Laurent Boutonnat

In December 2010, Farmer released her eighth album, Bleu Noir, without the collaboration of Boutonnat. The album marks the first time that Farmer and Boutonnat did not work together in Farmer's music career. The couple reunited in 2012 composing together all the songs for the album Monkey Me, the albums after that however were again done without Boutonnat.

In 2007, Boutonnat finally directed Jacquou le Croquant, his first feature film since 1994.Variety gave the film a positive review, praising it as "feisty family fare" with "pleasingly Dickensian" themes. Characterizing the film as a "handsomely mounted, old-fashioned mini-epic", Variety singled out its cinematography for praise: "Painterly widescreen lensing wins the day. Shot in the burnished fields and rustic outcroppings of France and Romania, with a preference for classy amber and ochre tones, many scenes look like vintage etchings or oil paintings."

In 2001, Boutonnat directed his first video for Farmer since "Beyond My Control", her hit single "Les Mots" that she recorded with Seal. The video contains many references to Le radeau de la méduse, the famous painting by Géricault.

in 1994, Boutonnat directed his first feature film, Giorgino, based on an idea he had had for many years. Starring Farmer, Jeff Dahlgren and Joss Ackland, the film was a major critical and commercial flop at the time, even if more recent reviews of the film are less hostile with the film after it achieved cult status with its DVD release. Personally shaken by the disaster, Boutonnat and Farmer decided to part ways. Farmer exiled herself in the USA where she started writing new lyrics and discovering new music. Shortly afterwards, she reconciled with Boutonnat when she asked him to join her to write the music. The resulting album was a success. The corresponding music videos were not directed by Boutonnat as agreed by both.

Boutonnat's videos for Farmer contained many nude and sexual provocative scenes which forced the TV stations to ban them from airplay. In the early 1990s, at the end of the promotion of Farmer and Boutonnat's hugely successful album L'Autre..., Farmer decided to start working with different music video directors. Boutonnat remained her songwriting partner. The last video he directed for her at that time was "Beyond My Control", banned from daytime TV airplay for violence and sex.

In 1984, having composed a song called "Maman a tort" with Jérôme Dahan for which they needed a female singer, they started auditioning, and Mylène Farmer, a young student in acting, eventually showed up. Boutonnat and Farmer then started an artistic collaboration which goes on to this day. While Farmer had limited songwriting input on her first album, she thereafter took the habit of writing all the lyrics while Boutonnat composes the music and arranges it.

Laurent Boutonnat (born 14 June 1961) is a French composer and film and music video director, best known as the songwriting partner of Mylène Farmer and the director of several groundbreaking music videos.