9 of Charlotte Gainsbourg's Best Films

In honor of the actress and director's 50th birthday, L'OFFICIEL looks back at her notable movie roles.

Charlotte Gainsbourg photographed by Christophe Kutner for L'OFFICIEL Paris 2001.

Charlotte Gainsbourg is 50 years old today, and she’s already accomplished more than most hope to achieve in a lifetime. Singers Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg are a tough act to follow as parents, but she has thrived in their shadow. Besides being a fabulous actress, she’s also a talented songwriter, starting to sing with her dad when she was just 12 years old. To celebrate the L'OFFICIEL star's biggest birthday yet, we round up her best movies to date. From the thrilling Dark Crimes to the action-packed Independence Day: Resurgence, there’s not a lot Gainsbourg can’t do.

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“The Snowman” is a crime and mystery film about detective Harry Hole who must investigate a series of murders by The Snowman Killer. Gainsbourg plays Hole’s ex-girlfriend.

Alongside Jim Carrey, Gainsbourg stars in “Dark Crimes,” another detective-solving-a-murder-mystery story, but this time, the detective sees parallels between the murder and a best-selling novel. In this one, Gainsbourg plays a prostitute who is in a codependent relationship of sorts with Carrey's character, Tadek.

“I’m Not There” has an all-star cast featuring Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Michelle Williams, and more, and the plot is all about Bob Dylan at different points in his life. Gainsbourg’s character is Claire, a French artist and eventually, the wife of Robbie Clark (Ledger), an actor trying to make it in the Greenwich Village acting scene.

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Again, Gainsbourg plays a woman named Claire in Lars von Trier's “Melancholia,” a film about destiny, when a planet is about to have a collision with Earth, and the characters on it must cope with the troubles in their lives. Gainsbourg plays the sister of Justine, Kirsten Dunst’s character, as they navigate life together.

In "Nymphomanic" Volume I and II, another Lars von Trier project, Gainbourg plays self-diagnosed nyphomanic Joe in this notoriously explicit two-part film series.

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“Samba” is about an illegal immigrant trying to stay in Paris and his caseworker, played by Gainsbourg, who fights to help him stay. It’s not long before their professional relationship turns romantic.

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One of Gainsbourg’s darker psychological films, “Antichrist” is about an unnamed married couple mourning the death of their young son. Throughout the movie, the wife, played by Gainsbourg, slowly begins to mentally unravel.

“21 Grams” is about the aftermath of a brutal automobile accident where Gainsbourg acts as Mary Rivers, the wife of Paul Rivers, a mathematics professor who has a fatal heart condition and won’t live past a month unless he gets a transplant.

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In “Independence Day: Resurgence,” a mothership is approaching Earth, but this time, humans are prepared, as they developed a defense system for aliens to return to Earth nearly 20 years prior. Gainsbourg plays Dr. Catherine Marceaux, a French psychiatrist researching telepathy between humans and aliens who is also the significant other of David Levinson, played by Jeff Goldblum.