Sylvie Testud was born on January 17, 1971 in Lyon. Her parents separated when she was two years old. She spent her youth in the Lyon district of Croix-Rousse, raised by her mother, an accountant. In high school, she learned Chinese. Very early fascinated by the cinema, the young girl identifies in particular with the complexed teenager character embodied by Charlotte Gainsbourg in L'Effrontée. Having moved to Paris to study history, she soon embarked on acting by joining the free class at Cours Florent and then the Conservatory, where her teachers were Jacques Lassalle and Catherine Hiegel. She made her first screen appearance in 1994 in Couples et amants.
She decided to become an actress during her youth, after having admired actresses in films. She then took acting lessons in Lyon with the actor and director Christian Taponard. In 1989, she moved to Paris to study history, as well as drama lessons in free classes at Cours Florent, then at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art for three years, with Jacques Lassalle and Catherine Hiegel for teachers.
In the early 1990s, she obtained her first small roles in the cinema, then in feature films such as The Story of the Boy Who Wanted to Be Kissed by Philippe Harel (1994), Le Plus Bel Age..., by Didier Haudepin (1995) or even Love, etc. by Marion Vernoux (1996).
In 1997, Sylvie Testud experienced her first great success at the cinema in Germany with the film Beyond Silence by Caroline Link, for which she learned German, the clarinet and sign language. She is rewarded as best actress by the German Film Prize (the equivalent of the César for best actress). In 1998, she played her first major role in French cinema and enjoyed great success in France with the role of Béa in Karnaval, the first feature film by Thomas Vincent, for which she was nominated for the César for best female hope and received the Michael Simon Prize. She then began an important acting career with a preference for auteur cinema.
In 2000, her performance in La Captive by Chantal Akerman (adaptation of the novel La Prisonnière by Marcel Proust) earned her a nomination as best actress at the European Film Prize. In 2001, she obtained, for her second nomination, the César for best female hope for the remarkable interpretation of Christine Papin, one of the Papin sisters, in Les Blessures assassines by Jean-Pierre Denis, based on a news item from 1933.
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The grueling, emotionally torturous world of French preparatory schools provides the framework for t...
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Beyond Silence is about a family and a young girl’s coming of age story. This German film looks into...
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Ariane lives with Simon in his large Paris flat. Simon is obsessed with her: he wants to know everyt...
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Based on the true story of two chambermaids of 1930s France who murdered their employer and her daug...
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The comfortable daily routines of aging Parisian actor Gilbert Valence, 76, are suddenly shaken when...
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Two brothers go to France to claim the chateau they have inherited....
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In Paris, a young Argentine screenwriter attempts to escape his daily routine through a fictional st...
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Amélie, a young Belgian woman, having spent her childhood in Japan, decides to return to live there ...
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From the mean streets of the Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York's mo...
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Fearless gunslinger, Lucky Luke, is ordered by the President to bring peace to Daisy Town....
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Pierre, a French professor of quantum physics, inherits an inn from his aunt Jeanne in the Lac St-Je...
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After the death of her mother, Anne makes a shocking discovery: an old photograph casts doubt on her...
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A story about 11 girls living in Paris. Each of them has its own problems: career, love life, childr...
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Stuck in the corridors of time, Godefroy de Montmirail and his faithful servant Jacquouille are proj...
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Paris, 1964. The Swiss sculptor and painter Alberto Giacometti, one of the most accomplished and res...
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Tamara has been separated from Diego for two years. She finally leaves home to live the student adve...
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Liliane and Maud are twin sisters. The first is a modest provincial hairdresser while the second lea...
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Simone Veil's life story through the pivotal events of Twentieth Century. Her childhood, her politic...
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Recent movies
| # | Name | Character | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simone: Woman of the Century (2022) | Marceline Rozenberg (1968 - 1979) | - | - |
| 2 | I Love You Coiffure (2020) | Geneviève (segment "L'Addition") | 6 | |
| 3 | A New Girl in Paris! (2018) | Amandine | 5 | |
| 4 | Suspiria (2018) | Miss Griffith | 6.8 | |
| 5 | Final Portrait (2017) | Annette Giacometti | 7 | |
| 6 | The Visitors: Bastille Day (2016) | Charlotte de Robespierre | 5.3 | |
| 7 | 24 Days (2014) | Brigitte Farell | - | - |
| 8 | French Women (2014) | Sam | 7 | |
| 9 | For a Woman (2013) | Anne | - | - |
| 10 | Rebellion (2011) | Chantal Legorjus | 9 | |
| 11 | Mumu (2010) | Mumu | - | - |
| 12 | The Round Up (2010) | Bella Zygler | 6.3 | |
| 13 | Lourdes (2009) | Christine | - | - |
| 14 | Vengeance (2009) | Irene Costello | 6.4 | |
| 15 | Lucky Luke (2009) | Calamity Jane | 5 | |
| 16 | A Happy Man (2009) | Catherine | 5 | |
| 17 | La France (2007) | Camille | 4 | |
| 18 | La Vie en Rose (2007) Oscars 2008 | Simone 'MĂ´mone' Berteaut | 7.5 | |
| 19 | Labyrinth (2003) | Claude | - | - |
| 20 | Fear and Trembling (2003) | Amélie | 7 | |
| 21 | Stolen Tangos (2002) | Alice / Paula | 2 | |
| 22 | I’m Going Home (2001) | Ariel | - | - |
| 23 | The Château (2001) | Isabelle | - | - |
| 24 | The Captive (2000) | Ariane | 4 | |
| 25 | Scénarios sur la drogue (2000) | Segment "Lucie" | - | - |
| 26 | Murderous Maids (2000) | Christine Papin | 8 | |
| 27 | Beyond Silence (1996) | Lara | 3 | |
| 28 | Those Were the Days (1995) | Sylvie | - | - |

