Catherine Breillat was born in 1948 and moved to Paris when she was 17. She got her professional start as a writer with a novel which she herself described as libertine, L'Homme facile, published in May 1968. She has written nine other books since. In 1975, she directed her first film, Une vraie jeune fille, than collaborated the following year on David Hamilton's Bilitis. Her films deal with desire and female sexuality and attack repressive morality and male education.