Claire Simon
French director, born in London.
Claire Simon came to film through editing. Récréations and At All Costs, released in theatres, were to resonate among others as the sign of a documentary growth spurt within French cinema. Since then, she has alternated between documentary and fiction films. Claire Simon films the people around her like heroes: the toddlers in Récréations; the stressed out boss of At All Costs; the kidnapper in A Foreign Body; the incendiary young woman in On Fire; Mimi, Nathalie Baye as an advisor at a family planning clinic; the passion of Nicole Garcia for Reda Kateb in Gare du Nord; Stephanie selling her charms in The Woods; young people attacking the stronghold that the film school La Fémis represents; high school students like Hugo deploring the silence of their families; the Grocer’s son and the mayor of a modern village… Whether in documentary or fiction, a single question recurs: what is a story? A life? She also taught at Paris 8 and Paris 7 and was head of the directing department at La Fémis.
Documentaries : Les Patients (1989) - Récréations (1992) - At all costs (1995) - 800 km de différence/Romance (2000) - Mimi (2002) - Géographie humaine (2013) - Le Bois dont les rêves sont faits (2016) - Le Concours (2016) - Premières solitudes (2018) - Le Fils de l'épicière, le Maire, le Village et le Monde (2020) - Our Body (2023)
Fiction movies : Sinon, oui (1997) - Ça, c'est vraiment toi (1999) - Ça brûle (2006) - Les Bureaux de Dieu (2008) -Gare du Nord (2013) - Vous ne désirez que moi (2021)