Virginie Despentes

Writing

Virginie Despentes

Born

1969-06-13 (57)

Place of birth

Nancy, France

Known for

Writing

Credits

14 titles

Virginie Despentes is a French writer, novelist, and filmmaker. Her work is an inventory of youth marginalization; it participates to the sexual revolution lived by Generation X and to the acclimation of pornography in public spaces through new communication techniques. With a transgressive exploration of obscenity's limits, as a novelist or a film-maker she proposes social critique and an antidote to the new moral order.

Known for

Quotidien poster
4.9

Quotidien (nicknamed "The French Show with the Good Lighting" abroad) is a French daily infotainment television program broadcast in the early evening on TMC since September 12, 2016. The show is hosted by Yann Barthès and produced by Bangumi. It consists of segments and reports produced by the team of commentators and journalists surrounding Yann Barthès and features daily guests including newsmakers, intellectuals, politicians, and French and international celebrities.

Quotidien

2016

Baise-moi poster
4.8

Nadine and Manu are two mad women, as tidy as can be, almost perfectionists. They have several things in common: extreme sex, drugs, beer and the trigger. They find the solution to their problems with guns and beware to those who dare to get in their way!

Baise-moi

2000

Drag Race France poster
8.2

On the French version of RuPaul's Drag Race, each week, the queens are subjected to rigorous and funny mini and maxi challenges, and exceptional fashion shows that highlight their art. To keep their place in the adventure, the two queens at the bottom of the rankings will have to perform a legendary lip-sync to save their lives!

Drag Race France

2022

La Grande Librairie poster
8.0

La Grande Librairie is a 90-minute literary program, launched by François Busnel in September 2008 and presented by Augustin Trapenard since 2022, broadcast live every Wednesday on France 5. A direct successor to Bernard Pivot's Apostrophes, it is the only literary program scheduled in prime time and is considered the most influential program on book sales, thanks to its connection with small bookstores, which attest to the return of readers in many French cities.

La Grande Librairie

2008

No Mercy poster
NR

From the starting point of her admiration for the pioneering Ukrainian filmmaker Kira Muratova (1934-2018), the director poses a question: is cinema made by women really tougher, more violent? Seeking answers, she talks to great contemporary filmmakers like Catherine Breillat, Virginie Despentes, Alice Diop, Céline Sciamma, Ana Lily Amirpour, and Monika Treut, among others. It becomes obvious that the cinema screen is a space for the projection of real social problems and power relations.

No Mercy

2026

Orlando, My Political Biography poster
6.8

Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel "Orlando: A Biography" follows the centuries-spanning life of a young nobleman who awakens to find that they are a woman. Almost a century after its publication, Paul B. Preciado claims that fiction has become reality and Orlando's story lies at the root of all contemporary trans and non-binary life.

Orlando, My Political Biography

2023

Film credits

2020s · 3 titles

No Mercy poster
NR

From the starting point of her admiration for the pioneering Ukrainian filmmaker Kira Muratova (1934-2018), the director poses a question: is cinema made by women really tougher, more violent? Seeking answers, she talks to great contemporary filmmakers like Catherine Breillat, Virginie Despentes, Alice Diop, Céline Sciamma, Ana Lily Amirpour, and Monika Treut, among others. It becomes obvious that the cinema screen is a space for the projection of real social problems and power relations.

No Mercy

2026

Orlando, My Political Biography poster
6.8

Virginia Woolf's 1928 novel "Orlando: A Biography" follows the centuries-spanning life of a young nobleman who awakens to find that they are a woman. Almost a century after its publication, Paul B. Preciado claims that fiction has become reality and Orlando's story lies at the root of all contemporary trans and non-binary life.

Orlando, My Political Biography

2023

Les Scandaleuses poster
8.5

Béatrice Dalle, Lio, Brigitte Fontaine, Corinne Masiero, Aïssa Maïga, Virginie Despentes, Maria Schneider, Gisèle Halimi, Juliette Gréco, and Adèle Haenel—these women lived on their own terms, defying conventions and embracing lives often deemed "scandalous." Labeled frivolous, hysterical, or simply too free and too loud, they faced criticism yet used controversy as a force for change, challenging norms and advancing women's rights. This documentary retraces seventy years of their bold and unconventional journeys, telling the story of the fearless women who shaped history and fought for a more equal world.

Les Scandaleuses

2024

Series credits

Behind the camera