumas |
| 2005 | Chère Maître | Peter Eyre | Sandrine Dumas |
| 2005 | Liaison transatlantique | Fabrice Rozié | Sandrine Dumas |
| 2006 | N'écoutez pas, mesdames ! | Sacha Guitry | Patrice Kerbrat |
| 2007-2009 | Le Nouveau Testament | Sacha Guitry | Daniel Benoin |
| 2009 | Other People's Money | Jerry Sterner | Daniel Benoin |
| 2009-2010 | In Search of Lost Time | Marcel Proust | Marie-France Pisier |

## Author

| Year | Book | Publisher |
| 1984 | Le Bal du gouverneur | Éditions Grasset |
| 1986 | Je n'ai aimé que vous | Éditions Grasset |
| 1992 | La Belle Imposture | Éditions Grasset |
| 1997 | Le Deuil du printemps | Éditions Grasset |