[3] William Peploe, her father, worked as a British civil servant before becoming an art dealer and then director of London's Lefevre Gallery.
[5] Peploe debuted as a director with the short comic film[4] Couples and Robbers (1981), produced by Christine Oestreicher, which received both Oscar and BAFTA nominations.
[4] Her films characteristically mixed genres and attracted well-known actors, e.g., Jacqueline Bisset, Irene Papas, Kenneth Branagh, Bridget Fonda, and Russell Crowe.
[8][9] It was based on an 18th-century French stage play by Pierre de Marivaux, and included Ben Kingsley and Mira Sorvino in its cast.
Before marrying Bertolucci, Peploe worked as assistant director on his 1900 in 1976, although when she was directing her own films she banned him from her sets because he intimidated her crew.