Jacques Martineau

ENS graduate and Agrégé, Jacques Martineau writes a thesis on Opera and Love in Balzac's La Comédie humaine. This music lover, who takes opera singing lessons at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory, teaches literature at the University of Nanterre.

In 1995, Jacques Martineau meets Olivier Ducastel, assistant editor on Jacques Demy's last film: Three Seats for the 26th, in 1988. Both embarks on writing and directing their first film, Jeanne and the Perfect Boy, which premiered in Berlin in 1998. A musical inspired by the films of Jacques Demy, which tells the love story of a young girl, played by Virginie Ledoyen, and a boy with AIDS, played by Mathieu Demy.

Ducastel and Martineau release their second opus, The Adventures of Felix (2000), a road movie starring Sami Bouajila. Another initiatory tale, The True Story of My Life in Rouen (2002), portrays a teenager who discovers his own desires by filming those around him with a DV camera. In 2005, Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi and Gilbert Melki star in their fourth film, Cockles and Muscles, a non-conformist vaudeville that also reflects the filmmakers' taste for music and dance. Their collaboration continues with Born in 68 (2008), Family Tree (Jean Vigo Prize 2009), It's Only the End of the World by Jean-Luc Lagarce for the Comédie Française (2020), Paris 05:59 (Audience Award at the Teddy Awards, Berlinale 2016) and Don't Look Down (2019).