
Sylvie Testud was born on January 17, 1971 in Lyon. Her parents separated when she was two years old. She spent her youth in the Lyon district of Croix-Rousse, raised by her mother, an accountant. In high school, she learned Chinese. Very early fascinated by the cinema, the young girl identifies in particular with the complexed teenager character embodied by Charlotte Gainsbourg in L'Effrontée. Having moved to Paris to study history, she soon embarked on acting by joining the free class at Cours Florent and then the Conservatory, where her teachers were Jacques Lassalle and Catherine Hiegel. She made her first screen appearance in 1994 in Couples et amants. She decided to become an actress during her youth, after having admired actresses in films. She then took acting lessons in Lyon with the actor and director Christian Taponard. In 1989, she moved to Paris to study history, as well as drama lessons in free classes at Cours Florent, then at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art for three years, with Jacques Lassalle and Catherine Hiegel for teachers. In the early 1990s, she obtained her first small roles in the cinema, then in feature films such as The Story of the Boy Who Wanted to Be Kissed by Philippe Harel (1994), Le Plus Bel Age..., by Didier Haudepin (1995) or even Love, etc. by Marion Vernoux (1996). In 1997, Sylvie Testud experienced her first great success at the cinema in Germany with the film Beyond Silence by Caroline Link, for which she learned German, the clarinet and sign language. She is rewarded as best actress by the German Film Prize (the equivalent of the César for best actress). In 1998, she played her first major role in French cinema and enjoyed great success in France with the role of Béa in Karnaval, the first feature film by Thomas Vincent, for which she was nominated for the César for best female hope and received the Michael Simon Prize. She then began an important acting career with a preference for auteur cinema. In 2000, her performance in La Captive by Chantal Akerman (adaptation of the novel La Prisonnière by Marcel Proust) earned her a nomination as best actress at the European Film Prize. In 2001, she obtained, for her second nomination, the César for best female hope for the remarkable interpretation of Christine Papin, one of the Papin sisters, in Les Blessures assassines by Jean-Pierre Denis, based on a news item from 1933.

as Nicole Martin

as Sylvie

as Stéphanie

as archive image

as Sandrine

as Nicole Martin

as Régine Pierre, Saint-Memmie coach

as Rose

as Sophie

as Marceline Rozenberg (1968 - 1979)

as Valérie Bacot

as Joanna

as Olympe de Gouges

as La Comtesse

as The nymphomaniac's friend

as Geneviève (segment "L'Addition")

as Nathalie Dulac

as Maïté

as le lieutenant Froissy

as Jennifer

as Enriqueta Faber / Enrique Faber

as Miss Griffith

as Valérie Laforge

as Anna

as Amandine

as Val

as Annette Giacometti

as Clarisse

as Elena

as Amandine

as Eloïse

as Charlotte de Robespierre

as Sybille

as Sophie Picard

as Self

as Stéphane Brunge

as Sabine

as Elisaveta Bogdanovna

as Catherine

as Nadiège

as Sam

as Brigitte Farell

as Marion Reynaud

as Lolita

as La mère de Céline

as Louise

as Anne

as Sylvie

as Roxana Orlac

as Nina

as Chantal Legorjus

as Sylvie Poncet

as Louise Michel

as Mumu

as Bella Zygler

as Hélène

as Sybille adulte

as Calamity Jane

as Christine

as Adèle

as Irene Costello

as Catherine

as Darya Alexeyevna

as Françoise Quoirez dite Sagan

as Lucie Audibert

as Jeanne d'Arc

as Camille

as Madame

as Simone 'Mômone' Berteaut

as Patricia

as Louise Delhomme

as Clara

as Victoire

as Léa

as Prune

as Charlotte

as Self / Charlotte

as Claude

as Das Mädchen

as Tina

as Amélie

as Virginia

as Myriam

as Alice / Paula

as Virginie

as L'institutrice

as Sophie

as Self (uncredited)

as Ariel

as Isabelle

as Julia

as Azalaïs

as Christine Papin

as Ariane

as Segment "Lucie"

as Laurence

as Valeska

as Laurence

as Béa

as Young Nun

as Julia

as Esther

as Lara

as Sylvie

as Nathalie

as Girl at party offering food

as Marie