Known for Directing
Benoît Jacquot is a French film director and screenwriter who has had a varied career in European cinema. Born in Paris, Jacquot began his career as assistant director of Marguerite Duras films, including Nathalie Granger, India Song, and also actor in the 1973 short film La Sœur du cadre. He turned to writing and directing with the 1975 film The Musician Killer, which starred Anna Karina. He has directed over forty films, the most notable of which to American audiences are La Désenchantée (1990), starring Judith Godrèche, and A Single Girl (1995), starring Virginie Ledoyen. In 2003, he directed Massenet's opera Werther conducted by Antonio Pappano at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. His film Farewell, My Queen opened the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2012. His 2014 film Three Hearts competed for the Golden Lion at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. In July 2024, Jacquot was charged with rape, including of a minor, and was barred from directing and having contact with minors.
Born
February 5, 1947 (age 79)
Birthplace
Paris, France
Filmography
94 films, 5 shows


Belle
2025 · 1h 40m
country: Belgium
A couple have a peaceful existence in a small provincial town. He is a teacher and she runs an opticians practical. Their life is turned upside when Belle, a friend’s daughter who is lodging with them, is found dead in her room. The husband becomes the prime suspect as the only one at home at the time.


By Heart
2022 · 1h 16m
country: France
It’s summertime, 2021. Isabelle Huppert plays Lioubov, Chekhov’s unforgettably heroine in The Cherry Orchard. In a near theatre, Fabrice Luchini recites Nietzsche. Both actors are premiering at Avignon’s Festival. When they leave backstage to stand out on stage, they are completely transformed. As everything seems utterly natural, audience does not imagine what happened before. By following their daily lives during the weeks preceding the premieres, Benoît Jacquot brings a singular perspective of the two actors and shows them like we’ve never seen before.


Suzanna Andler
2021 · 1h 31m
country: France
Accompanied by her lover, Suzanna, 40, views a Riviera beach house for her family's summer vacation. This day, this break in her routine, in this new house, will mark a turning point in her life. Based on the Marguerite Duras play of the same name, Suzanna Andler is the portrait of a woman trapped in her marriage to a wealthy, unfaithful businessman in the 1960s. She must choose between her conventional destiny as a wife and mother, and her freedom, embodied by her young lover.


Casanova, Last Love
2019 · 1h 39m
country: Belgium
Year 1763. Forced into exile, the famous libertine Giacomo Casanova leaves Paris and travels to London, where he meets Marianne de Charpillon, a young prostitute to whom he is so attracted that he forgets about the other women.


Opéra National de Paris: Verdi's La Traviata
2018 · 2h 10m
country: France
In Benoît Jacquot’s production, Manet’s Olympia dominates the stage of the Opéra Bastille. In 1863, the painting caused a scandal: the prostitute awaits her client, her expression proud, her demeanour assured. Is this Violetta? Like Olympia, Verdi’s most celebrated heroine surrenders to the spectator just as she surrenders to love, going so far as to die on stage, a woman’s ultimate sacrifice for her lover. Or might it be the spectator who strips her bare and intrudes upon her privacy, in the image of this milieu of social voyeurism? Whatever the case, these two women regard us with defiance and subjugate those who cannot help but look at them.


Eva
2018 · 1h 42m
country: France
A playwright encounters a mysterious woman when he takes shelter in a chalet during a violent snowstorm and becomes obsessed with her.


Never Ever
2016 · 1h 26m
country: Portugal
Based on Don DeLillo's novella "The Body Artist," the film swirls around a self-centered filmmaker who, during a screening of one of his films, wanders into an adjoining gallery and becomes mesmerized by a young performance artist. Dumping his leading lady and long-time lover, Rey embarks on a wild and delirious affair with the equally willing Laura, who jumps on the back of his motorcycle and rides with him into instantaneous love.


Massenet: Werther
2016 · 2h 10m
country: United Kingdom
Werther loves Charlotte, but she promised her mother on her deathbed that she would marry Albert. After the marriage Charlotte suggests that Werther should travel – but not forget her. Benoît Jacquot’s production of Massenet’s tragic opera explores the conflict between duty and our most passionate desires.


Gentleman Rissient
2016 · 1h 17m
country: Unknown
A tale by Pierre Rissient: How I became a cinema lover in France and in the USA.


La Traviata - Opéra de Paris
2015
country: Unknown
Following her performances in recent seasons in Verdi’s La travita on the world’s major opera stages – the Metropolitan, New York, La Scala, Milan, Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Paris Opera – Diana Damrau has become the primary interpreter of Violetta, arguably opera’s most iconic character. This DVD release is from Paris Opera production of June 2014, when the German soprano appeared in a new production – inspired by the paintings of Manet – by the film director Benoit Jacquot. This critically acclaimed production was conducted by Francesco Ivan Ciampa, with a cast including Francesco Demuro and Ludovic Tezier.


Diary of a Chambermaid
2015 · 1h 36m
country: France
In the late 19th century, a chambermaid from Paris relocates to a remote household in Provence, engages in trysts and finds herself enraptured with a coach driver.


3 Hearts
2014 · 1h 40m
country: France
A twist of fate leaves a hapless accountant romantically torn between two sisters.


Venice 70: Future Reloaded
2013 · 2h
country: Italy
Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.


Farewell, My Queen
2012 · 1h 40m
country: France
A look at the relationship between Marie Antoinette and one of her readers during the final days of the French Revolution.


Deep in the Woods
2010 · 1h 42m
country: France
A wanderer named Timothee arrives in a French village in 1865 pretending to be deaf and mute. He uses tricks to hypnotize a beautiful young woman named Josephine and takes advantage of her until he is arrested and tried for his crimes.


Massenet: Werther
2010 · 2h 25m
country: France
Werther loves Charlotte, but she promised her mother on her deathbed that she would marry Albert. After the marriage Charlotte suggests that Werther should travel - but not forget her. In addition to the singing and orchestral accompaniment, the entire cast acts very convincingly. And, there's no backstage mugging, entrances and spoken nonsense to spoil the experience of the drama.


The Counterfeiters
2010 · 2h 1m
country: Unknown
The plot revolves around Bernard – a schoolfriend of Olivier's who is preparing for his bac – discovering he is a bastard and taking this as a welcome pretext for running away from home. He spends a night in Olivier's bed (where Olivier describes a recent visit to a prostitute and how he did not find the experience very enjoyable). After Bernard steals the suitcase belonging to Edouard, Olivier's uncle, and the ensuing complications, he is made Edouard's secretary. Olivier is jealous and ends up in the hands of the cynical and downright diabolical Comte de Passavant, who travels with him to the Mediterranean.


Villa Amalia
2009 · 1h 34m
country: France
Ann leaves Thomas and everything else behind when she catches him kissing another woman. With her music and help from Georges, she begins a journey to find herself.


The Untouchable
2006 · 1h 22m
country: France
On her birthday, a young actress learns her father is a Hindu man her mother met in India. She decamps to Varanasi to find him.


Gaspard le bandit
2006 · 1h 35m
country: France
Gaspard de Besse and his gang of highwaymen escaped the law for years in old monsieur de Morières's jurisdiction in rural, Ancient Régime France. When Gaspard is badly injured trough treason, he escapes after being seen in St.Anne's convent, where he hid, by de Morières's young, unwillingly arranged and unloving wife Anne. Gaspard makes a deal with the traitor to fake his demise. He recruits traveling actor Antoine and trains him like a son.


À tout de suite
2004 · 1h 35m
country: France
A girl from bourgeoisie discovers the pleasures of banditism, following her lover in his lifestyle.


Adolphe
2002 · 1h 42m
country: France
Twenty-year old Adolphe finds himself drawn irresistibly to Ellénore, a married woman who is ten years his senior. Although she initially repels her young suitor’s unwanted advances, Ellénore soon yields to his charms and the two embark on a passionate love affair.


Tosca
2001 · 2h
country: United Kingdom
Benoit Jacquot's acclaimed 2002 film of Puccini's opera stars Angela Gheorghiu in the title role, with Roberto Alagna, Ruggero Raimondi and the Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, under Antonio Pappano.


Sade
2000 · 1h 40m
country: France
A man prepares himself to be transferred to a detention center and rest home where he will relive one more time the highlights of his youth.


The False Servant
2000 · 1h 36m
country: France
A young woman disguises herself as a knight to expose a gold-digging man divided between her and a Countess.


Keep It Quiet
1999 · 1h 45m
country: France
A businessman convicted of a white-collar crime becomes a changed person upon his release from prison.


The School of Flesh
1998 · 1h 50m
country: Belgium
Fashion executive Dominique's obsession for Quentin, a young bisexual hustler, fills her desire for physical love but leaves her taxed emotionally. Twists and turns in the relationship, along with the man's violent and abusive nature, force Dominique to reconcile the conflicts created by her passion. In this quest, Dominique is aided, and sometimes hindered, by friends, clients, and Quentin's former and current acquaintances.


Par cœur
1998 · 1h 15m
country: Unknown
The director filmed and followed Fabrice Luchini during his performances at the theater. Alone on stage, he speaks, recites, narrates and plays the precious words of great authors. We hear him in texts by Beaudelaire, Jean de La Fontaine, Victor Hugo, Elie Faure, Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Gustave Flaubert.


Seventh Heaven
1997 · 1h 31m
country: France
A bored, sexually frustrated woman's life improves when she begins hypnotherapy and tries feng shui, but her husband's life unravels.


La Vie de Marianne
1997 · 1h 30m
country: France
In the aristocratic society of the seventeenth century, the fate of Marianne child who survived the deadly attack on a convoy.


A Single Girl
1995 · 1h 30m
country: France
A young Parisian must make major decisions about pregnancy, a job, and her boyfriend.


Écrire
1994 · 44m
country: France
When Duras saw 'La mort du jeune aviateur anglais', she told Benoît Jacquot that the film was about him, not her. "She treated me like a thief. So I offered to make another film, where she could say whatever she wanted about her life as a writer. That’s how we did Écrire. I brought the same film crew. We went to her house at Neauphle-le-Château and we set up in the room she called 'the music room,' where there was a piano and you could listen to records. She settled in and for two days of non-stop filming, she talked."


Il faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermée
1994
country: France


Emma Zunz
1993 · 51m
country: France
Based on the short story by Jorge Luis Borges, the tale recounts how its eponymous heroine avenges the death of her father.


The Death of the Young English Aviator
1993 · 36m
country: France
Marguerite Duras tells the story of the death of a young English aviator in a French village.
dans la solitude des champs de coton
dans la solitude des champs de coton
1991
country: Unknown
Benoît Jacquot films "In the Solitude of Cotton Fields" by Bernard-Marie Koltès, performed and directed by Patrice Chéreau, at the Théâtre des Amandiers.


The Disenchanted
1990 · 1h 18m
country: France
A worldly French teen is determined to escape from her current situation for a better life.


Journey to the End of the Night
1990 · 45m
country: France
Alone on stage, at the dawn of his forties, Fabrice Luchini renders the reflections of the suburban doctor Louis-Ferdinand Céline. Benoît Jacquot, with his nuanced black and white, films the actor impregnated with words full of pain.
L'Atelier de Robert Motherwell
L'Atelier de Robert Motherwell
1989 · 42m
country: Unknown
Filmed in his studio in 1988, in front of Benoît Jacquot's camera, the painter Robert Motherwell, then aged 73, retraces the main creative stages of his work and describes very precisely his way of working: the importance of the choice of brush , of the support, of the paint used, the accidents which occur and which determine the work... He engages in a discourse on art in the serene atmosphere of his studio in Greenwich. He describes the principles of psychic automatism and comments on the different periods of his work to which dozens of retrospectives, including one in Paris in 1977, have been devoted throughout the world. A rigorous portrait that reveals the painter with his doubts and convictions.


The Beggars
1988 · 1h 30m
country: Unknown
This symbolic drama from director Benoit Jacques underscores the characters' human need for affection. Children steal lemons for the thrill, while women steal other women's men from them just to prove they can. Drug smuggling, clandestine love affairs, and two lovers involved with the production of Shakespeare's Othello carry on with their own off-stage tragedy.


Elvire Jouvet 40
1987 · 1h 5m
country: France
Between February and September 1940, Louis Jouvet worked with Claudia, ascending to the National Superior Conservatory of Dramatic Art in Paris, the second scene of Elvire by Don Juan de Molière. These theater lessons, re-transcribed in the smallest details, are the opportunity to watch the comedian learn. This one tries to undo what it calls “the covert me who possesses it” and the channel to invest all its role, to play without artifice. In 1986, Brigite Jaques-Wajeman excelled in this course to put on an internationally successful show
With All Hands
With All Hands
1986 · 1h 40m
country: France
The romantic and cruel escapades of a gigolo and a mysterious woman.
Japon: Le Biwa
Japon: Le Biwa
1984 · 33m
country: Unknown
Meeting with Kinshi Tsuruta, the eminent Japanese singer master of biwa. During a lesson with two of his students, devoted to the secular recitation of epics and feudal struggles of the 17th century. The musician looks back on the transformations she made to the Satsuma biwa


Une villa aux environs de New York
1982 · 55m
country: France
Karl, a young immigrant, lives with his uncle in New York who jealously watches over the education of his nephew. A friend, Mr. Pallunder invites Karl to spend a night at his house. Despite strong opposition from his uncle, Karl agrees. On the way, Karl realises he may have displeased his guardian. His desire to turn back will be prevented.


La Toilette des pensées
1982
country: France


The Wings of the Dove
1981 · 1h 35m
country: France
A 20th-century prostitute (Dominique Sanda) arranges for her lover (Michele Placido) to wed a wealthy, dying millionairess (Isabelle Huppert) in Venice.


La bête dans la jungle
1981 · 1h 35m
country: France
Ten years after their first meeting, John Marcher and May Bartram meet again in the magnificent Weatherend estate, but, as the first time, John's certainty of being doomed to a tragic fate hinders the feelings they have for each other.
Closet Children
Closet Children
1977 · 1h 45m
country: France
Nicolas has an appointment with his sister Juliette. They are bound by a heavy secret of childhood: their mother committed suicide while their father had charged Nicolas to keep her. Since then, the father has chased him out and has forbidden Juliette to see Nicolas again.
The Musician Killer
The Musician Killer
1976 · 2h 4m
country: France
A dedicated clarinetist receives a valuable violin and has a difficult time deciding what to do with it.


Jacques Lacan: La Psychanalyse 1 & 2
1974 · 1h 36m
country: France
In "psychanalyse", a two part documentary, the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan answers to questions submitted by his son-in-law Jacques-Alain Miller under the direction of Benoit Jacquot. The Office de Radiodiffusion Television Francaise (ORTF, the french public TV) broadcast this program. This documentary and its text became famous because this is the only televisual experience practiced by Lacan. A fair amount is made of the fact that Lacan was renowned for his powers of seduction and what effect this had on transference in the clinical setting. According to some of the interviewees, he could be irresistibly seductive, so much so that some thought him "monster".