Françoise Dorner

Françoise Dorner was born on 17 June 1949 in Paris, France. A multifaceted figure in French cultural life, she has worked as an actress, screenwriter, playwright, and novelist across a career spanning several decades.

Dorner began her stage work in 1967, appearing in Le Duel by Anton Chekhov, directed by André Barsacq at the Théâtre de l'Atelier. Her theatrical career brought her to Broadway in 1976, when she appeared in Des Journées Entières Dans les Arbres, a production she had first performed in Paris in 1975 under the direction of Jean-Louis Barrault at the Théâtre d'Orsay, based on the work of Marguerite Duras. Also in 1976, she played Antigone in Jean Anouilh's play of the same name, directed by Nicole Anouilh at the Théâtre Firmin-Gémier Antony. Barrault directed her again in 1980 in Diderot à corps perdu at the Théâtre d'Orsay, in which she played Mademoiselle de Lespinasse. Later stage credits include Avanti! by Samuel A. Taylor at the Théâtre du Palais-Royal in 1988, where she played Diana Claiborn, and Jean Anouilh's Ornifle ou le Courant d'air, directed by Patrice Leconte at the Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens in 1991.

Her screen acting career began in cinema in 1975, when director Éric Le Hung cast her in a principal role in Raging Fists alongside Philippe Lavot, Marie-Georges Pascal, and Tony Gatlif. That same year she appeared in Émilienne, directed by Guy Casaril, and in Flic Story, directed by Jacques Deray. Subsequent film appearances include Haute surveillance in 1981, directed by Pierre-Alain Jolivet, Le Jumeau in 1984 with Pierre Richard, directed by Yves Robert, and Les amies de ma femme in 1992, directed by Didier Van Cauwelaert, alongside Michel Leeb, Christine Boisson, and Catherine Arditi.

Dorner's television work began in the late 1960s and has been extensive. She took the title role in the 1978 TV movie La Petite Fadette, directed by Lazare Iglesis. In 1985, she played Commissioner Françoise Valence in the series Madame et ses flics. In 1996, she appeared in the television adaptation of her own play Le Parfum de Jeannette, directed by Jean-Daniel Verhaeghe, for which she also co-wrote the screenplay alongside Verhaeghe and Jean-Claude Carrière.

As a writer, Dorner co-authored the plays L'Hirondelle and Le Parfum de Jeannette with Jean-Claude Carrière, work that earned the Prix du Jeune Théâtre Béatrix Dussane-André Roussin. Her debut novel, La Fille du rang derrière, published by Albin Michel in 2004, received the Prix Goncourt du premier roman and drew critical attention in both France and the United States. Her 2006 novel La Douceur assassine was awarded the Prix Émile Augier by the Académie française and was later adapted for cinema under the title Mr. Morgan's Last Love in 2013, directed by Sandra Nettelbeck, with Dorner receiving a co-writing credit on the screenplay. In 2011, her novel Tartelettes, jarretelles et bigorneaux earned her the Prix Roger-Nimier.