She began her acting career in the 1980s. She starred in Claude Berri's Jean de Florette and Manon des sources, for which she won the César for Best Supporting Actress.

Claude Sautet's Un cœur en hiver (1991) and Nelly et monsieur Arnaud (1994) won numerous awards; André Téchiné directed her in J'embrasse pas (1991), Les Égarés (2003), Les Témoins (2006); she worked with Brian de Palma, Claude Chabrol, Olivier Assayas, François Ozon, Isabelle Rocard, Renaud Bertrand, Michaël Cohen, Virginie Despentes...

More recently, she has appeared in Télé Gaucho by Michel Leclerc, Par exemple Electre by Jeanne Balibar, Les Yeux jaunes des crocodiles by Cécile Telerman and My Mistress by Stephen Lance, L'étreinte by Ludovic Bergery, Les passagers de la nuit by Mikhaël Hers.

On stage, Bernard Murat directed her in Jean Anouilh's La Répétition (1986) and Marivaux's La Double Inconstance (1988); Jacques Weber in Molière's Le Misanthrope (1989); Jean-Pierre Vincent in Alfred de Musset's On ne badine pas avec l'amour (1993); Luc Bondy in August Strindberg's Jouer avec le feu (1996); Stanislas Nordey in Les Justes, Se trouver, Par les villages and Eric Von Stroheim. She also appeared with him in Répétition et Architecture by Pascal Rambert.

She co-directed Un silence si bruyant, with Anastasia Mikova, a documentary about incest in which three women and a man recount their broken childhoods.

A UNICEF ambassador (1996-2006), she takes part in numerous humanitarian activities. She was awarded the Stanislavski Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival (2010) for lifetime achievement.