Ounie Lecomte

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Ounie Lecomte
R avec Ounie Lecomte (cropped).jpg
Lecomte in 2010
Born1966
Seoul
Nationality French (born in South Korea)
Known forsemi-autobiographical films

Ounie Lecomte (born 1966) is a South Korean-born French film director, writer and actress. Her semi-autobiographical debut film won her a best director award at the 40th International Film Festival of India.

Life

Lecomte was born in Seoul on 17 November 1966. [1] Her parents' marriage ended in divorce and this was not socially accepted. When she was nine, her family abandoned her. [2] Between 1975 and 1976, she was in the Saint Paul orphanage in Seoul [3] although she was not an orphan. She was offered for adoption, and a couple in France took her in. This was not unusual as South Korea had 160,000 legal international adoptions, more than any other country in the 1990s. Her new parents were a pastor and his wife who lived in the Parisian suburb of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Although she was ten, she was placed in a nursery to learn French. [2]

She studied fashion design, and she designed costumes for films. [3]

Actor-director Mammooty presenting the Best Director's award to Ounie Lecomte for A Brand New Life The Chief Guest and renowned film actor Shri Mamooty presenting the Best Director's award to Ms. Ounie Lecomte for her film 'A Brand New Life', at the closing ceremony of the 40th IFFI-2009, at Panaji, Goa.jpg
Actor-director Mammooty presenting the Best Director's award to Ounie Lecomte for A Brand New Life

She gained her first major role when she appeared in a 1991 film about a family, Paris Awakens, which was directed by Olivier Assayas. [4]

She wrote a screenplay based on her life, which she started during a film writing course in 2006. [3] Lee Chang-dong became the film's producer. It was about her early life and the trauma of her adoption. Lecomte found that she had forgotten how to speak Korean fluently and though she tried, she could not easily regain the skill. [2]

Her film was released in South Korea in 2009 [5] and in 2010 it was released in France. [4] It was shown at the Cannes Film Festival [3] and she was awarded the Best Director's award for that film A Brand New Life , at the 40th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2009), at Panaji, Goa in December 2009. [6]

In 2015, she directed the film Looking for Her. The film was again related to her own life in that it deals with the issues surrounding adoption. It looks at contact with birth parents and the rights of those involved and issues of race. It was considered more ambitious than her first film. [7]

References

  1. ↑ "Ounie Lecomte". PORT.hu (in Hungarian). Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  2. 1 2 3 "Ounie Lecomte : à Corée à cri". Libération.fr (in French). 2010-01-06. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  3. 1 2 3 4 festivaldecannes (2009-05-19). "Special Screening: "A Brand New Life" by Ounie Lecomte". Festival de Cannes. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  4. 1 2 "Ounie Lecomte". www.telerama.fr (in French). Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  5. ↑ "Lee Chang-dong's film "Life" to open Oct 29". 아시아경제 (in Korean). 2009-09-18. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  6. ↑ "The Chief Guest and renowned film actor Shri Mamooty presenting the Best Director's award to Ms. Ounie Lecomte for her film 'A Brand New Life', at the closing ceremony of the 40th IFFI-2009, at Panaji, Goa on December 03, 2009". archive.pib.gov.in. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
  7. ↑ Kerr, Elizabeth (2015-10-05). "'Looking for Her': Busan Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2024-03-16.
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