Singer Jane Birkin died on July 16, 2023. She had three daughters, including actress Charlotte Gainsbourg born of her romance with Serge Gainsbourg.
[Mis à jour le 17 juillet 2023 à 9h23] Singer and actress Jane Birkin died on Sunday July 16 at the age of 76. She had three daughters: Kate Barry, who died in 2013, Lou Doillon and actress Charlotte Gainsbourg. The latter had recently poured out on the sometimes complex relationship with his illustrious parents.
In December 2022, Charlotte Gainsbourg confided in her modest relationship with her mother Jane Birkin on the set of Seven to Eight: “In fact, we say to each other” I love you “at critical moments. She was very afraid when I had an accident in the brain, and suddenly, it is in these moments that there are declarations.
Charlotte Gainsbourg notably directed the documentary “Jane par Charlotte”, where she filmed her mother on a daily basis for three years. “We find it easy to make statements through a camera or a microphone. […] With my father, it was a microphone and with my mother, me in any case, it is with a camera. I wanted a special moment, which I had. There hasn’t been a lot of tenderness in the past, because that’s not our code. But today, I need it. So I claim it and I have less inhibition to witness it too.”
Biography of Charlotte Gainsbourg – Charlotte Gainsbourg is a French actress who has distinguished herself both in French cinema and internationally. She won the César for Best Female Hope in 1986 for L’Effrontée, that of Best Actress in a Supporting Role for La bûche and a Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2009 for her role in Antichrist. She is also illustrated in music, winner in 2018 of the Victoire de la musique for female performer of the year.
Charlotte Gainsbourg is the daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and actress and singer Jane Birkin. The singer notably dedicated the album Charlotte For Ever to her, the song Lemon Incest has also earned them a lot of controversy, recounting their filial love at the limits of incest. In May 2017, the actress returned to the relationship she had with her father, revealing in particular to the World magazine Le M having had a bad time filming alongside her, saying that he “made her go too far, do things that [la] bothered”. “It was difficult. I sulked on the covers of newspapers, I didn’t want to make any effort, it was my way of preserving myself. He didn’t understand that I didn’t like it when he was buying the newspapers to see if people were talking about him. We lived together during the filming. It was complicated, I love my dad more than anything, but I had such a hard time making a life for myself. He was constantly drunk, it’s hard to live for a child, she laments. In public, it was difficult. I turned into a cop on the set, I watched for deviations“.
Born on July 21, 1971, Charlotte quickly learned the piano and painting, two activities practiced by her parents. At barely 12, she made her debut in front of the camera lens in Words and Music by Elie Chouraqui, where she played the daughter of Catherine Deneuve’s character. It is at the same time that she launches into the song with Lemon Incest, performed in duet with her father, she with her soft, broken voice, he with his tone broken by the cigarette. Charlotte is 14 years old and the stage is already reaching out to her… The general public really discovers her in The Cheeky (1985) by Claude Miller. Her role as a rebellious, neurotic young girl even earned her a César for best hope. Three years later, Miller will offer him a new role as a fierce child in The Little Thief. The years that followed continued to be successful for him: Merci la vie, Contre la Vie, Amoureuse, Tiredness…
His career in French cinema
Film after film, Charlotte Gainsbourg makes us forget her parentage, and imposes her cracks, her slender physique and her talent as an actress. Between 1996 and 1999, she did not shoot any films, but, in a relationship with the actor Yvan Attal, she gave birth to a first child, Ben. With The log (1999), Charlotte Gainsbourg distinguished herself for the first time in a real comedy. She who had made a specialty of dramatic roles proves that she also knows how to make people laugh. On arrival, a César for best supporting role. Charlotte Gainsbourg’s career is picking up again. Yvan Attal offers him the main role of his first film, my wife is an actress, mise en abyme of their relationship, coupled with a sincere declaration of love. Two years later, she continued this half-professional, half-intimate experience in They got married and had many children. Charlotte Gainsbourg took advantage of this notoriety to shoot abroad (21 Grams), and shine in genres as different as the closed-door suspension (Lemming), fantastic fantasy (The Science of Sleep) and trashy romantic comedy (give me your hand).
Charlotte Gainsbourg at Lars von Trier
Today, public and professionals tear it off. She is one of the French actresses who best exports her talent internationally. In the United States alongside Heath Ledger in I’m Not There (2007), with Anthony Hopkins in City of Your Final Destination (2008), in Italy in the drama Golden Door (2007), within a multinational distribution in Confession of a child of the century (2012) or twice under the direction of Lars Von Trier in Antichrist (2009) and Melancholia (2011). She also found the latter in 2014 for a third collaboration with the controversial diptych Nymphomaniac. However, she does not turn her back on French cinema, also embarking on social comedy (Samba in 2014), the drama film with Ishmael’s Ghosts by Arnaud Desplechin in 2017, or even the biopic adapted from a literary work by interpreting the mother of Romain Gary in The promise of dawn (2017). Charlotte Gainsbourg also continues to play in front of the camera of her companion Yvan Attal, in They are everywhere in 2016 and my stupid dog in 2019.
Charlotte Gainsbourg has shared the life of actor and director Yvan Attal since 1991. They met on the set ofIn the eyes of the world, by Eric Rochant. Although they never married, the couple had three children: Ben, Alice and Jo. Charlotte Gainsbourg has also acted several times in films directed by her companion (My wife is an actress, They got married and had many children,…). However, the couple lives at a distance: since the death of Kate Berry, the sister of the actress, in 2013, Charlotte Gainsbourg felt the need to leave France. She now lives in New York, while Yvan Attal remained in France. The director and actor therefore made several round trips between Paris and New York.