Jane Birkin will be honored at this year’s Locarno Film Fest. The Switzerland-based festival will pay tribute to the the English actress and singer with a career retrospective.
Birkin made her big-screen debut — and launched into movie stardom — in 1965 with “The Knack…and How to Get it” and “Blow-Up.” She transitioned into a music career as a singer-songwriter and has released 12 studio albums, including 1969’s “Je t’aime… moi non plus.” Birkin collaborated with French director Agnès Varda on three films: “Kung-Fu Master,” “Jane B. par Agnès V.,” and “One Hundred and One Nights.” Her other film credits include “Death on the Nile,” “La pirate,” and “La Belle Noiseuse.” Birkin has received three César Award nominations, France’s equivalent of the Academy Awards. She made her feature directorial debut in 2007 with “Boxes.” And Birkin’s name has been immortalized in the world of fashion: she’s the inspiration behind the famed Hermès Birkin bag.
“I am delighted to honor the extraordinary career of an actress such as Jane Birkin, whose trajectory in modern cinema is unequalled,” said Carlo Chatrian, the festival’s director. “Able to burn up the screen with her mere presence, to conjugate the meaning of seduction in original ways, to be fashionable whilst transcending fashion, the actress has brought alive characters who remain stamped on the mind, perhaps because of that singular sense of innocence lost she has always emanated.”
The Locarno Film Festival runs from August 3–13. The fest boasts an International Competition lineup that’s nearly 50 percent female-directed.
