Tonie Marshall died "this morning from a long illness". It was with these words that her agent, Élisabeth Tanner, announced Thursday March 12 the death of the 68-year-old director. The Franco-American is the only woman to date to have won the César for best achievement for "Vénus beauté (institut)" in 2000.


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Daughter of French actress Micheline Presle and American actor, director and producer William Marshall, Tonie Marshall began filming as an actress in 1972 in "The Most Important Event Since Man Has Walked on the Moon" by Jacques Demy.

She went into directing in 1990 with "Pentimento", before a dozen feature films, including "Vénus beauté (institut)" with Nathalie Baye and Audrey Tautou, her most famous film, which won her several César awards, including those of the best production and the best film.

Then come "Closer to paradise" with Catherine Deneuve and William Hurt, "France Boutique" with Karin Viard and François Cluzet or "Number one" with Emmanuelle Devos in 2017, her latest film, on the battle of an engineer to take the head of a CAC 40 company.

"Everything in the film is very realistic," confided at the time of the release the filmmaker, who had met many leaders for this feature film. "I didn't want to show caricature men but on the other hand to show how busy these spheres are."

"Women have a hard time planning it," said Tonie Marshall, who denounced "frontal organization" and "benevolent, paternalistic misogyny" to prevent women from reaching the highest positions.

In the world of cinema, Tonie Marshall assured, on the other hand, that she had not suffered from sexism. "I've never heard of a film being edited because it was made by a woman," she said.

With AFP

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