from People.com

PEOPLE caught up with the La Vie En Rose star who dished about the secret to her style, gorgeous gems, her attitude about being an Oscar nominee at a recent Chopard-sponsored celebration of Marion Cotillard’s Best Actress Oscar nomination. Although the Gallic beauty is known for her distinctive sense of style, she admits she doesn’t do it alone — but don’t expect any Hollywood stylists waiting in the wings. Instead, the actress reveals that she relies on “My French publicist, who is one of my best friends. He does all that stuff!” And Cotillard was the picture of refined French elegance in a flower embellished strapless Chloe dress set off with a wealth of Chopard gems, including 50-carats of diamonds circling her wrist and a collar at her neck encrusted with a rainbow of semi-precious stones. As for her partnership with Chopard, “They’ve always supported me from the beginning,” she says. When asked about words of wisdom she’s been given about the Oscars, the star says she agrees with the advice George Clooney gave to her fellow nominee Amy Ryan. “‘It will be over in a minute. When the awards are done, they’re done, everyone goes back’” he said. “‘So just to enjoy it and don’t be too frightened.’” Somehow, though, we have a feeling this year’s Oscars won’t be the talented actress’s only chance to shine.

Thanks to Marion Cotillard’s Road to Oscar for the heads up. This year’s Oscars Portfolio in The New York Times Magazine features Marion Cotillard. The issue will come out this Sunday, February 10.

Their website features many goodies: Overview, article, Breakthroughs (Interviews), Shooting Stars – Behind the Scenes, Audio Slide Show.

Language may also be an obstacle for Marion Cotillard, who played the legendary French chanteuse Edith Piaf in “La Vie en Rose.” In what is a particularly striking breakthrough performance, Cotillard shifts in age and mood from Piaf’s early days as a hustling street urchin to her death at 47. Cotillard has starred in hit films in France and appeared opposite Russell Crowe in “A Good Year” in 2006, but “La Vie en Rose” is, much like Penélope Cruz’s performance in “Volver” in 2006, a breakthrough, because suddenly she was seen as a serious actress. Yet no French actress — including Catherine Deneuve or Isabelle Adjani — has ever cracked the accent barrier in America. Cotillard is determined to try: she has taken intense Berlitz classes to learn pitch-perfect English, and she has already been cast in a big-screen adaptation of the musical “Nine,” which will also star Javier Bardem. Cotillard’s ability to mesh utterly with the life of Edith Piaf is not unlike the sense of commitment and attention to detail that dominates Daniel Day-Lewis’s work.

I’ve updated the gallery with all the new pictures. If anyone is able to send in file versions of the videos for the Media Vault please consider doing so. I would be so happy

01 Session 003
28 2008 Oscars Portfolio – Breakthroughs
07 2008 Oscars Portfolio – Shooting Stars

Just wanted to bring to everybody’s attention that I’ve been updating the English Press Archive with a few more interviews and relevant articles about Marion Cotillard.

when asked about ‘Public Enemies’: What I can tell you [is that] what I have to do in that movie makes ‘La Vie en Rose’ seem like a piece of cake. (full article)

Before I can add my own scans of this issue to the site – I’ve already payed for it it only needs to arrive in my letterbox – here’s a HQ scan by the LiveJournal Oh No They Didn’t!

(View scans of all the other features here)

Thanks to dedicated ‘Marion-researcher’ JV – member of the forum at the official Cotillard family website – I came across some fabulous pictures of Marion Cotillard trying out costumes for her upcoming role as Billie in ‘Public Enemies’. See all pictures on Voici.fr. I’ve added most to the newly opened ‘Public Enemies’ gallery here on the site. I’ve also finally brought the sidebar up to date with the current status of Marion’s upcoming projects.

from Rotten Tomatoes / by Alex Vo

The French actress discusses her future plans, including movies and awards season.

There’s worse ways to achieve household name status than by acting out Edith Piaf’s life story. Marion Cotillard’s roles in A Very Long Engagement and Ridley Scott’s box office flop A Good Year gave her recognition in certain filmgoing circles, but its Cotillard’s total transformation in La Vie en Rose as the French singer, now out on DVD, that has drawn unanimous praise from critics and audiences alike, culminating with an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. We caught up with the actress in San Francisco, chatting about Edith Piaf’s impact on contemporary France, and Cotillard’s upcoming projects, including Nine, a remake of 8½ by Rob Marshall.

Previously, you’ve said that your roles in the Taxi movies made it difficult to be taken seriously as an actress. Does the Oscar and Cesar nominations for La Vie en Rose validate your efforts?

Marion Cotillard: I had my validation before this. Taxis are very big commercial movies and in France, in the business, they’re not so serious. So you have to prove that you’re an actor. I think “it” happened when I did the Jean-Pierre Jeunet movie, A Very Long Engagement. The role [was] fantastic. And they gave me a Cesar for nine minutes in the film. So that changed everything for me.

America has mostly recognized La Vie en Rose for your performance, while France is more recognizing the movie as a whole.

MC: I’m so happy that the movie was successful in France, that it was successful here, that it was successful almost everywhere we released it. That’s what is exciting. And it’s going to be exciting to have 11 Cesar nominations. Of course, also very exciting to have the Oscar nomination. You don’t expect to be at the Oscars for a French movie. Let’s say that having an Oscar nomination is very special and more unique than a Cesar.

Beyond the script, when did everyone know they had something big on their hands?

MC: When we finished the movie in May 2006 and showed 10 minutes in Cannes. The buzz was huge after those 10 minutes. And it never went down. That was five months before the movie was to be released so it was a very long time ago.

Even on the set we knew something was going on. There was something very special about the movie that we couldn’t share exactly. [We couldn't] say this at that time because you don’t want to break the spell.

Did that happen with previous movies?

MC: It’s hard to compare. It was the first time I’ve jumped and dived [into a role].

For La Vie en Rose, you didn’t do much rehearsing. Is that typical?

MC: It depends on the role. I don’t stick to special techniques, conscious techniques. I let myself instinctively go [and find the] best way to work. So it changes all the time.

Your family encouraged creativity and the arts. Did the instinctual process come from that upbringing?

MC: Yeah! Every story is different, every movie is different, every director is different. That’s what I like so I couldn’t work with the same technique all the time.

What kind of music do you listen to when you prepare to act?

MC: It depends on the character. When I have a character I have a playlist. I’ve used Piaf for three movies. It’s a little bit of classical music, it’s a little bit of Radiohead. Songs you couldn’t imagine that I would listen to. Songs that I loved as a teenager that moved me.

What influence does Edith Piaf have on contemporary French culture?

MC: We have the American Idols. And we have several shows on TV with young people who sing and every year they sing Piaf. I think that emotion and good stories can cross the times. And her songs probably cross the times.

You were recently cast in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies. What can you say about that?

MC: What I can tell you [is that] what I have to do in that movie makes La Vie en Rose seem like a piece of cake.

What’s the status on Nine? Was it shut down by the strike?

MC: I think they’ve gone back to work because they have a waiver. I hope we can shoot that at the end of the year.

Now that you have American movies coming out, what kind of roles are you searching for here?

MC: I’m looking for good stories. But I don’t have at the present time a specific desire. What I need is to do something totally different, each time. That’s what I love.

Which sort of directors are you looking to work with?

MC: A lot. But I can’t say names. [Laughs.]

As announced earlier, here some fantastic pictures of Marion Cotillard. How more adorable can she look? I so love the 2 dresses she’s wearing to these new events & portraits. Kudos to Chopard for honouring Marion – they really seem to like her. They’ve awarded her with their Chopard trophy at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival before. Marion also attended their event at least year’s Cannes festival and appeared in a special portfolio to advertise Chopard in various issues of Elle magazine. Guests who turned up at Marion’s honoring included Amy Ryan, director Julian Schnabel, Harry Dean Stanton, Cuba Gooding Jr, Eric Mabius and Rob Morrow.

I also found 4 additonal pictures of the Oscar Nomination portrait session. Enjoy!

062 80th Academy Awards – Nominees Luncheon, February 4
078 An Evening with Marion Cotillard – Chopard, February 4
015 Taping of AMC Shootout, air date unknown yet
007 Portrait Session 002, 80th Oscar Yearbook Photo & Portraits
004 Portrait Session 001

While you can expect fantastic pictures of Marion Cotillard attending the Oscar Luncheon & more portraits soon I have for you some information about last week’s Virtuosos Tribute during the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

The evening was laid out very diplomatically, with fifteen minutes or so focused on each individual honoree. A more casual discussion with all five actors together concluded the show. Though the event’s format made for a late evening, no one in the audience seemed to mind.

Cotillard, in her quiet French accent, conveyed some of the deepest, most humbled ideas of the evening.

Without a doubt, the evening was a huge success with both the public and members of the festival’s inner circle.

On Wednesday, we thought that movements from the young stars would bring about the same amount of unable-to-contain affection. And, since there were five stars, we thought that we could use the noise meter to figure out which one was the most popular with the local crowd. Well, last night there was no screaming. In fact the only star whose presence raised the roof to over ambient noise levels was Marion Cotillard, whose fan club pushed up the dB’s by singing in French. The meter went as high as 86 – about the same noise level as Abercrombie and Fitch.

All but one of the Virtuosos made it to the end of the Carpet. Cotillard wasn’t feeling well and bowed out early.

credit: Santa Barbara EdHat

Many thanks to Riikka – who runs a website for fellow ‘Hitchcock’ star Scarlett Johansson – about the heads-up to this interesting Making Of video clip of the afore-mentioned Vanity Fair issue: Watch Marion Cotillard acting out a scene from Psycho.

She also sent in screencaptures. Many thanks! I so can’t wait for this issue to hit newsstands!

Vanity Fair’s 14th annual Hollywood Issue hits newsstands on February 12. This year 21 of the finest actors working today have joined with four regular Vanity Fair photographers to re-create 11 of Hitchcock’s most iconic scenes. Read more about the shoot on Vanity Fair Online

Why is this interesting? One of those finest actors is Marion Cotillard! Stay tuned for a HQ scan once the issue comes out!