Jean-Louis Daniel

Having served as Bernard Dubois's assistant on "Lola's Lolos," 25 year-old Jean-Louis Daniel made his directorial debut in 1977 with "La Bourgeoise et le loubard," in which a Parisian drifter flits between a young hooker and a middle-aged wife. He followed this with the Marie-Christine Barrault vehicle "M'me les mômes ont du vague à l'âme" and the simmering revenge melodrama "Les Fauves," in which Philippe Léotard stalks stuntman Daniel Auteuil for killing his sister in an car crash. Daniel generated a similarly disconcerting atmosphere in "Peau d'ange," as Alexandra Stewart realizes that secretary Robin Renucci is assuming the identity of her long-dead husband, and "Septiéme ciel," in which a provincial man teams with a Parisienne to find his missing girlfriend. Over the next decade, however, Daniel had to content himself with small-screen assignments like "Commissaire Moulin" and "Extr'me limite," as well as the "Diana," "Thelma" and "Vera" entries in the erotic "Dark Desires" teleplay series. In 2000, he returned to cinema with Götz Otto rescuing supermodel Angie Everhart from villain Jürgen Prochnow in "Gunblast Vodka" before embarking on the ambitious, fact-based Skin Territory Trilogy. Shot in cinéma vérité style to expose the vulnerability of young women in the modern world, "Shanghai Belle," "Rain Doll" and "Neon Angel" focus respectively on a Chinese prostitute in Paris, a poor little rich girl in London and twin escort sisters finding redemption in Cambodia.