JANE BIRKIN, whose career highlights include simulating sex in the song Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus and appearing naked in some questionable films, has never been noted for modesty.

Now the British-born actress-singer has decided to make her own biopic in which she is writing, directing and starring as herself. For good measure Birkin, whose marriage to the louche French performer-director Serge Gainsbourg made her an icon of the late 1960s and 1970s, has signed a cast of friends and relatives for the movie, entitled Boxes.

According to friends, the approach of Birkin’s 60th birthday in December has crystallised plans to dramatise the chapters, or “boxes”, of her 40-year career. The film, to be announced this week to coincide with the Cannes film festival, will start shooting next month.

Critics wonder if the production is little more than a vanity project. The entertainment industry has a long history of such follies, in which ego or love have got in the way of artistic judgment.

Kenneth Branagh was criticised for Peter’s Friends, the 1992 movie in which he starred alongside a cast of his own inner circle, including Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and his then wife Emma Thompson.

Even the reputation of Francis Ford Coppola was not enough to protect his daughter, Sofia, from the critics when he cast her in Godfather III, released in 1990. One described her performance as “a benchmark of inert, nuance-free thespianism (not to mention paternal folly)”.

A hallmark of Birkin’s career has been exhibitionism, including appearing naked in the 1967 movie Blow-Up, in which she distinguished herself by becoming the first actress to show her pubic hair in a non-sex film.

The biopic must serve as a substitute for Birkin’s memoirs which she has never written, despite offers from publishers.

Birkin’s first husband was the musician John Barry, best known for his film scores, notably in the James Bond films. He will be played by John Hurt, star of The Elephant Man.

Maurice Bénichou, who was in this year’s award-winning film Hidden, will play Gainsbourg, who died in 1991. The film will also star Geraldine Chaplin, daughter of Sir Charles, as Birkin’s mother Judy Campbell, who died in 2004 after a successful stage career. Chaplin is best known for roles in Doctor Zhivago, The Age of Innocence and Nashville.

Gainsbourg and Birkin, married from 1968 to 1980, were the darlings of Paris’s Left Bank — two glamorous and creative people who were treated almost like royalty by parts of the French press.

Yet Birkin was often perceived as playing second fiddle to Gainsbourg. Some of her choices, appearing in dubious films such as Sex Power and Don Juan 73 — in which she played the lesbian lover of Brigitte Bardot — did not help.

In 1969 she and Gainsbourg had released the song Je T’Aime. It was originally recorded with Bardot, but Birkin was enlisted when Bardot backed out. While Gainsbourg declared it was “the ultimate love song”, it was banned by the BBC, ensuring a number one in the UK singles chart.

The couple’s marriage was characterised by domestic fights; after one particularly upsetting feud, Birkin threw herself into the River Seine.

Scandal even touched their family life. In 1986, Gainsbourg appeared in bed scenes alongside the couple’s daughter, Charlotte, in a movie about incest. Audiences were led to think this screen relationship might have been replicated in real life.

In 1980, Birkin left Gainsbourg. Yet separating from her mentor only seemed to strengthen Birkin’s professional relationship with him and he wrote three albums for her after their split.

Gainsbourg became even more provocative, often turning up unshaven and drunk on stage. In his most famous outburst, he propositioned the singer Whitney Houston on a television chat show. He died aged 62 of a heart attack.

Birkin remains a bit of a national treasure on both sides of the Channel. She has been awarded an OBE for her services to acting, as well as l’ordre national du merité. She is also the inspiration for a Hermès bag.

• The Cannes festival, which opens on Wednesday, will be dominated by Hollywood, starting with The Da Vinci Code ahead of its worldwide release on Friday. Also on show will be United 93, the movie about the attack on the Twin Towers, shot by Paul Greengrass, the British director.

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