Laurent Boutonnat

June 14, 1961 — Paris, Ile-de-France, France

Laurent Boutonnat is a French filmmaker and music producer. He grew up in Paris, France, and developed a passion for music very early on (he played the piano from the age of five) and cinema (he made small short films at a very young age, including a strange adaptation of Bambi in 1971). He stopped studying at the age of fifteen, looking for work and taking up writing, he abandons music and became more and more interested in cinema. At the age of seventeen, he made his first film, the medium-length film, Ballade de la Féconductrice, which was screened for two weeks in Paris in 1980. He worked as a cameraman alongside reporter Jean-François Chauvel then devoted himself to producing television commercials. He is best known for discovering the French pop star Mylène Farmer together with his friend and collaborater Jérôme Dahan. They wrote Mylène's debut song "Maman a tort", and Boutonnat directed the music video for it. He has since made 20 music videos for Farmer, and videos for other artists including Alizée, and Nathalie Cardone.