Isabelle Adjani facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Isabelle Adjani
Isabelle Adjani at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival
Born	Isabelle Yasmine Adjani (1955-06-27) 27 June 1955 (age 69) Paris, France
Occupation	Actress singer
Years active	1970–present
Partner(s)	Bruno Nuytten (1976–1981) Daniel Day-Lewis (1989–1995)
Children	2

Isabelle Yasmine Adjani (born 27 June 1955) is a famous French actress and singer. She has roots from Algeria and Germany. Isabelle Adjani has won many important awards for her acting. These include five César Awards, which are like the French Oscars, and a Lumière Award. She was also nominated for two Academy Awards in the United States.

Adjani holds the record for winning the most César Awards for Best Actress. She won for her roles in Possession (1981), One Deadly Summer (1983), Camille Claudel (1988), La Reine Margot (1994), and La Journée de la jupe (2009). She was also nominated for other films like The Story of Adèle H. (1975) and Subway (1985). Some of her other well-known movies are Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) and The Driver (1978).

Isabelle Adjani became famous around the world for playing Adèle Hugo in The Story of Adele H.. She was only 20 years old when she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. This made her the youngest nominee in that category at the time. Later, she received a second Oscar nomination for playing Camille Claudel in Camille Claudel. This made her the first French actress with two Oscar nominations for movies not in English. She also won the Cannes Film Festival's Best Actress Award for Possession and Quartet (1981).

Early Life and First Steps in Acting

Isabelle Yasmina Adjani was born on 27 June 1955 in Paris, France. Her father, Mohammed Cherif Adjani, was an Algerian Kabyle from Constantine. Her mother, Emma Augusta "Gusti" Schweinberger, was a German Catholic from Bavaria.

Isabelle's parents met during World War II. Her mother moved to Paris with her father, even though she did not speak French. Isabelle grew up speaking both French and German. She lived in Gennevilliers, a suburb near Paris. Her father worked there in a garage.

Isabelle started acting in amateur theater when she was 12. This happened after she won a school poetry contest. She finished high school and later attended classes at the University of Vincennes. Isabelle had a younger brother named Éric, who was a photographer. He passed away in 2010.

Becoming a Film Star

Isabelle Adjani at the 35th César Awards in 2010.

Isabelle Adjani in 2012.

Isabelle Adjani's first movie was Le Petit Bougnat (1970) when she was 14. She became known as a classical actress at the Comédie-Française. This is a famous French theater company, which she joined in 1972. She was highly praised for her role as Agnès in Molière's play L'École des femmes. She soon left the theater to focus on her film career.

After some smaller roles, she had good success in the 1974 film La Gifle (The Slap). The famous director François Truffaut saw her in this film. He immediately chose her for her first big role in The Story of Adèle H. (1975). Truffaut had waited five years to find the perfect actress for this movie. Critics loved her performance. One American critic called her acting skills "amazing."

Isabelle was only 19 when she made The Story of Adèle H.. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. This made her the youngest Best Actress nominee at that time. She held this record for almost 30 years. She quickly received offers for roles in Hollywood films. She starred in Walter Hill's crime thriller The Driver in 1978.

In 1979, she played Lucy in the German director Werner Herzog's remake of Nosferatu. This movie was well-liked by critics and did well in Europe. One critic, Roger Ebert, said that Herzog choosing Adjani was a "masterstroke." He wrote that she seemed to exist "on an ethereal plane." The cast filmed both English and German versions at the same time.

In 1981, she won a double Cannes Film Festival's Best Actress award. This was for her roles in Quartet and the horror film Possession. The next year, she won her first César Award for Possession. In this film, she played a woman having a very difficult time.

In 1983, she won her second César for her role in the French hit movie One Deadly Summer. She also starred in Deadly Circuit. That same year, Adjani released a French pop album called Pull marine. It was written and produced by the famous musician Serge Gainsbourg. She also starred in a music video for the song Pull Marine, directed by Luc Besson.

Major Roles and Recent Work

In 1988, Isabelle Adjani helped produce and starred in a movie about the sculptor Camille Claudel. She won her third César and received her second Oscar nomination for this role. This made her the first French actress to get two Oscar nominations. The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

She received her fourth César for the 1994 film Queen Margot. This was a big historical movie directed by Patrice Chéreau. She won her fifth César for Skirt Day (2009). This is the most any actress has received. In this film, she plays a middle school teacher in a tough French neighborhood. She accidentally fires a gun she found on a student and takes her class hostage. The film was shown on French TV and then in movie theaters. It marked her return to cinema after eight years.

In 2010, she appeared in the comedy Mammuth. She played the ghost of Gérard Depardieu's first love. In the same year, she voiced Mother Gothel in the French version of the animated film Tangled. In 2011, she co-starred in De Force. She played commander Clara Damico, a police chief.

She became the first French actress to star in a Bollywood film. She played the mother of Preity Zinta in the 2013 romantic comedy Ishkq in Paris. She also joined the comedy The World Is Yours in 2018. She played the unusual character Dany.

In 2022, she played the movie star Sidonie von Grassenabb in the comedy drama Peter von Kant. This film was a tribute to another movie and opened the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival.

In 2023, Adjani released her second French pop album, Bande originale. She also joined the Netflix action film Wingwomen. Then, she appeared in the Netflix miniseries The Perfect Couple with Nicole Kidman.

Personal Life Highlights

In 1979, Isabelle Adjani had a son named Barnabé Saïd-Nuytten. His father is the cinematographer Bruno Nuytten. She later asked Nuytten to direct her film project Camille Claudel.

She had a relationship with Daniel Day-Lewis from 1989 to 1995. Their son, Gabriel-Kane Day-Lewis, was born in 1995. Adjani was later engaged to the composer Jean-Michel Jarre. They separated in 2004.

Isabelle Adjani has spoken out against negative feelings towards immigrants and Algerians in France. In 2018, she signed a letter asking for strong and quick action to stop climate change and the loss of different types of animals and plants.

Filmography

Film

Television Roles

Music Videos

As Lead Artist

As Featured Artist

As Guest Appearance

Discography

• 1983: Pull Marine by Serge Gainsbourg (Mercury/Universal)
• 1983: Journal by Alice James (Audiobook Éditions des Femmes)
• 1986: Princesse au petit pois / Léon dit (Mercury)
• 2003: Bon voyage (original film soundtrack Bon voyage by Jean-Paul Rappeneau)
• 2004: On ne sert à rien, by and with Pascal Obispo (album Sidaction, Ensemble contre le Sida, 10 ans ensemble)
• 2005: Je ne peux plus dire je t'aime, by and with Jacques Higelin (album Higelin Entre 2 Gares) (EMI)
• 2008: Wo wo wo wo, by and with Christophe (album Aimer ce que nous sommes)
• 2018 : Albert Camus et Maria Casarès, Correspondance (1944-1959) with Lambert Wilson (Audiobook Gallimard)
• 2018: D'accord, by and with Pascal Obispo, with Youssou N'Dour (album Obispo)
• 2019: Meet me by the Gates, by and with The Penelopes
• 2021: Revolution #49 (album Hey Clockface / La Face de pendule à coucou by Elvis Costello)
• 2021: Sous le soleil exactement (album Les Pianos de Gainsbourg by André Manoukian)
• 2021: Quelques mots, by and with Malik Djoudi (album Troie)
• 2022: The Last Goodbye, with The Penelopes
• 2022: Jeder tötet was er liebt (original film soundtrack Peter von Kant by François Ozon)
• 2023: Adjani, Bande Originale (Warner Music International)

Awards and Recognitions

Honors

Isabelle Adjani was made a Knight of the Legion of Honour on 14 July 2010. This is a very high French award for her contributions to the arts. She was also named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2014.

See also

In Spanish: Isabelle Adjani para niños

• Maghrebian community of Paris
• List of youngest Academy Award nominees for Best Actress
• List of actors with Academy Award nominations
• List of French Academy Award winners and nominees

• Legion of Honour
• Legion of Honour Museum
• List of Legion of Honour recipients by name (A)
• Ribbons of the French military and civil awards