Béatrice Dalle (born 19 December 1964) is a French actress and model. She has appeared in over fifty films[1] and is best known internationally for her debut role in the 1986 film 37°2 le matin (also released as Betty Blue). Béatrice Dalle is renowned for her intense and unconventional roles, often portraying characters that are both provocative and transgressive.[2]
Biography
Dalle was born in Brest, Finistère, France, as Béatrice Cabarrou.[3][4] She grew up in Le Mans with her mother, father, and an older sister. At age 15, Dalle ran away from home to live in Paris.[5] In 1985, she married the painter Jean-François Dalle, whom she divorced in 1988.[6] In 2005, Dalle married an inmate she met while acting in a short film that was being shot in a prison. They divorced in 2015.[7]
Career
Dalle was working as a model when she met filmmaker Jean-Jacques Beineix. Beineix cast her in the lead role of the 1986 film 37°2 le matin (released in the UK and USA as Betty Blue) which received BAFTA and Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film, and made a star of Dalle.
She went on to appear in a series of major roles in French films, including the 1989 film Chimère, which was entered into the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.[8]
In 2001, Dalle appeared in the controversial film Trouble Every Day, in which she played a vampire. She starred in the 2007 film À l'intérieur, in which she played a cruel psychopath stalking a pregnant woman.
In 1988, Dalle was interviewed by Clive James in "Postcard from Paris" where she said she was tired of Paris and wanted to move to New York.[10]
Controversies
Dalle has been arrested on several occasions for shoplifting, drug possession and assault.[11] In January 2005, while making a film about prison life in Brest, Dalle met Guenaël Meziani, serving a 12-year prison sentence for assaulting and raping his ex-girlfriend. She married him after 24 one-hour visits, and spoke on his behalf at hearings for his early release.[11][12] According to a 2015 profile of Dalle, she said the marriage was "a complete disaster" once Meziani was released from prison, and their divorce was apparently finalised in July 2014.[13]
Interviewed on the French TV programme Divan in 2016, Dalle stated that when she used to work in a morgue with her friends, they sold body parts of corpses, and while on acid, they ate a dead man's ear.[14][15]
^There are conflicting references to Dalle's birthplace. The majority of sources state she was born in Brest, Finistère. However, there are also a number of sources that state she was born in Le Mans, Sarthe.
