Elsa Zylberstein
Encyclopedia
Elsa Zylberstein is a French film, TV, and stage actress. After studying drama, Zylberstein began her film career in 1989, and has appeared in about 50 films. She won the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for I've Loved You So Long
(2008).
father, Albert Zylberstein, and a Catholic mother. Her father is a physicist
. Zylberstein considered herself Jewish; she is "attracted to Buddhist
rites". She has practiced classical dance since her childhood. After a bac
A3, she began university and studied English, but she was strongly attracted to artistic pursuits. She was in the same class as Francis Huster
at the Cours Florent
.
. In 1992, she won the Michel Simon Prize and the first of her three nominations for the César Award for Most Promising Actress
. In 1993, she played a student in Beau fixe
, and won the Prix Romy Schneider
.
She inspired young directors such as Pascale Bailly, Diane Bertrand and especially Martine Dugowson, who offered her the lead role alongside Romane Bohringer
in Mina Tannenbaum
(1994). She then appeared in Farinelli, Mr N.
, and Jefferson in Paris
. She played Suzanne Valadon
in Lautrec, and then the mistress of the artist, Modigliani
, in Modigliani
. Zylberstein played a Yiddish singer who falls in love with a gay clarinetist in Man Is a Woman
, with Antoine de Caunes
. She also gained roles in Time Regained
, Combat d'amour en songe, and Ce jour-là.
In 2006 she played Mathilde, an Orthodox Jewish woman
faced with marriage problems in Little Jerusalem. She also appeared in J'invente rien, based on a novel by Christine Angot
. In 2008, she was in two films presented at the Berlin Festival
: I've Loved You So Long
, with Kristin Scott Thomas
, and La Fabrique des sentiments.
between 1997 and 2005. Later she dated Georges-Marc Benamou, advisor to French president Nicolas Sarkozy
, although she is a staunch supporter of the Socialist Party
.
I've Loved You So Long
I've Loved You So Long is a 2008 French-language drama film written and directed by Philippe Claudel. It tells the story of a woman struggling to interact with her family and find her place in society after spending fifteen years in prison.-Plot:...
(2008).
Early life
Zylberstein was born Elsa Florence Zylbersztejn in Paris to an Ashkenazi PolishPoles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
father, Albert Zylberstein, and a Catholic mother. Her father is a physicist
Physicist
A physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
. Zylberstein considered herself Jewish; she is "attracted to Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
rites". She has practiced classical dance since her childhood. After a bac
Baccalauréat
The baccalauréat , often known in France colloquially as le bac, is an academic qualification which French and international students take at the end of the lycée . It was introduced by Napoleon I in 1808. It is the main diploma required to pursue university studies...
A3, she began university and studied English, but she was strongly attracted to artistic pursuits. She was in the same class as Francis Huster
Francis Huster
Francis Huster is a French stage, film and television actor, film director and scriptwriter.-Biography:Francis Huster was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine. He studied acting at the Conservatoire of the 17th arrondissement of Paris, at the Cours Florent and at the Conservatoire national , where he had...
at the Cours Florent
Cours Florent
The Cours Florent is a private French Drama school created in 1965 by François Florent.The school is currently located on three nearby sites in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France: rue Archereau, rue Mathis and Avenue Jean-Jaurès, further along which is located the Conservatoire national...
.
Career
Elsa Zylberstein appeared for the first time on screen in 1989 in Baptême. She also appeared in Van Gogh directed by Maurice PialatMaurice Pialat
Maurice Pialat was a French film director, screenwriter and actor noted for the rigorous and unsentimental style of his films...
. In 1992, she won the Michel Simon Prize and the first of her three nominations for the César Award for Most Promising Actress
César Award for Most Promising Actress
The following is the list of winners of the César Award for Most Promising Actress . Since its inception in 1983, the award is given as part of the French film industry's annual César Awards....
. In 1993, she played a student in Beau fixe
Beau fixe
Beau fixe is a 1992 French film directed by Christian Vincent, who co-wrote screenplay with Philippe Alard. The film tells the story of four female pre-med students, who revise for their final exams at a rented coastal resort during two weeks in the summer vacation...
, and won the Prix Romy Schneider
Prix Romy Schneider
The Prix Romy Schneider is the most prestigious award for promising upcoming actresses in the French film industry.It was initiated in 1984 by the French journalists Marlène and Eugène Moineau and is named after the actress Romy Schneider...
.
She inspired young directors such as Pascale Bailly, Diane Bertrand and especially Martine Dugowson, who offered her the lead role alongside Romane Bohringer
Romane Bohringer
Romane Bohringer is a French actress, film director, screenwriter and costume designer. She is the daughter of Richard Bohringer and sister of Lou Bohringer. Her parents named her after Roman Polanski....
in Mina Tannenbaum
Mina Tannenbaum
Mina Tannenbaum is a 1994 French film written and directed by Martine Dugowson, her debut feature. It stars Romane Bohringer and Elsa Zylberstein....
(1994). She then appeared in Farinelli, Mr N.
Monsieur N.
Monsieur N. is a 2003 British-French movie directed by Antoine de Caunes. It tells the story of the last years of the life of Napoleon Bonaparte who was imprisoned by the British on St Helena. Napoleon retained a loyal entourage of officers who helped him plot his escape, and evaded the attentions...
, and Jefferson in Paris
Jefferson in Paris
Jefferson in Paris is a 1995 Franco-American historical drama film directed by James Ivory . The screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is a semi-fictional account of Thomas Jefferson's tenure as the Ambassador of the United States to France prior to his Presidency, and his alleged relationships with...
. She played Suzanne Valadon
Suzanne Valadon
Suzanne Valadon was a French painter born Marie-Clémentine Valadon at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts...
in Lautrec, and then the mistress of the artist, Modigliani
Amedeo Modigliani
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. Primarily a figurative artist, he became known for paintings and sculptures in a modern style characterized by mask-like faces and elongation of form...
, in Modigliani
Modigliani (film)
- Plot :Set in Paris in 1919, biopic centers on the life of late Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, focusing on his last days as well as his rivalry with Pablo Picasso. Modigliani, a Jew, has fallen in love with Jeanne, a young and beautiful Catholic girl. The couple has an illegitimate child, and...
. Zylberstein played a Yiddish singer who falls in love with a gay clarinetist in Man Is a Woman
Man Is a Woman
Man Is a Woman is a 1998 French film directed by Jean-Jacques Zilbermann.-Synopsis:...
, with Antoine de Caunes
Antoine de Caunes
Antoine de Caunes is a television presenter, actor, writer and film director. He is the son of two prominent French personalities, television journalist-reporter Georges de Caunes and television announcer Jacqueline Joubert...
. She also gained roles in Time Regained
Time Regained (film)
Time Regained is a 1999 French drama film directed by Raúl Ruiz. It is an adaptation of the final volume of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust...
, Combat d'amour en songe, and Ce jour-là.
In 2006 she played Mathilde, an Orthodox Jewish woman
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
faced with marriage problems in Little Jerusalem. She also appeared in J'invente rien, based on a novel by Christine Angot
Christine Angot
Christine Angot is a French writer, novelist and playwright.-Life:Born Pierrette, Marie-Clotilde Schwartz in Châteauroux, Indre, she is perhaps best known for her 1999 novel L'Inceste which recounts an incestuous relationship with her father.It is a subject which appears in several of her...
. In 2008, she was in two films presented at the Berlin Festival
Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
: I've Loved You So Long
I've Loved You So Long
I've Loved You So Long is a 2008 French-language drama film written and directed by Philippe Claudel. It tells the story of a woman struggling to interact with her family and find her place in society after spending fifteen years in prison.-Plot:...
, with Kristin Scott Thomas
Kristin Scott Thomas
Kristin A. Scott Thomas, OBE is an English actress who has also acquired French nationality. She gained international recognition in the 1990s for her roles in Bitter Moon, Four Weddings and a Funeral and The English Patient....
, and La Fabrique des sentiments.
Personal life
Zylberstein dated Antoine de CaunesAntoine de Caunes
Antoine de Caunes is a television presenter, actor, writer and film director. He is the son of two prominent French personalities, television journalist-reporter Georges de Caunes and television announcer Jacqueline Joubert...
between 1997 and 2005. Later she dated Georges-Marc Benamou, advisor to French president Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
, although she is a staunch supporter of the Socialist Party
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Plan de table | Catherine | |
| Les tribulations d'une caissière | Marie | ||
| JC comme Jésus-Christ | Elsa | ||
| Un baiser papillon | Marie | ||
| 2010 | Roses à crédit | La pharmacienne | tv movie |
| 2009 | La folle histoire d'amour de Simon Eskenazy | Rosalie | |
| Un rique à courir | episode of Myster Mocky présente | ||
| Vénus & Apollon | Angie | tv series 8 episodes | |
| La double inconstance La Double Inconstance La Double Inconstance is a three-act romantic comedy by French playwright Marivaux. Its title is usually translated into English as The Double Inconsistency. La Double Inconstance was first performed 6 April 1723 by the Comédie Italienne. In this play, a young woman is kidnapped from her lover by... |
Flaminia | tv movie | |
| 2008 | La maison Nucingen | Anne-Marie | |
| Nuit de chien | Maria de Souza | ||
| I've Loved You So Long I've Loved You So Long I've Loved You So Long is a 2008 French-language drama film written and directed by Philippe Claudel. It tells the story of a woman struggling to interact with her family and find her place in society after spending fifteen years in prison.-Plot:... |
Léa | ||
| La Fabrique des sentiments | Éloïse | ||
| 2007 | Enfances | La mère d'Ingmar Bergman | |
| 2006 | The Stone Council | Clarisse | |
| Une naissance | La mère | ||
| J'invente rien | Mathilde Mahut | ||
| 2005 | La cloche a sonné | Léa | |
| Little Jerusalem Little Jerusalem (film) Little Jerusalem is a 2005 French drama film directed by Karin Albou. Albou's film depicts how the conflict between the rational and the irrational drives the relationships within a Jewish family living in the outskirts of Paris.-Plot:... |
Mathilde | ||
| Journées froides qui menacent les plantes | |||
| 2004 | Why (Not) Brazil? | Laetitia Masson/Christine Angot | |
| Modigliani Modigliani (film) - Plot :Set in Paris in 1919, biopic centers on the life of late Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, focusing on his last days as well as his rivalry with Pablo Picasso. Modigliani, a Jew, has fallen in love with Jeanne, a young and beautiful Catholic girl. The couple has an illegitimate child, and... |
Jeanne Hébuterne Jeanne Hébuterne Jeanne Hébuterne was a French artist, best known as the frequent subject and common-law wife of the artist Amedeo Modigliani.- Early life :... |
||
| Loser Takes All! | Angèle | ||
| Tomorrow We Move | Michèle | ||
| 2003 | 3 Blind Mice | Nathalie Cross | |
| That Day That Day (film) That Day is a 2003 French comedy film directed by Raúl Ruiz. It was entered into the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Bernard Giraudeau - Pointpoirot* Elsa Zylberstein - Livia* Jean-Luc Bideau - Raufer* Jean-François Balmer - Treffle... |
Livia | ||
| Monsieur N. Monsieur N. Monsieur N. is a 2003 British-French movie directed by Antoine de Caunes. It tells the story of the last years of the life of Napoleon Bonaparte who was imprisoned by the British on St Helena. Napoleon retained a loyal entourage of officers who helped him plot his escape, and evaded the attentions... |
Albine de Montholon | ||
| 2002 | Ferocious | Zébulon, la conseillère en communication | |
| 2001 | Un ange | Léa Pastore | |
| Les fantômes de Louba | Louba | ||
| Not Afraid, Not Afraid | |||
| 2000 | Combat d'amour en songe | Lucrezia/Jessica/The sultan | |
| Return to Algiers | Pierre Nivel's wife | ||
| 1999 | Time Regained Time Regained (film) Time Regained is a 1999 French drama film directed by Raúl Ruiz. It is an adaptation of the final volume of In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust... |
Rachel | |
| Je veux tout | Eva | ||
| 1998 | Lautrec | Suzanne Valadon Suzanne Valadon Suzanne Valadon was a French painter born Marie-Clémentine Valadon at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, Haute-Vienne, France. In 1894, Valadon became the first woman painter admitted to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts... |
|
| Man Is a Woman Man Is a Woman Man Is a Woman is a 1998 French film directed by Jean-Jacques Zilbermann.-Synopsis:... |
Rosalie Baumann | ||
| 1997 | XXL | Arlette Stern | |
| Metroland Metroland (1997 film) Metroland is a 1997 British film starring Christian Bale and Emily Watson. It was directed by Philip Saville and written by Adrian Hodges, based on the 1980 novel by Julian Barnes... |
Annick | ||
| Tenue correcte exigée | Lucie | ||
| 1996 | Portraits chinois | Emma | |
| A Saturday on Earth A Saturday on Earth A Saturday on Earth is a 1996 French drama film directed by Diane Bertrand. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Elsa Zylberstein - Claire* Eric Caravaca - Martin* Johan Leysen - Franck... |
Claire | ||
| 1995 | Jefferson in Paris Jefferson in Paris Jefferson in Paris is a 1995 Franco-American historical drama film directed by James Ivory . The screenplay by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala is a semi-fictional account of Thomas Jefferson's tenure as the Ambassador of the United States to France prior to his Presidency, and his alleged relationships with... |
Adrienne de Lafayette | |
| 1994 | Farinelli Farinelli (film) Farinelli is a 1994 biographical film about the life and career of the Italian opera singer Farinelli, considered one of the greatest castrato singers of all time... |
Alexandra | |
| Mina Tannenbaum Mina Tannenbaum Mina Tannenbaum is a 1994 French film written and directed by Martine Dugowson, her debut feature. It stars Romane Bohringer and Elsa Zylberstein.... |
Ethel Bénégui | ||
| 1993 | La place d'un autre | Florence | |
| Comment font les gens | Yvette | ||
| De force avec d'autres | Do | ||
| 1992 | Beau fixe Beau fixe Beau fixe is a 1992 French film directed by Christian Vincent, who co-wrote screenplay with Philippe Alard. The film tells the story of four female pre-med students, who revise for their final exams at a rented coastal resort during two weeks in the summer vacation... |
Frédérique | |
| Lover | Clairvoyant | ||
| 1991 | La neige et le feu | ||
| Van Gogh | Cathy | ||
| Génial, mes parents divorcent! | La soeur de Thomas | ||
| Alisée | Alisée | ||
| 1989 | Baptême | Gabrielle |
Cesar
- 1992: Nomination – César Award for Most Promising ActressCésar Award for Most Promising ActressThe following is the list of winners of the César Award for Most Promising Actress . Since its inception in 1983, the award is given as part of the French film industry's annual César Awards....
for Van Gogh - 1993: Nomination – César Award for Most Promising Actress for Beau fixeBeau fixeBeau fixe is a 1992 French film directed by Christian Vincent, who co-wrote screenplay with Philippe Alard. The film tells the story of four female pre-med students, who revise for their final exams at a rented coastal resort during two weeks in the summer vacation...
- 1995: Nomination – César Award for Most Promising Actress for Mina TannenbaumMina TannenbaumMina Tannenbaum is a 1994 French film written and directed by Martine Dugowson, her debut feature. It stars Romane Bohringer and Elsa Zylberstein....
- 2009: Won – César Award for Best Supporting Actress for I've Loved You So LongI've Loved You So LongI've Loved You So Long is a 2008 French-language drama film written and directed by Philippe Claudel. It tells the story of a woman struggling to interact with her family and find her place in society after spending fifteen years in prison.-Plot:...