Laurent Boutonnat

Laurent Boutonnat (born 14 June 1961) is a French film score composer and music video director, best known as the songwriting partner of Mylène Farmer and the director of several music videos.

Career

Early career and collaboration with Mylène Farmer

Laurent Boutonnat was born in Paris, France. At the age of 17, he directed his first film, Ballade de la Féconductrice, which was later screened off-competition at the Festival de Cannes. The graphic elements of the film would continue to characterize Boutonnat's style.

In 1984, Boutonnat and Jérôme Dahan began an artistic collaboration with an acting student, Mylène Farmer, and composed the song "Maman a tort" with Farmer as the vocalist. While Farmer had limited songwriting input on her first album, she thereafter wrote all her lyrics while Boutonnat composed and arranged the music.

Boutonnat also took charge of Farmer's visual image. He started directing long, big-budget, literature-inspired music videos that resembled short films, such as "Libertine" and "Pourvu qu'elles soient douces," in which the action takes place during the eighteenth century. Other videos such as "Ainsi soit je..." were praised for their simple visual language.

Boutonnat's videos for Farmer contained many nude and sexually provocative scenes, leading TV stations to ban them from airplay. In the early 1990s, following the promotion of Farmer and Boutonnat's hugely successful album "L'autre...", Farmer began working with different music video directors, though Boutonnat remained her songwriting partner. The last video he directed for her was "Beyond My Control," which was banned from daytime TV for violence and sex.

Feature film and later career

In 1994, Boutonnat directed his first feature film, Giorgino, based on an idea he had had for many years. Starring Farmer, Jeff Dahlgren, and Joss Ackland, the film was a critical and commercial flop, but its DVD release later made it a cult classic. Personally shaken by its failure, Boutonnat and Farmer parted ways. Farmer moved to the United States, where she started writing more lyrics and discovering new music. Shortly afterwards, she reconciled with Boutonnat and asked him to write the music for her lyrics again. Boutonnat did not direct the corresponding music videos for the songs they co-wrote.

Farmer and Boutonnat wrote Alizée's first two. Boutonnat also directed Alizée's music videos, which were more commercial and TV-friendly than those he had previously directed.

In 2001, Boutonnat directed his first video for Farmer since "Beyond My Control," the hit single "Les Mots," which Farmer recorded with Seal. The video contains many references to Le radeau de la méduse, a painting by Géricault.

In 2007, Boutonnat directed Jacquou le Croquant, his first feature film since 1994. Variety gave the film a positive review, describing it as "feisty family fare" with "pleasingly Dickensian" themes. The review highlighted the film as a "handsomely mounted, old-fashioned mini-epic", and praised its cinematography.

In December 2010, Farmer released her eighth album, Bleu Noir. This was the first time in her career that she did not collaborate with Boutonnat. The two reunited in 2012 to compose Monkey Me. However, Farmer's subsequent albums were again created without Boutonnat's involvement. Boutonnat served as the creative director for Mylène Farmer 2019. He and Farmer collaborated to create Julia's "S.E.X.T.O" in 2020.

Boutonnat is set to direct Wilde Versus England, a period drama film chronicling Oscar Wilde’s tumultuous final years.

Productions

Albums composed

External links

• at IMDb