Deauville Festival Of American Film

The Mélanie Thier­ry mystery

Whether in film, the­ater or tele­vi­sion, Mélanie Thier­ry has been dis­till­ing the sweet per­fume of mys­tery for over 20 years, that of an unclas­si­fi­able actress with a sharp craft and a career full of side-steps, feline leaps and entrechats, sur­pris­es and attempts, in France and the Unit­ed States.

She made her mark on the sil­ver screen in Giuseppe Tor­na­tore’s La Légende du pianiste sur l’océan in 1998, then on the stage, when Jacques Weber cast her in the impres­sive role of a young schiz­o­phrenic in Aman­da Sthers’ Le Vieux Juif blonde. Then in 2008, she played the female lead in Math­ieu Kasso­vitz’s block­buster Baby­lon A.D., before reunit­ing with Jérôme Salle in an ambi­tious com­mer­cial project, Largo Winch, adapt­ed from the epony­mous French-Bel­gian com­ic strip.

In 2010, she won the César for Best Emerg­ing Actress in Philippe Godeau’s Le Dernier pour la route, before star­ring in Bertrand Tav­ernier’s La Princesse de Mont­pen­si­er the fol­low­ing year.

André Téch­iné direct­ed her in Impar­donnables, Stéphane Cazes in Ombline and Stéphanie di Gius­to in La Danseuse.

Her career took off as far as the Unit­ed States, where she starred oppo­site Christoph Waltz in Ter­ry Gilliam’s Zero The­o­rem and Beni­cio del Toro in Fer­nan­do León de Ara­noa’s A Per­fect Day. In 2017, Albert Dupon­tel entrust­ed her with the role of the Péri­court maid in Au revoir là-haut, a huge pub­lic and crit­i­cal suc­cess, then Emmanuel Finkiel renewed his loy­al­ty to her after Je ne suis pas un salaud, with La Douleur in which she lends her fea­tures to Mar­guerite Duras with excep­tion­al grace, a per­for­mance that earned her a nom­i­na­tion for the César for Best Actress.

In 2020, Spike Lee offered her one of the lead roles in Da 5 Bloods. Mélanie Thier­ry also ven­tures into the realm of series with as much audac­i­ty as tal­ent: we dis­cov­er her plunged into Syr­i­an hell in No Man’s Land by Oded Ruskin, and excep­tion­al as a sur­geon in the midst of a trans­fer to her shrink in En thérapie by Éric Toledano & Olivi­er Nakache. Then came the time for musi­cal com­e­dy and fan­ta­sy in 2021, where she sang in Tralala by Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu.

She was a mem­ber of the Rev­e­la­tion jury at the 2007 Deauville Amer­i­can Film Fes­ti­val, and this time she will pre­side over this jury ded­i­cat­ed to discovery.

Mai­son Louis Roed­er­er, Offi­cial Part­ner of the Deauville Amer­i­can Film Fes­ti­val since 2016, has strength­ened its sup­port in 2018 by asso­ci­at­ing the Louis Roed­er­er Foun­da­tion, Grand Mécène de la Cul­ture, with the Prix de la Révéla­tion, which each year rewards an orig­i­nal work and its promis­ing author.

“In line with the pas­sion of our Foun­da­tion, we were delight­ed to join forces with the Prix Révéla­tion six years ago. In this way, we con­tribute to the pro­mo­tion of inde­pen­dent Amer­i­can cin­e­ma, while spot­light­ing young tal­ent who are the great direc­tors of tomor­row. For this new edi­tion, we’re delight­ed to be work­ing along­side Pres­i­dent Mélanie Thier­ry and the oth­er mem­bers of the Jury de la Révéla­tion 2023”.

Frédéric Rouza­ud, Pres­i­dent of the Louis Roed­er­er Foundation