Dominique Cabrera
Encyclopedia
Dominique Cabrera is a French
film director
. She has taught filmmaking at La Fémis
and at Harvard University
. Her film Nadia et les hippopotames
was screened in the Un Certain Regard
section at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival
. Additionally, her work has screened in Berlin Film Festival, the Toronto Film Festival, the Vienna International Film Festival, the Locarno Film Festival
, the Rotterdam Film Festival, and in the New York Film Festival
, among others.
Between 1982 and 1993, Cabrera directed five short films, documentaries, and works of fiction. Two films in the 1990s, Chronique d'une banlieue ordinaire and Une poste à la Courneuve, brought Cabrera early recognition.
After reading one of her scripts at a screenwriting competition in 1990, producer Didier Haudepin
recognized Cabrera as an emerging talent. His support led to the production of her first feature film, L'autre côté de la mer, six years later.
origins inform her interest in issues of assimilation and in the history between France and the Maghreb
. Recurring dreams of utopia, doubt, and discouragement also unite her work.
Cabrera's first feature-length work of fiction, L'autre côté de la mer, addresses questions of assimilation in contemporary French society. A wealthy French pied-noir travels to Paris for a cataract
operation. The doctor who performs his surgery is Algerian-born but has lived in France since childhood. Through intimate depictions of these two characters and interactions with their families, Cabrera articulates enduring consequences of Algeria's 1962 struggle for independence. The film screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
Cabrera made her second feature film, Nadia et les hippopotames, in 1999. Arte broadcast an edited version of the film with the title Retiens la nuit. The film combined documentary elements within a larger fictional framework. Much of the film, which takes place during the SNCF's 1995 general strikes, records actual railroad workers, at night and in winter.
Cabrera's filmic diary, Demain et encore demain, was one of the first features shot on video to see a theatrical release in France. The autobiographical film, made in 1995, alternately depicts the anguish and delight of its creator. Exploring the documentary as a therapeutic process, Cabrera inserts herself into the fabric of the film. Each of her various identities—woman, mother, daughter, sister, lover—informs a growing definition of what it means to be a filmmaker. This film represents a turning point in Cabrera's career. Between the completion of Demain et encore demain and 2010, all of her feature-length work was fictional.
Folle Embellie in 2004 represents a venture into period fiction; the film is set in June 1940 amid Axis
bombing campaigns. Against this backdrop Cabrera evokes a kind of fairy tale about the refuge the natural world offers to the escapees of an asylum. The film features Jean-Pierre Léaud
and is based on a story Cabrera heard when she worked in a psychiatric hospital in the 1970s.
Le Lait de la Tendresse Humaine is Cabrera's film that most explicitly addresses issues of motherhood. Marilyne Canto plays a victim of postpartum depression
, who leaves her family without notice and hides in a neighbor's apartment. Critics praised the film for its use of color, its compassion for its characters, and its frank portrayal of a mother's struggle.
Quand la ville mord was Cabrera's first literary adaptation; its plot comes from a novel by Marc Villard which was part of the "Suite Noire" crime fiction collection. Cabrera produced the film for the television station, France 2
. The film was praised for its realistic depiction of a young African woman's forced prostitution, for which Cabrera and the film's lead, Aïssa Maïga, met with former prostitutes in Paris.
Certain actors, such as Marilyne Canto, Yolante Moreau, Olivier Gourmet
, and Ariane Ascaride
, reappear in across Cabrera's films. Sometimes she works with popular actors, such as Patrick Bruel
and Miou-Miou
. The presence of these actors echos other films in which they once appeared, Cabrera suggests. She has consistently worked with the same crew since the 1980s, including her director of photography, Hélène Louvart.
Cabrera has also acted in three films: Un petit cas de conscience by Marie Claude Treilhou, Douches froides by Antony Cordier, and Belleville-Tokyo by Elise Girard.
Her films have received significant critical acclaim, a César
nomination, and two nominations at the Cannes film festival.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
. She has taught filmmaking at La Fémis
La Femis
La Fémis , is the French state film school. FEMIS is an acronym for Fondation Européenne pour les Métiers de l’Image et du Son. Based in Paris, it offers courses balanced between artistic research, professional development and technical training...
and at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Her film Nadia et les hippopotames
Nadia and the Hippos
Nadia and the Hippos is a 1999 French drama film directed by Dominique Cabrera. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Ariane Ascaride - Nadia* Marilyne Canto - Claire* Thierry Frémont - Serge...
was screened in the Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...
section at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival
1999 Cannes Film Festival
The 52nd Cannes Film Festival was held on May 12-23, 1999. The Palme d'Or went to the French-Belgian film Rosetta by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.-Jury:* David Cronenberg * André Téchiné * Barbara Hendricks...
. Additionally, her work has screened in Berlin Film Festival, the Toronto Film Festival, the Vienna International Film Festival, the Locarno Film Festival
Locarno International Film Festival
The Film Festival Locarno is an international film festival held annually in the city of Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. After Cannes and Venice and together with Karlovy Vary, Locarno is the Film Festival with the longest history...
, the Rotterdam Film Festival, and in the New York Film Festival
New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival has been a major film festival since it began in 1963 in New York. The films are selected by the Film Society of Lincoln Center...
, among others.
Biography
Dominique Cabrera was born in 1957 in Relizane, Algeria and moved to France as a child, in 1962. She graduated from Paris' La Fémis film school in 1981, then known as the Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinématographiques.Between 1982 and 1993, Cabrera directed five short films, documentaries, and works of fiction. Two films in the 1990s, Chronique d'une banlieue ordinaire and Une poste à la Courneuve, brought Cabrera early recognition.
After reading one of her scripts at a screenwriting competition in 1990, producer Didier Haudepin
Didier Haudepin
Didier Haudepin is a French actor, film producer, director and screenwriter. He has appeared in 44 films and television shows since 1960. His film Those Were the Days was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.-Selected filmography:* Seven Days.....
recognized Cabrera as an emerging talent. His support led to the production of her first feature film, L'autre côté de la mer, six years later.
Work
Politic engagement spans Cabrera's diverse filmography, which includes documentaries, fiction works, and films combining the two genres. According to some critics, Cabrera does not make moral or ideological judgments about her characters or documentary subjects. Rather, she infuses her images with lyricism, love, and a sense of wonder, leaving judgment up to the viewer. Her fiction work deals with issues of family, motherhood, cultural assimilation, and national heritage. Cabrera's own pied-noirPied-noir
Pied-Noir , plural Pieds-Noirs, pronounced , is a term referring to French citizens of various origins who lived in French Algeria before independence....
origins inform her interest in issues of assimilation and in the history between France and the Maghreb
Maghreb
The Maghreb is the region of Northwest Africa, west of Egypt. It includes five countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania and the disputed territory of Western Sahara...
. Recurring dreams of utopia, doubt, and discouragement also unite her work.
Cabrera's first feature-length work of fiction, L'autre côté de la mer, addresses questions of assimilation in contemporary French society. A wealthy French pied-noir travels to Paris for a cataract
Cataract
A cataract is a clouding that develops in the crystalline lens of the eye or in its envelope, varying in degree from slight to complete opacity and obstructing the passage of light...
operation. The doctor who performs his surgery is Algerian-born but has lived in France since childhood. Through intimate depictions of these two characters and interactions with their families, Cabrera articulates enduring consequences of Algeria's 1962 struggle for independence. The film screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
Cabrera made her second feature film, Nadia et les hippopotames, in 1999. Arte broadcast an edited version of the film with the title Retiens la nuit. The film combined documentary elements within a larger fictional framework. Much of the film, which takes place during the SNCF's 1995 general strikes, records actual railroad workers, at night and in winter.
Cabrera's filmic diary, Demain et encore demain, was one of the first features shot on video to see a theatrical release in France. The autobiographical film, made in 1995, alternately depicts the anguish and delight of its creator. Exploring the documentary as a therapeutic process, Cabrera inserts herself into the fabric of the film. Each of her various identities—woman, mother, daughter, sister, lover—informs a growing definition of what it means to be a filmmaker. This film represents a turning point in Cabrera's career. Between the completion of Demain et encore demain and 2010, all of her feature-length work was fictional.
Folle Embellie in 2004 represents a venture into period fiction; the film is set in June 1940 amid Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
bombing campaigns. Against this backdrop Cabrera evokes a kind of fairy tale about the refuge the natural world offers to the escapees of an asylum. The film features Jean-Pierre Léaud
Jean-Pierre Léaud
-Early years:Born in Paris, Léaud made his major debut as an actor at the age of 14 as Antoine Doinel, a semi-autobiographical character based on the life events of French film director François Truffaut, in The 400 Blows....
and is based on a story Cabrera heard when she worked in a psychiatric hospital in the 1970s.
Le Lait de la Tendresse Humaine is Cabrera's film that most explicitly addresses issues of motherhood. Marilyne Canto plays a victim of postpartum depression
Postpartum depression
Postpartum depression , also called postnatal depression, is a form of clinical depression which can affect women, and less frequently men, typically after childbirth. Studies report prevalence rates among women from 5% to 25%, but methodological differences among the studies make the actual...
, who leaves her family without notice and hides in a neighbor's apartment. Critics praised the film for its use of color, its compassion for its characters, and its frank portrayal of a mother's struggle.
Quand la ville mord was Cabrera's first literary adaptation; its plot comes from a novel by Marc Villard which was part of the "Suite Noire" crime fiction collection. Cabrera produced the film for the television station, France 2
France 2
France 2 is a French public national television channel. It is part of the state-owned France Télévisions group, along with France 3, France 4, France 5 and France Ô...
. The film was praised for its realistic depiction of a young African woman's forced prostitution, for which Cabrera and the film's lead, Aïssa Maïga, met with former prostitutes in Paris.
Certain actors, such as Marilyne Canto, Yolante Moreau, Olivier Gourmet
Olivier Gourmet
Olivier Gourmet is a Belgian actor. He won the Best Actor award at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival for his role in Le Fils by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. He also appeared in La Promesse, Rosetta and L'Enfant....
, and Ariane Ascaride
Ariane Ascaride
Ariane Ascaride is a French actress and screenwriter. She has appeared in such films as Marius et Jeannette , Ma vraie vie à Rouen and À la place du coeur...
, reappear in across Cabrera's films. Sometimes she works with popular actors, such as Patrick Bruel
Patrick Bruel
Patrick Bruel is a French singer, actor, and professional poker player of Algerian Jewish descent.-Biography:...
and Miou-Miou
Miou-Miou
Miou-Miou is a French actress. In her career she has worked with a number of international directors, including Michel Gondry, Bertrand Blier, Yves Boisset, Claude Berri, Jacques Deray, Michel Deville, Diane Kurys, Radu Mihăileanu, Patrice Leconte, Joseph Losey and Louis Malle.-Career:She was born...
. The presence of these actors echos other films in which they once appeared, Cabrera suggests. She has consistently worked with the same crew since the 1980s, including her director of photography, Hélène Louvart.
Cabrera has also acted in three films: Un petit cas de conscience by Marie Claude Treilhou, Douches froides by Antony Cordier, and Belleville-Tokyo by Elise Girard.
Her films have received significant critical acclaim, a César
César Award
The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....
nomination, and two nominations at the Cannes film festival.
Features
- Chronique d'une banlieue ordinaire (1992)
- Rester là-bas (1992)
- Une poste à la Courneuve (1994)
- L'autre côté de la mer (1997)
- Demain et encore demain, journal 1995 (1997)
- Nadia et les hippopotamesNadia and the HipposNadia and the Hippos is a 1999 French drama film directed by Dominique Cabrera. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Ariane Ascaride - Nadia* Marilyne Canto - Claire* Thierry Frémont - Serge...
(2000) - Le lait de la tendresse humaine (2001)
- Folle embellie (2004)
- Quand la ville mord (2009)
Shorts
- J'ai droit à la parole (1981)
- À trois pas, trésor caché (1984)
- L'art d'aimer (1985)
- La politique du pire (1987)
- Ici là bas (1988), short
- Un balcon au Val Fourré (1990)
- Traverser le jardin (1993)
- Rêves de ville (1993)
- Ranger les photos (2009)