Mélanie Laurent will play Rosa Bonheur in a major biopic

A historical fresco which will retrace the extraordinary destiny of this major feminist artist of the 19th century.

While waiting to see her as Marie-Antoinette in The flood (this year at the cinema), Melanie Laurent is about to play another historical figure. This time in the world of the arts since she will embody Rosa Bonheura pioneering 19th-century feminist artist, in a major costume biopic, directed by Fabienne Berthaud.

The writer will sign her sixth feature film there. In particular, she had done Barefoot on slugsselected for the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2010, and A bigger worldselected in Venice in 2019.

The film Rosa Bonheur will be filmed in the Rosa Bonheur workshop located at Château de By, in Thomery in Seine-et-Marne. She took up residence there from 1859 and worked and lived there for more than 40 years, alongside her partner Nathalie Micas and later with Anna Klumpke, an American painter.

Fabienne Berthaud works closely with Katherine Brault, who bought Château de By in 2017 and transformed it into a museum, after discovering hundreds of letters, works of art, objects and documents that had remained intact for more than a century and which will be used for the film.

Rosa Bonheur, who mainly painted animals in their natural environment with meticulous realism, was the first female artist to receive the Legion of Honor. She also wore pants, which required her to obtain cross-dressing authorization from the Paris police. To obtain this authorization, Bonheur argued that she had to dress like a man to visit slaughterhouses and animal fairs to paint.

“She gave a soul to animals and she still remains today a major figure of female emancipation, a woman who never compromised and was never a courtesan”comments Fabienne Berthaud in Variety. The film will also trace Bonheur’s worldwide fame, particularly in the United States, where she became friends with William Frederick Cody, aka Buffalo Bill.

No release date yet.