Biography

Isabelle Adjani

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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 the most César Awards for Best Actress (five), which she won for Possession (1981), One Deadly Summer (1983), Camille Claudel (1988), Queen Margot (1994) and Skirt Day (2008). She was also given a double Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award in 1981 for Possession (1981) and Quartet (1981). She also received two Academy Award nominations for Best Actress for The Story of Adele H (1975) and Camille Claudel (1988). 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

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.
She is the only actress in the history of French cinema to win five César awards (breaking her own record of four). She has won for Possession (1981), One Deadly Summer (1983), Camille Claudel (1988), Queen Margot (1994), and Skirt Day (2008).
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.