Coline Serreau

The recorded working language is French. Works named in the authority record are Three Men and a Cradle, La Crise, La Belle Verte and Think Global, Act Rural. Distinctions recorded are Knight of the Legion of Honour, Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres, Officer of the National Order of Merit and Commander of the National Order of Merit.

She was born in Paris, the daughter of theatre director Jean-Marie Serreau and actress Geneviève Serreau. In Paris, Serreau studied literature, music and theatre and is a trained organist and trapeze artist. Her stage work began at the Comédie Française and she has written many plays. Her film debut in 1977 was Pourquoi pas!, a love triangle story which was a success around Europe. Her 1985 comedy Trois hommes et un couffin (remade in the US as Three Men and a Baby was the most commercially successful film of the 1980s in French.

In 1970, she made her debut as an actress at the Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier. Serreau wrote her first screenplay in 1973. Her first film, the documentary film Mais qu'est-ce qu'elles veulent? (1978), literally: But What Is It That They Want?, was a compilation of interviews with women from various backgrounds. The frankness of the statements shocked parts of the public. Her biggest commercial success was the comedy film Three Men and a Cradle (Trois hommes et un couffin; 1985), for which she received three César Awards in 1986. It was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 1986, her first drama for the stage Lapin Lapin (Rabbit Rabbit), directed by Benno Besson, had its world premiere. She collaborated with Besson for several years and he also staged Le théâtre de verdure (1987) and Quisaitout et Grobêta (1993).