Catherine Breillat - Biography

Catherine Breillat is a Paris based filmmaker and writer who became famous for her distinctively personal films on sexuality, gender trouble and sibling rivalry. Accused of being a "porno auteuriste", Breillat allowed for an unbiased view of sexuality and extended the language of mainstream movies. She is also a best-selling novelist and wrote her first novel, L'Homme Facile, at the age of 17. Breillat acted in Bernardo Bertolucci's Le dernier Tango à Paris (1972) and wrote the screenplay for Maurice Pialat's movie Police (1985) . Since her first own film Une vraie jeune fille (1976), which was released 23 years after its shooting, Breillat explored critically as well as in an innovative way the perceptions imposed on female sexuality, related family and coming of age issues.