Sophie Marceau’s best roles from La Boum to James Bond

par Violaine Schütz.

Published on 8 September 2025. Updated on 15 September 2025.

In 2022, Sophie Marceau stars in Une femme de notre temps, directed by Jean-Paul Civeyrac where the lead actress portrays a police officer and a revengeful novelist. Meanwhile, the 58 years-old actress was honored with a retrospective at the Cinémathèque, in Paris, which reminds us of her acting range. 

On Monday, September 8th, 2025, we rediscovered the actress on modern lenses thanks to a James Bond retrospective airing on France 3, presenting : Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and The World is not Enough (1999). Numéro takes the opportunity to look back at the most remarkable roles of the career of an actress who took risks, in an industry often harsh on older women.

1. Sophie Marceau depicts teenage angst in La Boum

Sophie Marceau will always be remembered as Vic (nickname for Victoire), a 13 years-old girl idolizing romance at Henri IV, an institution located in Quartier Latin (in Paris). The headstrong young girl wants to attend a party (boum in french), where she falls in love and goes through both the teenage challenges and the divorce of her parents. This feature-film, released in 1980, quickly became cult and resonates with a whole generation. Sophie Marceau in the lead role, at that time not older than 14 years-old, accurately portrays an impudent child whose disarming spontaneity and charisma is striking on camera. And her magnetism, despite being so young, is the reason why director Claude Pinoteau and casting director Françoise Menidrey picked her among thousands of candidates (including Emmanuelle Béart and Sandrine Bonnaire) – in spite of her lack of experience.  

Sophie Marceau doesn’t come from a family tied to the industry. She is a truck driver and a salesperson’s daughter. And she has never had an acting classes. However, in La Boum, she is not only portraying Vic. She is Vic. And the public knows it too. The feature-film, beloved for its comforting allure for the pre-internet generation, rose in popularity quickly and to the point where the actress had to move swiftly to Gentilly (Val-de-Marne) after the movie release. Both reckless and innocent, the protagonist stands as a teen movies’ icon, that the actress portrays again in La Boum 2 (1982) – which gets a César – and L’étudiante (1988) or the mother (in LOL in 2009). 

2. Sophie Marceau as a criminal in Police

In many ways, Police (1985) directed by Maurice Piala, whose screenplay has been written by Catherine Breillat after a drug investigation at Belleville, in Paris. Filming was difficult, both by the pression set up by the director, and the actual slaps happening on screen and executed by Gérard Depardieu, according to the star.

Despite this horrid filming process, the actress’s talent, touching on screen, shines on camera. Sophie Marceau paints Noria’s emotions with a lot of accuracy. Indeed, the ex-girlfriend of a drug dealer starts a new stormy relationship with a violent and misogynistic police officer (Gérard Depardieu). The movie earned a lot of success, drawing people to cinema theaters. 

3. Sophie Marceau portrays a submissive photographer in La Fidélité

In 1985, Sophie Marceau broke the polished image people were associating her with by portraying a sex worker in L’Amour braque – a screen adaption of The Fool written by Dostoïsevski and directed by her partner (and father of her child), Andrzej Zulawski. It represents the first seed of a long take of risks for the actress, who will shoot in many independent movies in the future, notably Beyond the Clouds (1996), directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and Wim Wenders.

In 2000, Sophie Marceau was again given direction by her husband Andrzej Zulawski, in the risk-taking, daring and slightly pretentious La Fidélité, modern adaptation of The Princess of Clèves. She is playing the role of an elusive Clélia, a photographer entangled in the scandalous press world, who has no choice but to face adulterous erotic temptations. Beside Pascal Greggory and Guillaume Canet, the actress – sensual, romantic and passionate – delivers one of the best performances of her career. Although the feature-film aged poorly in modern lenses. 

4. Sophie Marceau, a machiavellian James Bond girl in The World is Not Enough

Sophie Marceau is part of the closely knit prestigious French James Bond girls club beside Carole Bouquet, Eva Green and Léa Seydoux. In The World is Not Enough, she portrays Elektra King, daughter of a murdered petrol mogul that conceals her crueler and manipulative self under the image of a perfect victim, which seduces a secret agent played by Pierce Brosnan. 

With the help of this performance, machiavellian and convincing, Sophie Marceau extends her popularity in the United States, a country she already had within reach when starring in Braveheart in 1995 alongside Mel Gibson. She excels in the femme fatale archetype, far from her usual bubbly roles. 

5. Sophie Marceau as a daughter helping her dad to die in Everything Went Fine

The polarizing topic of the movie, embracing euthanasia, fires up a debate in France and Switzerland. But the exceptional trio (Sophie Marceau, André Dussollier, Géraldine Pailhas) contributes to escape the moralizing trope this topic can trigger in Everything Went Fine, directed by François Ozon. 

Sophie Marceau, who holds the best role of her career, plays a touching portrayal of a sensitive novelist who tries to help her father (André Dussolier) die, after a stroke. Brave, she balances the challenges of accepting grief and trying to resonate with her father. An internal struggle that is beautifully told and resonated among people who go through the same thing.

Movies Tomorrow Never Dies (1999), directed by Roger Spottiswoode and The World is Not Enough (1999), directed by Michael Apted, airing September 8th 2025 on France 3.