Bertrand Bonello was born in Nice in 1968. He began a career in music, participating in numerous artist’s albums, then turned to cinema and directing. In 1996, he directed Who I am – based on Pier Paolo Pasolini [Qui je suis – d’après Pier Paolo Pasolini] a documentary short adapted from Pasolini’s autobiographical prose poem. His first feature film, Something Organic [Quelque chose d’organique] was presented at the 1998 Berlin Film Festival. His next feature film, The Pornographer [Le Pornographe] (2001), with Jean-Pierre Léaud, was presented at the Cannes Festival’s International Critics’ Week and was awarded the FIPRESCI prize. In 2003, Tiresia was selected for the Cannes Film Festival’s official Competition. Then he directed On War [De la guerre], shown at the Directors’ fortnight in 2008. Three years later, his feature film House of Tolerance [L’Apollonide – Souvenirs de la maison close] made Cannes’ official selection; praised by the critics, it received eight nominations for the French César awards. In 2014, he directed Saint Laurent, which also was selected in official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie represented France at the academy awards and received ten César nominations. The same year, he exhibited at the Pompidou Center, which dedicated a film retrospective to his work, and released a music album: Accidents. In addition, he took on the leading role in Antoine Barraud’s Portrait of the Artist [Le Dos rouge]. At the same time, he went on directing musical and short films: Cindy, The Doll is Mine (2005) with Asia Argento, which made Cannes’ official selection, My New Picture (2007), Where The Boys Are (2010), Ingrid Caven: Music and Voice [Ingrid Caven, Musique et voix] (2012) presented at Locarno, and Sarah Winchester, Ghost Opera [Sarah Winchester, Opéra Fantôme] (2016) for the 3rd Stage, the Paris Opera’s digital platform. In 2016, he released Nocturama, his seventh feature film.
Brussels International Film Festival
