Françoise Bonnot

Bonnot was the daughter of Monique Bonnot, a film editor noted for several films directed by Jean-Pierre Melville. In her first film credit, Françoise Bonnot was the assistant to her mother on Melville's 1959 film, Two Men in Manhattan (1959). She and her mother co-edited the 1962 film, A Monkey in Winter, that was directed by Henri Verneuil. At about this time Bonnot married Verneuil; she edited three more of his films in the 1960s. Bonnot edited Melville's 1969 film, Army of Shadows, when her mother became unavailable. This film is about the French resistance fighters during the Second World War, and was a departure from Melville's more characteristic crime and detective films. Bonnot later remarked that Melville “... had known me since I was eight years old. It was like working with my big brother. He was a character––fascinating, charming, fun and tyrannical.”

By 1968, Bonnot had commenced her notable collaboration with director Costa-Gavras that extended over eight films and nearly 30 years. Their first film together was Z (1969); James Berardinelli has written recently that, "Z was the third feature film from Greek-born Costa-Gavras, but it is the movie that captured him to the world's attention, winning a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. It introduced the director's signature approach of combining overt political messages with edge-of-the-seat tension." After Z, their most widely recognized film together is probably Missing (1982). Their last film together was Mad City (1997).

Throughout her life, Bonnot edited the films directed by Julie Taymor, who had been known primarily as a stage director. Their films include Frida (2002) and The Tempest (2010).

Bonnot won the Academy Award for Film Editing for Z (1969), and the BAFTA Award for Best Editing for Missing (1982). She was nominated three times for the César Award for Best Editing (for The Simple Past (1977), Hannah K. (1983) and Place Vendôme (1998)). She had been elected to membership in the American Cinema Editors.

Bonnot and Henri Verneuil had two children. Their son, Patrick Malakian, is a film director; Bonnot edited his 1994 French-language film Pourquoi maman est dans mon lit?. Bonnot died on 9 June 2018 in Paris, France aged 78.

Source: Article "Françoise Bonnot" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.