Jérôme Bonnell

Biography: life and films

Jérôme Bonnell has directed just ten films since his first feature in 2002 but already he has established himself as one of France's most respected auteur filmmakers - and he is only barely into middle age. His remarkably astute slices of life impress not only with how perceptively they depict human relationships, but also with the sensitivity that lends them so much immediacy and warmth. Like Truffaut, Bonnell appears fascinated by the complexities and contradictions of relationships and has chosen to make this the essence of his cinema, which is fundamentally about the need that human beings have to relate to others and thereby discover their own true identity.

Born in Paris, France, on 14th December 1977, Jérôme Bonnell set his sights on a career in the film business early on in life. He studied cinema at the University of Paris VIII and began his directing career with a short film, Fidèle (1999), which marked the beginning of his long and fruitful collaboration with the actress Nathalie Boutefeu. After directing a few more shorts, Bonnell graduated to features with Le Chignon d'Olga (2002), which he made at the age of 23. Already in this charming first film, a tender comedy-drama about a family getting over a painful bereavement, the director reveals himself to a budding auteur of immense charm and sensitivity. This he followed with Les Yeux clairs (2005), a more unusual drama about a young woman (Nathalie Boutefeu) who is desperate to find someone she can relate to and ends up in a relationship with a man whose language she cannot speak. This film won the Prix Jean-Vigo in 2005 and established Bonnell's reputation as a young filmmaker to watch out for.

Jérôme Bonnell certainly didn't disappoint with his next film, J'attends quelqu'un (2007), an enchanting patchwork-quilt of a film depicting several disparate individuals all desperately hoping to find someone to release them from their pit of loneliness. With a cast comprising such talented performers as Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Emmanuelle Devos and Eric Caravaca, this third feature from Bonnell could hardly fail to please. With his next film, the director made an unexpected move onto much darker territory, with his first thriller, La Dame de trèfle (2010). Although gloomier than Bonnell's previous films, it is still just as perceptive in its portrayal of basic human needs and in some ways it oddly resembles Jean Cocteau's Les Enfants terribles, showing us the perfect world of a brother and sister (Malik Zidi and Florence Loiret-Caill) that is brutally torn asunder by two unwelcome interlopers (Darroussin and Marc Barbé).

In 2013, now having just reached middle-age, Bonnell was well-equipped to deal with the subject of mid-life crisis in his next film, Le Temps de l'aventure (2013), which depicts a fraught and delicate autumnal romance between a seemingly ill-matched couple, played to perfection by Emmanuelle Devos and Gabriel Byrne. There's a distinctly lighter - even flippant - feel to Bonnell's next film, À trois on y va (2015), a boisterous ménage-à-trois comedy with Anaïs Demoustier, Félix Moati and Sophie Verbeeck playing a young threesome keen to experiment with a three-way romance. Although the critics were not as kind to this film as they had been to the director's earlier work, it makes a pleasant excursion into farce and shows that, far from being complacent and sticking only to what he does best, Bonnell now has enough confidence in his abilities to try something different - and long may he continue to do so.

Filmography

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