Agnès Jaoui

Biography

Agnès Jaoui (French: [aɲɛs ʒawi]; born 19 October 1964) is a French actress, screenwriter, film director and singer.
Jaoui has won six César Awards, three Lumière Awards, and a Best Screenplay Award at the Cannes Film Festival. She has received numerous other awards and nominations, including a nomination for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Life and career

Jaoui was born in Antony, Hauts-de-Seine, and is of Tunisian Jewish descent. She is the daughter of Hubert Jaoui and Gyza Jaoui, who are both writers. They moved to Paris when she was 8 years old. She started theatre when she was in high school at the Lycée Henri-IV in Paris. She entered the Cours Florent when she was 15. Patrice Chéreau, director of the Théâtre des Amandiers in Nanterre where she began attending drama classes in 1984, gave her a role in the film Hôtel de France in 1987. That same year, she appeared in Harold Pinter's L'anniversaire with Jean-Pierre Bacri, who later became a faithful colleague and companion.
Jaoui and Bacri wrote the play Cuisine et dépendances, which Philippe Muyl adapted for the screen in 1992. In 1993, director Alain Resnais asked them to make an adaptation of Alan Ayckbourn's eight-part play Intimate Exchanges, which became the two-part film Smoking/No Smoking. This ironic diptych about free will and destiny won the César Award for Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation in 1994. In 1996, they gained greater success with Cédric Klapisch's adaptation of their play Family Resemblances (Un air de famille), which showed their ability to observe and depict everyday life, and to criticize the social norms through bitter and corrosive humor. Once again, they won the César Award for Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation in 1997, and the same year, they collaborated with Resnais again on Same Old Song (On connaît la chanson), which they wrote and performed. They won their third César Award for Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation, and Jaoui won her first César Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Jaoui directed her first feature film, The Taste of Others (Le Goût des autres, 2000, written with Bacri), which questions social-cultural identities. The film was a huge success in France and attracted 4 million spectators. It also won 4 César Awards in 2001 including Best Film and César Award for Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 2004, Jaoui's second film as a director, Look at Me (Comme une image), co-written with Bacri, was selected for the Cannes Festival and won the prize for Best Screenplay. She starred in the last Richard Dembo's film, La maison de Nina (2005) and then focused on music and released her album of Latin songs, Canta×Canta27 February 2006 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Sueño ideal4:042Lo dudo4:253Pa'ti4:354Historia de un amor2:585Fado do retorno4:216Tanguillo nuevo6:177Escucha4:138Yo no sé que me han hecho tus ojos3:129Samba em prelúdio4:0110Milonga del navegante4:0911Espérame en el cielo3:4712O meu amor4:08 (2006). She returned to cinema in 2008 with Let's Talk About the Rain (Parlez-moi de la pluie), with French humorist Jamel Debbouze in a different role from what he was used to.
In 2012, Jaoui directed Under the Rainbow (Au bout du conte), also co-written with Bacri. It revisits several fairy tales, such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Little Red Riding Hood. It received acclaim from critics and audiences for originality and humor in the writing and dialogue.

Music

Jaoui studied music in the conservatoire when she was 17, but did not start her career as a singer until 2006 when her first album Canta×Canta27 February 2006 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Sueño ideal4:042Lo dudo4:253Pa'ti4:354Historia de un amor2:585Fado do retorno4:216Tanguillo nuevo6:177Escucha4:138Yo no sé que me han hecho tus ojos3:129Samba em prelúdio4:0110Milonga del navegante4:0911Espérame en el cielo3:4712O meu amor4:08 was released. It mixed several Latin music genres (such as flamenco, bolero, and bossa) and she sang exclusively in Spanish and Portuguese. In 2007, it won the Victoire de la Musique award for "best traditional music album".
Jaoui's second album, Dans Mon Pays×Dans mon pays23 November 2009 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Cuando me faltas tú3:192Amor e distancia3:413Dikanga3:434Manantial3:155Amor fantasma3:366Sur le pont de l'Alma mía4:267A cantar é que te deixas levar3:318Dans mon pays3:459Nuestro secreto2:5210Olhos nos olhos4:3711Letras4:0612Todo cambia4:02, was released in 2009. It also featured Latin sonorities and songs sang in Spanish and Portuguese, except for two songs in French.
In November 2024, Jaoui directed a rare revival of Baldassare Galuppi's 1762 opera L'uomo femina at the Opéra de Dijon, which later transferred to the Opéra Royal du Château de Versailles.

Personal life

Jaoui is the daughter of Gyza Jaoui; a pioneering figure of transactional analysis, a form of psychotherapy initiated by Eric Berne. Jaoui has a brother, Laurent Jaoui, who is also a screenwriter and a director.
Jaoui was in a relationship with Jean-Pierre Bacri from 1987 to 2012. After their breakup, the two stayed on good terms and continued to work together.
Jaoui adopted two children from Brazil in 2012.
Jaoui is a member of the 50/50 collective, which aims to promote gender equality and diversity in cinema.
Several members of Jaoui's family, on her father's side, were murdered and kidnapped in the Hamas October 7 attacks.