Lavant was born in
Neuilly-sur-Seine,
Hauts-de-Seine, in France. At 13, he took courses in pantomime and the circus, fascinated by
Marcel Marceau. He trained at the
Paris Conservatoire under Jacques Lassalle, and began his professional career in 1982 in theatre, acting in Shakespeare's
Hamlet and
The Merchant of Venice. In 1982 he appeared in the television film ''L'Ombre sur la plage'', before playing the minor part of
Montparnasse in
Robert Hossein's
Les Misérables, He appeared in several further minor roles before making his breakthrough in 1984 as the lead in
Boy Meets Girl, playing a depressed, aspiring filmmaker who falls in love with a suicidal young woman. The film marked the feature-film debut of
Leos Carax, with whose work Lavant has been associated ever since. In 1986, Lavant and Carax worked together again on the thriller
Mauvais Sang and again in 1991 on Carax's third film,
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf. In both
Mauvais Sang and
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, Lavant starred opposite
Juliette Binoche. In 1998, Lavant appeared in the
Jonathan Glazer-directed video for the
UNKLE song "
Rabbit in Your Headlights", and in 1999, he played one of the lead roles in
Beau Travail, directed by
Claire Denis. In 2007, he appeared in
Harmony Korine's
Mister Lonely, in which he portrayed a
Charlie Chaplin impersonator. Lavant, who does not speak English, took an intensive language course in preparation and learned his lines phonetically. His longtime associate Leos Carax appears in a supporting role as the main character's
talent agent. In 2008, Lavant and Carax re-united for the
anthology film Tokyo!, which marked their first work together since
Lovers on the Bridge and Carax's first major directing work in nearly a decade. Carax's segment for the film, called "Merde," starred Lavant as a violent monster who lives in the sewers of Tokyo and speaks in a gibberish language, venturing out occasionally to attack passersby. In 2012, he starred in
Leos Carax' film
Holy Motors where he plays a "chameleonic actor on assignment, ferried around Paris in a white limousine and changing en route from beggar-woman to satyr to assassin to victim." The film was an entrant at the
Cannes Film Festival. In 2016, he starred in a 30-second clip directed by
Yorgos Lanthimos to accompany the song "
Identikit" by
Radiohead. In 2026, he starred in John Skoog's movie
Redoubt (Värn) as the real-life farmer Karl-Göran Persson, a farmer teetering on the edge of madness who, at the peak of the Cold War, starts fortifying his house to build a fortress meant to protect himself and his neighbours, which causes a conflict with the people in the village. ==Filmography==