Encyclopedia of French Film Directors

QUENTIN, FLORENCE (September 5, 1946,
Bort-les-Orgues, Corrèze, France–)
A former assistant fi lm director (1983 A nos Amours
/ UK and USA: To Our Loves, Maurice Pialat; 1984
Sauvage et Beau / UK and USA: Wild and Beautiful,
documentary, Frédéric Rossif), she became a successful
screenwriter thanks to her collaboration
with Etienne Chatiliez (1988 La Vie est un long Fleuve
tranquille / UK and USA: Life Is a Long Quiet River; 1990
Tatie Danielle; 1995 Le Bonheur est dans le Pré / USA:
Happiness Is in the Field). She wrote or co-wrote a
couple of movies (1992 La Fille de l’Air, Maroun Bagdadi;
1997 XXL, Ariel Zeïtoun; 1998 Que la Lumière
soit! / USA: Let There Be Light, Arthur Joffé) before
making her feature directing debut.
Filmography
2001 J’ai faim!!! (also screenwriter, dialogist)
2005 Olé! (also co-screenwriter)
2008 Leur Morale . . . et la nôtre (also co-screenwriter,
co-dialogist)
QUESTERBERT, MARIE-CHRISTINE (1955,
Paris, France–)
After studying philosophy and graduating with a doctorate
with a cinema option (her thesis was titled
“Sens et Technique: Les Mouvements de Caméra
dans le ‘Vampyr’ de Carl Dreyer”), she attended Jean
Rouch’s cinema courses at the Musée de l’Homme. In
1970, Luc Moullet offered her the female lead in Une
Aventure de Billy le Kid / USA: A Girl Is a Gun, in which
she co-starred under the pseudonym of Rachel Kesterber,
and fi ve years later she played the main character
in another movie directed by the same fi lmmaker
(1976 Anatomie d’un Rapport). Deeply interested in
Q
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underground fi lms, she got into writing and published
articles on photography and experimental cinema for
the Centre Pompidou review (Sauf Mardi). She also
collaborated on Les Cahiers du Cinéma (1979–1982)
and wrote on contemporary painting in a Japanese
review (1985–1986). Her book Les Scénaristes italiens—50
Ans d’Ecriture pour l’Ecran (Editions Hatier,
1988) is the result of her meetings with the greatest
Italian screenwriters. In addition to the movies mentioned
here, she appeared as an actress in about ten
movies (1972 Le Dernier Tango à paris / L’ultimo tango
a Parigi / UK and USA: Last Tango in Paris, as Rachel
Kesterber, Bernardo Bertolucci, France / Italy; 1973
What a Flash!, as Rachel Kesterber, Jean-Michel Barjol;
1981 Ma Première Brasse, short, Luc Moullet; 1992
Border Line, Danièle Dubroux; 1994 Grande Petite,
Sophie Fillières; 1996 Le Journal du Séducteur, Danièle
Dubroux; Encore, Pascal Bonitzer; 2006 Le Prestige de
la Mort, Luc Moullet). Her brother, Hugues Quester
(b. 1948), is a stage and fi lm actor.
Filmography
1970 Buy Me, Sell Me (documentary; short)
1972 Denatura (short)
1973 Seventies (documentary; short)
1974 L’Interminable Chevauchée (short; also screenwriter;
shot in 1972)
1982 Die Erbtöchter / Les Filles héréditaires (segment
“Dérapage”; West Germany / France)
1986 Cremonini (documentary; short)
2000 La Chambre obscure (also co-screenwriter;
France / Luxembourg / Italy)
2004 Le Jeu de la Simulation (short)
Television Filmography
2002 Femme séduisante et anticonformiste (documentary;
short; shot in 1999–2001)