In 1999, a film directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne snatched the Golden Palm and the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Festival. The film in question was Rosetta. Produced, directed and written by the brothers, the film starred in a young Émilie Dequenne playing a vulnerable teenager who goes out for a job to ensure a better life for her and her mother.
The ripening drama was responsible for highlighting the career of the Belgian actress, who at the time was only 18 years old. Dead at the 43 victim of a rare cancer in the adrenal gland, Émilie would be chosen as best actress in Cannes once again throughout her career, as well as accumulating victories in Caesar Awards and other European awards.
Life and Career of Émilie Dequenne
Born in the city of Belo, Belgium, on August 29, 1981, Émilie began studying performance and dramatic arts at the age of 12, and soon became part of a local theater company. He was climbing to the Dardenne brothers’ movie at 17, and the role was responsible for his climbing fame, making her a prominent career in art films in Europe.
Em RosettaDequenne plays the title character, a young woman who lives with her alcoholic mother (played by Anne Yernaux) in a residential trailer park, and fights for a job to get them out of the risk situation. When an experience contract ends without it being hired fixed, Rosetta refuses donations made by charity and struggles to stabilize in a decent job.
Criticizing success, the film was Belgium’s selected to compete for the Oscar of the following year, and although it did not get an appointment to the gym award, the highlight was enough for Dequenne to receive attention and earn a prominent career.
Acting mostly in French language works, she is credited with more than 60 titles, in which films such as Our children (2012), The things we say, the things we do (2020), The Pact of Wolves (2021) e Close (2022).
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As for English -speaking works, Dequenne acted with Robert de Niro in the movie The Bridge of San Luis Rey (2004), in the TV series The Missing (2014) and in the adventure Sci-Fi Survive (2024). His last work for the cinema was in the Belgian feature TKT (2024), in which he plays the mother of a victim of bullying.
Other awards
In 2012, Dequenne was awarded Cannes for the second time, now as the best actress at the Parallel UN Right Regard show, for the psychological family drama Our children. The feature accompanies a happy couple, Mounir (Tahar Rahim) and Murielle (Dequenne), who falls in love and decides to have children. But unlike other couples, they agree to renounce their autonomy and agree to live with Mounir’s adoptive father, unaware that they are walking towards a tragedy.
In 2018, Émilie was elected best actress at the Belgian awards Magitte Awards, for the feature This is our land. Two years later, he won the title of best supporting actress at César Awards, with The things we say, the things we do. In addition, Lukas Dhont’s hit Close was nominated for the Oscar for best international film in 2022. In the plot, she plays Sophie, mother of Rémi (Gustav de Waele), one of the central characters.
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In an interview with France Info Radio (via Variety), Luc Dardenne lamented the death of Émilie. “Acting was your life. She was an actress who could have done many things, and someone people loved. She was intuitive, but she struggled and loved to work. ”
