Elli Medeiros

Uruguay-born Elli Medeiros has enjoyed a rather anarchic career, which perfectly complements the fact that she got her start as the lead singer for a punk rock group. She had moved to Paris as a teenager with her mother and stepfather in the mid-70s. Restless and full of the sort of energy conventional institutions often fail to nuture, Medeiros dropped out of school and formed the Stinky Toys, one of France's first punk bands, who were big enough to play shows in London along with the Sex Pistols and the Clash. When the band broke up, she joined one of its other members and formed a techno-pop duo. They did the original score for "Full Moon in Paris," a 1984 romance directed by the great Eric Rohmer. This wasn't Medeiros's first encounter with French film, however; in 1979, she starred in "L'enfant secret," an art film by legendary director Philippe Garrel. The same year, she starred in "Copyright," a short film by the acclaimed Olivier Assayas, whose 1998 feature "Late August, Early September" she would also appear in. Medeiros initiated her successful solo career as a singer in 1986 but still found time to continue acting; one of her most prominent starring roles was in the Palme d'Or nominated "Lion's Den," a prison drama directed by Pablo Trapero.