At the age of 15, Bastien left home to study at a regional dance conservatory and, the following year, joined the Académie Fratellini. She later took acting classes by Véra Gregh,
John Strasberg and
Jack Waltzer. She began her acting career in 1980 under her birth name Fanny Meunier with a small role in
Tendres Cousines, a soft-core erotic film by
David Hamilton. Shen then portrayed a young pregnant high school student in the comedy
Le bahut va craquer (1981) alongside
Michel Galabru,
Claude Jade,
Darry Cowl and
Dany Carrel. She later adopted the stage name
Fanny Bastien and secured the lead role as the title character in the three-part television film
Dorothée, danseuse de corde (1983), adapted from the novel of the same name by
Maurice Leblanc about a young tightrope walker in a traveling circus. Bastien acted regularly through the 1980s, often playing leading roles, navigating between auteur films and mainstream works alongside, among others,
Gérard Jugnot,
Richard Berry and
Bernard Giraudeau, in the films
Pinot simple flic,
Urgence and
Killing Time. Her screen appearances declined in the mid-1990s. Bastien presides over the Festival du Film Insolite in
Rennes-le-Château, which she co-founded with Geoffroy Thiebaut in 2015. ==Filmography==