from Variety.com / by Anne Thompson

It’s rare for a European actress to carve out a career in Hollywood. But honing her English with rounds of Berlitz and winning both the best actress Oscar and Cesar awards for La Vie en Rose have spun Marion Cotillard into a whirlwind of film roles. First, she went to Chicago to shoot Michael Mann’s Public Enemies, playing moll Billie Frechette to Johnny Depp’s gangster John Dillinger (July 1).

Three days later she was on the set of Rob Marshall’s Fellini-inspired movie musical Nine, using her own singing voice as Luisa Contini opposite best actor Oscar-winner Daniel Day Lewis (November 25). The script for Nine was the last one completed by the late Anthony Minghella.

After just two days in Paris, Cotillard flew to the Morroco desert to shoot the French-language Le Dernier Vol (The Last Flight), co-starring her boyfriend, Guillaume Canet. Let’s hope she catches a well-deserved break before starting her next, Inception, opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Ellen Page.

I’ve been trying to find confirmation of the start of shooting for Marion Cotillard’s new movie Le dernier vol (The Last Flight). While I haven’t exactly been able to find it everything I did find seemed to confirm the previously reported date of March 9. Also the movie’s main producer Gaumont mentioned the movie in their March 5 newsletter and said it was set for a release in November 2009! Wow! [edit:] And apparently the shooting will last for 8 weeks – till the end of April 2009.

I added a photoshopped poster (with the “international” title The Last Flight) that someone took a picture of during the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, where the producers tried to secure finances. Also, I need to point out that despite something I read online somewhen last year everything points to this film not only being French in terms of producers (additionally, France 3 and Canal + are co-producing) but also in terms of language – which makes sense actually.

On another note I came across a new synopsis of the film’s story here. Does that mean the film will only be loosely inspired by real-life couple Chubbie Miller and Bill Lancaster?! I’m confused. Here my attempt of its translation:

Young aviator and stubborn adventurer Marie leaves to search for her lover in the Sahara desert where he went missing while attempting a record flight from London to Cape (South Africa). Her sudden arrival disrupts the routine at an outpost of the Meharists (French Foreign Legion) who are facing a Touareg rebellion.

A captain with a hierarchy conflict, Antoine, decides to help Marie in her quest – in the midst of an ocean of magnificent and hostile sand.

Under the overpowering heat their desire to survive unites them and leads to a disturbing and unexpected love story…

Original French text:

Jeune aviatrice, aventurière obstinée, Marie part à la recherche de son amant disparu dans le désert saharien lors d’une tentative de record de traversée Londres-Le cap. Cette arrivée impromptue vient bouleverser le quotidien d’un poste avancé de méharistes français aux prises avec la montée de la rébellion touareg.

Antoine, capitaine en conflit avec sa hiérarchie, décide d’aider Marie dans cette quête, au coeur d’un océan de sable grandiose et hostile.

Sous une chaleur accablante, leur désir de survivre les unira dans une histoire d’amour troublante et inattendue…

If this turns out to be the real story of the film it could mean Guillaume Canet would play Antoine instead of Marion’s character’s missing lover – which would give the two actors a lot of scenes together. I’m definitely excited to hear more about this film!

Today I bring you all the – mostly HQ – stills of various talk show appearances that have been sitting on my computer for a long time. I can’t remember where I found the pictures of Marion and Will Smith (for Comme au cinéma) so I don’t know who I need to credit. If anyone has any of the missing talk show videos that go with these pictures (we do have the 2005 Vivement Dimanche appearance) please don’t hesitate to send them in, thank you!

Kindly do not redistribute the HQ stills at another Marion Cotillard fan site as they were obtained exclusively for ‘Magnifique Marion Cotillard’. Thank you.

003 Star Mag, January 10, 2005 on TPS Star
005 Comme Au Cinéma, March 22, 2005
009 Vivement Dimanche, October 16, 2005 on France 2
031 Vivement Dimanche, February 4, 2007 on France 2

I’ve diligently transferred all the existing video clips of Marion at public appearances from the old to the new archive – bringing the total count in the new archive to 110. I’ve also added 4 new clips: 2006 Cannes Festival, 2007 Hollywood Awards Interview (by a rather ignorant reporter…) and 2009 Oscars Backstage & Red Carpet.

And here’s the transcript of what Marion said to Kate Winslet during the recent Oscar ceremony:

Kate Winslet, with each new role you continue to push the boundaries of what’s possible. Your brilliant performance in “The Reader” encompasses all the qualities that have always drawn us to you: passion, vulnerability and extraordinary depth. As your character move through time, love and the most dire of circumstances we, as your audience Kate, never lose a connection to you. This is yet another unforgettable portrait from one of our most gifted actresses and one of our most inspiring. Thank you!

And something cute I found online:

Fresh off her emotional acceptance speech, best actress Oscar winner Kate Winslet was still shaking when she came backstage.

“Oh my God. Oh my god. Did I make any sense?” she asked presenter Marion Cotillard.
“Totally. Don’t worry,” Cotillard, last year’s winner, told her.
“I’ve got to phone my kids,” Winslet, still shaking, said as she headed toward a hallway.

036 Award Ceremonies
005 Other Public Appearances

Here a list of pictures I’ve recently added to the Movies & Public Appearances sections of the gallery:

Movies
001 La Guerre dans le Haut Pays – Stills
015 Du Bleu Jusqu’en Amérique – Screencaptures > Trailer
001 Jeux d’enfants – Stills
003 Fair Play – Stills I also replaced a few stills with HQ versions
005 A Good Year – Official Wallpaper

Public Appearances
009 ‘La Môme’ Premiere – Plan de Campagne, January 25, 2007
004 ‘La Môme’ – Festival International du 1er film February 13, 2007
030 ‘La Môme’ Press Conference – Los Angeles, April 17, 2007
001 Pre-Oscar Parties, February 21, 2009

The last picture is actually from Variety‘s 7th Annual Night Before Party at the Beverly Hills Hotel which helped raise funds for the Motion Picture & Television Fund. It seems like this was Marion’s first stop of an evening full of party hopping – from one Pre-Oscar party to the next.

Remember last October, how we posted that one of Marion’s first roles would air on TV? Ever helpful Paolo recorded Théo La Tendresse for us and now, half a year later, I finally added screencaptures and 3 clips with Marion Cotillard as Laura, protagonist Théo’s daughter.

Tonight, Marion Cotillard’s movie debut – the 1994 movie L’histoire du garçon qui voulait qu’on l’embrasse (Die Geschichte des Jungen, der geküsst werden wollte) – will air on German TV chain ARD at 1.45am. Hopefully, we’ll be able to provide caps of this as well.

Gallery: 240 Théo la tendresse: La Nouvelle de la semaine – 1996 > Screencaptures
Video: 003 Movie & TV Clips – Théo La Tendresse

The following pictures have actually been circulating online in various forums and websites for a few weeks now and now we’re proud to have our own HQ original scans. I also scanned a French magazine from 2005 where pictures from this photo shoot apparently first appeared. Additionally, I added this photo session as well as a few others from 2005 to the gallery. Enjoy!

Kindly do not redistribute these scans at another Marion Cotillard fan site as they were obtained/donated exclusively for ‘Magnifique Marion Cotillard’. Thank you.

006 Scans from 2009 > DT (Spain) – March
004 Scans from 2005 > Paris Match (France) – September 8-14
014 Sessions from 2005 > Paris Match
001 Sessions from 2005 > The Sunday Times
001 Sessions from 2005 > The New York Times
004 Sessions from 2005 > Esquire

I found pictures of Marion Cotillard attending or leaving a Pre-Oscar party in Los Angeles (maybe Harvey Weinstein’s Party?) and from the César after party in Paris, France. Enjoy!

006 Pre-Oscar Party
008 34th César Awards – After Party

I came across another music video with Marion Cotillard. Back in April 1990 a 14 year old Marion could be seen in the music video Petite Fille by French punk rock/psychobilly band Les Wampas. Back then the music video was quite popular and aired often on French TV chain M6. The video clip is a bonus on the band’s DVD Les Wampas – Never trust a DVD!

I added screencaptures and the hilarious clip to the media parts of the site. While I was at it I also replaced the caps of Marion in Hawksley Workman’s 2004 music video No Reason To Cry Out Your Eyes (On The Highway Tonight) with better ones and added both this clip as well as Givin’ Up (2003) to the video archive.

If you know of any other video clips Marion Cotillard appeared in, please don’t hesitate to inform me about them – it’d be much appreciated!

Gallery Links:
031 Petite Fille – 1990
064 No Reason To Cry Out Your Eyes – 2004

Video Link:
003 Music Videos

I transferred all the movie trailers & clips of projects with Marion Cotillard from the old video archive and added also a few more, all I could find, actually. Among them a rare trailer for “Lisa“. There are now also French trailers for “A Good Year” and “Big Fish” as she provided her voice for the French versions as well. I also added a few trailers with either English audio or subtitles, e.g. for “Mary” or “Burnt Out“. In addition, I added some DVD Extras for “Jeux d’enfants“, “Taxi 2“, “La Boîte Noire” and “Les Jolies Choses“. There are now a total of 63 videos in the new archive – more to come!