Marie Noëlle grew up in France as a child of Spanish-French parents and first studied mathematics before she entered the film business in the 1980s. In 1988 she founded P'Artisan Filmproduktion GmbH together with her husband Peter Sehr and was responsible for the direction and screenplay of their first feature film "...und nicht ein Tohuwabohu". Peter Sehr's films "Das serbische Mädchen" and "Kaspar Hauser", which was awarded the Filmband in Gold at the German Film Awards 1994, were also made with Noelle's participation. In 1989, she also began a long-term collaboration with the filmmaker Herbert Achternbusch and took over the production management for "I know the way to the Hofbrauhaus" and "Ab nach Tibet".

In 1995, she made her screenplay and directing debut "Ich erzähle mir einen Mann", which was nominated for the Max Ophüls Prize. In the following years she worked with Sehr on the German-French production "Obsession" and on "Love the Hard Way" and was also involved in Achternbusch's "Picasso in München" and "Das Klatschen der einen Hand".
For "Die Frau des Anarchisten" ("The Anarchist's Wife"), an epic story from the Spanish Civil War inspired by Noelle's own family history, she wrote the screenplay and directed together with Peter Sehr. The film was awarded the "Bernhard Wicki Film Prize - Peace Prize of German Cinema" in 2008 and has also received international awards. At the end of 2012 her next collaboration, the cinematic biography "Ludwig II", was released in German cinemas.

Four years later, in December 2016, the biopic "Marie Curie" was released in German cinemas, depicting the eventful life of the famous Nobel Prize winner for physics. The film, starring Karolina Gruszka from Poland, was screened at numerous (inter)national festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Jewish Film Festival, and was awarded the Bavarian Film Prize 2017 in the categories Best Director and Best Production Design.

In her next project, Noëlle again focused on a historical figure: In the docudrama "Heinrich Vogeler", which she began shooting in March 2020, she illuminates the life of the Art Nouveau painter of the same name and important resident of the artists' colony in Worpswede, who, plagued by self-doubt, went to the First World War and returned as a changed person. In the feature film scenes Florian Lukas portrays this central figure of the German Art Nouveau movement, the documentary scenes show interviews with painter Norbert Bisky and Vogeler's great-granddaughter Daniela Platz, among others.

In addition to her work as a filmmaker, Noëlle writes novels and short stories and is committed to promoting culture. In 2005 she founded the association "Treffpunkt Filmkultur" (Meeting Point Film Culture), which is aimed specifically at children and young people. She also takes on teaching assignments and has been working at the University of Television and Film (HFF) Munich since 2008.