Émilie Dequenne, who gained finest actress honors at age 17 on the Cannes Movie Competition for her function within the Belgian movie “Rosetta,” died on Sunday in Villejuif, France. She was 43.
Her loss of life, at a hospital, was confirmed by Marie-Laure Calmette, an assistant to Ms. Dequenne’s longtime agent, Danielle Achieve. Ms. Dequenne had been identified with adrenal most cancers.
Ms. Dequenne was starring in her first movie function when she performed the lead in “Rosetta,” a 1999 movie directed by the brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The movie, a few working-class teenager preventing to hold onto a job, gained the Palme d’Or, the highest honor at Cannes.
Ms. Dequenne revealed in October 2023 that she had been identified with adrenocortical carcinoma, a uncommon and aggressive adrenal most cancers.
She talked about her prognosis in an interview on the tv present “Sept à Huit,” on the French community TF1, which aired in December 2024.
Ms. Dequenne appeared in practically 50 movies and gained quite a few awards, together with a César, one in every of France’s high movie honors, for finest supporting actress in “Love Affair(s),” (“Les Choses Qu’on Dit, les Choses Qu’on Fait”), a 2020 movie directed by Emmanuel Mouret.
She was maybe finest recognized for her roles within the 2012 drama “Our Children” (“À perdre la raison”), by the Belgian director Joachim Lafosse, and “Rosetta.” When she auditioned for the function in “Rosetta,” she made an instantaneous impression, Luc Dardenne recalled in an interview with the French radio station FranceInfo that aired on Monday.
“The primary day she shot in entrance of an actual digital camera, she managed to carry the entire group collectively,” Mr. Dardenne told the Belgian broadcaster RTBF. “That’s what occurred, and it bought higher and higher because the shoot progressed.”
Ms. Dequenne was born in Beloeil, Belgium, on Aug. 29, 1981. She studied drama on the Académie de Musique et des Arts de la Parole de Baudour in Belgium. She started her appearing profession at an organization primarily based in a area of Belgium close to the border with France.
She is survived by her husband, Michel Ferracci, and a daughter, Milla Savarese, along with her former accomplice, the Belgian DJ Alexandre Savarese.
Final Could, whereas her most cancers was in remission, she celebrated the twenty fifth anniversary of “Rosetta” on the Cannes Movie Competition. She additionally promoted a brand new movie, “Survive,” launched final 12 months. Most lately, she appeared in “TKT,” a movie about bullying that’s set at a Belgian highschool.
