from Twincities.com / by Chris Hewitt

She’s just not aware of the camera

CHICAGO — The night after a screening of “Public Enemies,” Marion Cotillard is fascinated by a question because it also occurred to her while she watched it: How did she not bump into the camera that was practically stuck up her nostril for most of the film?

“It’s a good question,” says Cotillard, rearranging her little black dress and offering me some cranberry juice in a hotel room high atop Chicago. “But the funny thing is that, the whole time I’ve been making movies, I’ve never known where the camera is. It’s just there and I don’t even realize it. But I want to direct some day, so I’m going to have to become more aware of it.”

What makes Cotillard’s camera-unawareness astonishing is that “Public Enemies,” which opens today, features some of the closest close-ups you’ll ever see in a movie. But it must be her absorption in the emotions of her characters that makes Cotillard’s performance as John Dillinger girlfriend Billie Frechette — and her Oscar-winning Edith Piaf in “La Vie en Rose” — so memorable.

Writer/director Michael Mann approached Cotillard about playing the French/American Indian Frechette shortly after seeing her in “La Vie en Rose.” He gave the actress — who speaks English with a light French lilt in real life and no trace of accent in the movie — music, film clips and newspaper articles to help her understand Frechette. And Cotillard, who refers to all the research material as “informations,” immediately fell in love with Billie.

“Her life was so tough, but she was a very, very nice person,” says Cotillard. “Maybe it came from her Indian roots or from having to survive so much. She was in a boarding school where she learned how not to be an Indian anymore. It’s hard to imagine how awful it would be not to be allowed to talk your own language and live your own culture, but I think it made her into a person who was used to violence.”

Cotillard has never visited the St. Paul haunts of Dillinger and Frechette. She had barely even heard of Dillinger before being offered “Public Enemies,” but she learned about her character on a trip to Green Bay, Wis.

“It’s the first thing I did after I came to Chicago to make the movie,” says Cotillard. “I went to the reservation and met with Michael Chapman, the chairman of the Menominee reservation, and all these women who shared with me their lives. I met with the relatives of Billie and I went to school with the children, who were learning their language, Algonquin.”

Cotillard was intimidated at first.

“I was scared they’d hear me talking with my French accent and wonder what Michael Mann was thinking, but they were so good to me,” she says, grinning widely and pulling her knees up under her on her chair. “Afterwards, a woman came up to me and said, ‘Do a good Billie,’ and I was just overwhelmed by her trust.”

The actress also met with wives of convicts, who helped her understand that, when you’re never sure how much time you have with your man, every moment becomes an adventure. Then, in much the same way that she forgets about the camera, Cotillard put aside that research.

“The preparation is very, very important to Michael Mann, but you also want to leave blank spaces that will be filled in by you, living the moments of these lives,” says Cotillard. “The evolution of the characters never stops until the movie is done. No, I’m wrong. Not then. Because even after that, the characters keep living in the audiences’ minds.”

As Cotillard and I have chatted, I’ve half-watched the sky darken dramatically behind her as a huge storm rolls into Chicago. The room has gone from morning sun to eerie darkness in the space of 30 minutes, but the spell is broken when a publicist enters the room and asks, “Why are you guys sitting in the dark?”

I had noticed how dim it was getting because I could barely see the notes I was taking. But the intensely focused Cotillard had a different — and perhaps predictable — response.

“Oh, is it dark in here?” she asks brightly. “I didn’t even notice.”

The European ‘Public Enemies‘ Premiere took place earlier today in London. Stephen Graham joined Johnny Depp, Marion Cotillard and Michael Mann. Marion looked lovely in a red Vivienne Westwood dress – which unfortunately seems to have ripped after signing autographs and walking the red carpet.

119 ‘Public Enemies’ Premiere – London

Last week, ‘Public Enemies‘ had its “official” world premiere during the Los Angeles Film Festival. Marion Cotillard together with Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Michael Mann – along with many of the other stars of the movie – attended the premiere. Finally, I’ve added the pictures. Enjoy!

176 2009 LA Film Festival – ‘Public Enemies’ Premiere
021 2009 LA Film Festival – ‘Public Enemies’ Premiere – After Party

from Chicago Tribune (US) / by Michael Phillips

I had never before interviewed an actress in her trailer. Utter cliche. But Marion Cotillard is the sort of actress (Oscar-winning, French, glam, pleasant) a fella doesn’t mind for his first time.

The 33-year-old Cotillard received an Academy Award for her portrayal of singer/perpetual tragedian Edith Piaf in “La Vie en Rose.” In “Public Enemies” she plays Evelyn “Billie” Frechette, John Dillinger’s lover for a time. Born to a French-Canadian father and a Menominee Indian mother, Frechette kicked around Wisconsin and South Dakota before making her way down to Chicago at 18. She served a two-year prison sentence for harboring a criminal and was behind bars when Dillinger was killed.

Before they met, Frechette ran with anonymous low-lifes and Chicago underworld denizens as she worked as a coat-check tootsie, a dice thrower, a dance hall hostess. After Dillinger’s death — and this part, like so many parts, didn’t make director Michael Mann’s film — Frechette toured in a late-vaudeville-era traveling show called “Crime Doesn’t Pay,” telling her story, fielding questions from a gangster-obsessed audience.

A rich character, says Cotillard. Her trailer is one of four parked outside Chicago’s Union Station, where various interviews for the North American “Public Enemies” press junket are being conducted. If you’re shooting a 1930s gangster picture or a 1930s love story — the movie is both — and you want classy period architecture or need a shot of a train pulling into a station, Union’s your station. (One of “Public Enemies’” highlights is a brief, beautiful shot of a train bearing G-men arriving in Chicago, met by Christian Bale’s Melvin Purvis.)

Mann threw tons of research at his leading lady. In northern Wisconsin, she met with relatives of Frechette’s. “I really wanted to know about her childhood. I remember with Edith Piaf, there were things about her I didn’t understand, and it’s really hard to be someone 100 percent when you don’t understand the person. I found all my answers in her childhood.”

Frechette attended a Catholic missionary school followed by a strict boarding school. “Not being allowed to speak your own language, not allowed to live your own culture … it creates a new personality,” says Cotillard. “I think she distrusted authority. And she had that in common with Dillinger, among other things.”

Mann’s onscreen worlds are ruled by men, yet Cotillard asserts that “in each of his movies there’s a very strong female character. That’s one of the things I love about his movies. I love ‘Collateral.’ Jada Pinkett Smith has a real part to play, even if it’s small. She really has something to defend. Gong Li in ‘Miami Vice’ — such an interesting role.”

The research relating to Frechette, she says, took her down some unexpected paths. “Michael feeds you the information that will bring out of you the emotion he wants,” she says. She met with convicts’ wives. She met with strippers. “I thought, ‘Why am I meeting with strippers?’ [In Las Vegas, no less.] I wasn’t sure why, since Billie Frechette was not a stripper. But Michael told me he wanted me to meet them because they know who has the money. Women in that profession know it’s not always the obvious guy with the good suit buying bottles and bottles of champagne.” In real life and in Mann’s film, Dillinger moved in fast and claimed Frechette as his own; Cotillard believes the seduction was mutual, and that it really was love.

The real homework, she says, related to Billie’s dialect. Cotillard has worked in English-language films before — her first was Tim Burton’s “Big Fish” — but here she tackled a French-Canadian-Menominee-Wisconsin-Chicago amalgam.

“It was kind of … hard,” she says, deliberately, making sure to hit the “h” in “hard” distinctly. Billie’s not supposed to have a French accent. Fortunately she had French blood, so it works with my touch of French accent. But I knew it would never be as I wanted it to be. I started to learn English too late [at 11] to be able to have a perfect American accent. I’m working on it. I love the language, so that helps. But it was hard. It might be the hardest thing I’ve had to do, really.”

She smiles. “Playing Piaf, an old lady on drugs, that was easier.”

from Journal Sentinel (US) / by Duane Dudek

Parisian actress shines as Wisconsin-born Dillinger girlfriend

Chicago — Wherever Marion Cotillard goes, she always takes the weather with her.

As she prepared to film her scenes in “Public Enemies” on Milwaukee’s east side last year, her trailer started “shaking and shaking” when “a huge storm” blew off Lake Michigan.

“And I said to the security guy who was telling us what to do, ‘Can we just go to the basement you were talking about? Because I’m getting scared now.’ ”

Coincidentally, as Cotillard told this story, she was oblivious to the lightning streaking across the downtown Chicago skyline, seen through the hotel window behind her, and the crack of thunder that followed.

She does have reason to fear strong winds, because to call her gamine is an understatement. She was swallowed by the armchair she was sitting in during a recent interview. And her eyes may be her biggest feature.

But on-screen, she is a force of nature herself. Her incandescent performance in “La Vie en Rose,” about the tumultuous life of singer Edith Piaf, won her an Oscar. And in “Public Enemies” – as Billie Frechette, the girlfriend of gangster John Dillinger, played by Johnny Depp – her penetrating eyes and angelic face impart a desperate and almost elemental sense of longing.

Fluent in acting

Cotillard, 33, who was born and raised in Paris, went into the family business. Both her parents are stage actors and directors, and her mother is a writer.

To see them on stage as a child “was amazing. My parents earn their life telling people stories,” she said in fractured English-as-second-language syntax.

“I was fascinated by that.”

She began acting as a child at her parents’ theater, and in the 1990s, she scored small roles in films, including Luc Besson’s “Taxi” and Jean Pierre-Jeunet’s “A Very Long Engagement.” And she began appearing in English-language films including Tim Burton’s “Big Fish” and Ridley Scott’s “A Good Year.”

Cotillard said she “doesn’t have to think about it” when she acts in French, but for English-speaking roles, “you really have to know your lines. And how you stress words.

“I love the English language. And it gets easier when you love it. But I wouldn’t say it’s harder to do. It’s just a different preparation.”

The character she plays in “Public Enemies” was half French and lived on a Menomonee Indian reservation near Green Bay until she was 13, when she moved to Milwaukee. With Cotillard playing her, the character has a French accent, although Frechette did not have one in real life, the actress admitted.

Cotillard visited the reservation, where the residents shared “their culture and stories” with her.

“It’s always so touching when someone is there for you and shares things for you to make a good job,” she said.

Cotillard, who just completed a role in the film of the stage musical “Nine,” said she makes her home wherever she finds herself working – she lived in Chicago while filming “Public Enemies” – and is returning to France to make a film.

She is a citizen of the world when it comes to movies as well, and does not feel there is much difference between French and American cinema.

“We also have big blockbusters,” she said, and smaller films like “Milk.” “But we have less big, huge, easy-laughing movies.”

Not surprisingly, as a native of a country that worships Jerry Lewis, she loves the broad comedy of Jim Carrey (“he’s amazing”), Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell.

“One of my favorite movies is when they are ice skaters. Oh, what’s the name of this movie? I loved it,” she said of Ferrell’s “Blades of Glory.”

“Or what’s her name. I love her. She makes me laugh so loud. The one who was in ‘Speed,’ ” she said of “The Proposal” star Sandra Bullock.

Cotillard just loves all films.

“What I love about movies is stories,” she said. “Moving stories, love stories, scary stories. I go see a movie and I’m moved by a good story. It might be the simplest story. But it’s not just about the subject. It’s how you tell the story.

“You can tell the same story over and over again, with different people. And it will always be a different story.”

You may have been as curious as I to listen to the new cover version of Midnight Oil’s Beds are burning – recorded by stars such as Marion Cotillard, Guillaume Canet, Mélanie Laurent and Vincent Pérez – which was supposed to be available for download this past Thursday.

The song is actually part of a campaign launched yesterday by former secretary general of the United Nations Kofi Annan and Live Aid founder Bob Geldof.

The “tck tck tck” campaign, pronounced tick, tick, tick to symbolise time running out, was created by Havas Worldwide and will break online today and appear on TV and press in the coming days.

The campaign has been backed by the Advertising Community Together initiative and Havas Worldwide’s global chief executive, David Jones, is calling on all advertisers to feature the tck tck tck logo on all ad campaigns globally between July and December.

The ad aims to urge people from around the world to become “climate allies” and apply pressure on world leaders to reach a just and binding deal at the UN Climate Change conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.

Additional components of the campaign will include the release of merchandise dog-tags and a cover version featuring several actors and singers of the song Beds are Burning by Australian rock band Midnight Oil, which will be available to download free from September.
• source

So we’ll have to be patient a little while longer – but this campaign sounds interesting and hopefully it’ll achieve its aim.

de Madame Figaro / par Richard Gianorio

Hollywood ne lâche plus la môme. Dans Public Enemies, de Michael Mann, la voilà à Chicago, face à Johnny Depp, alias John Dillinger, célèbre bandit des années 30. Photographiée par Dominique Issermann, Miss Cotillard évoque son bonheur d’être aimée, son envie d’enfants et de chanter aussi…

Au récent Festival de Cannes, signe qui ne trompe pas, Marion Cotillard dormait à l’Eden Roc, le QG des stars hollywoodiennes. Discrète, fuyant l’ostentation facile et les applaudissements calculés, elle n’a pas monté les marches cannoises mais s’est quand même autorisé une entorse au sacro-saint « pour vivre heureux, vivons cachés » : pour la première fois dans sa « vie publique », on l’a vue au bras de son compagnon, Guillaume Canet, dont elle est la partenaire dans Le Dernier Vol de Lancaster qui sort cet automne. La femme et l’actrice se répondent désormais : miss Cotillard, 33 ans dont quinze de carrière, est comblée.

En transit entre deux aéroports (elle va rejoindre un tournage avec Leonardo DiCaprio, S.V.P., celui d’_Inception_, de Christopher Nolan), elle assurait la promo de Public Enemies, son premier film post-oscar, une immersion à coups de mitrailleuse dans la mythologie populaire americaine. Signé Michael Mann, ce polar héroïque et survolté balaie les dernières semaines de la courte vie de John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), braqueur de banques idolâtré, tueur et dandy alors considéré comme l’ennemi public numéro 1 des États-Unis, abattu en juillet 1934 à la sortie d’un cinéma à l’issue d’une traque nationale. Au cours de cette chasse à l’homme sanguinolente, Dillinger tomba sous le charme de Billie Frechette – une good girl, pas une femme fatale – , qui plaqua tout pour suivre son bandit bien-aimé dans sa course contre les agents fédéraux, avant d’être piégée par le FBI et emprisonnée. Frechette survécut à Dillinger et mourut en 1969.

A l’écran, l’alchimie fonctionne parfaitement entre le champion du monde du box-office (Pirate des Caraïbes) et la Française à sensation. La scène où Depp/Dillinger repère Cotillard/Frechette sur la piste de danse d’une boîte de nuit installe immédiatement l’ex-Môme dans une constellation hollywoodienne. Belle comme une star des années 40, Cotillard, émouvante et entière, se fond complètement dans l’histoire – elle est comme un poisson dans l’eau à Hollywood – et fait mieux qu’exister dans un film d’hommes. On comprend que le cinéma américain ne soit pas disposé à la lâcher : après Public Enemies, elle a terminé Nine, comédie musicale avec Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman et Penélope Cruz, dans laquelle elle chante et danse. What else ?

Madame Figaro. -Johnny Depp, Michael Mann, le Chicago des années 30, vous voilà plongée dans la mythologie américaine…

Marion Cotillard. Les femmes ne sont pas sous-estimées dans les films de Michael Mann, elles ont de vrais beaux rôles, de vraies présences. Pour ce rôle, je me suis beaucoup documentée : j’ai rencontré des membres de la famille de Billie Frechette, mon personnage (NDLR : morte en 1969), je me suis plongée dans la culture du Midwest des années 30 et me suis renseignée sur les Menominee, une tribu d’Indiens du Wisconsin, dont cette femme était issue. C’était une immersion absolument enrichissante, comme l’avait été, dans un autre genre, celle qui a accompagné le tournage de La Môme.

Que retenir de votre personnage ?
Une femme qui l’a connue m’a observée puis m’a dit que je ferais une belle Billie. Je l’ai jouée telle que j’ai cru la comprendre : une fille simple, gentille, mais forte aussi, qui est allée en prison par amour. Je devine qu’elle a dû connaître un parcours assez rude puisqu’elle était métisse, moitié française, moitié indienne. Mais ma principale difficulté sur ce tournage a été la langue : j’étais obsédée par l’accent. J’ai travaillé très dur avec un coach pour capter l’accent américain du Chicago des années 30. Je voulais que ce soit parfait tout en sachant que c’était impossible. J’étais dans une frustration continue qui était assez plombante… Michael Mann n’arrêtait pas de me demander de me détendre et j’ai fini par trouver du plaisir.

Vous avez commencé le tournage de Public Enemies le lendemain de la cérémonie des oscars. Dans quel état d’esprit vous trouviez-vous ?
J’étais épuisée par toutes ces émotions et, avant même de mettre un pied sur le plateau, super stressée par cette histoire d’accent. Pourtant, les gens ont été adorables avec moi : Michael Mann et Johnny Depp, tellement respectueux, me rassuraient sans cesse.

Vous avez assez peu de scènes mais vous faites vivre votre personnage avec une intensité remarquable. Comment arrive-t-on à ça ?
C’est à la fois un grand mystère et exactement le but à atteindre : arriver à être entièrement, pleinement le personnage. C’est inexplicable. Je dirais que le personnage m’entraîne et que j’évite de le contrôler pour rester dans un inattendu…

Avec votre CV en or massif, ne redoutez-vous pas de faire peur aux réalisateurs français ?
Inaccessible ? Je n’y pense même pas. Trop chère ? Sil n’y a pas de budget, je n’ai pas de problème à revoir mon salaire.

Votre vie a-t-elle radicalement changé cette année?
Je suis extrêmement rarement en France. Je vis où je travaille. J’ai passé sept mois aux États-Unis l’an dernier, puis j’ai tourné Nine à Londres, avant de partir au Maroc pour Le Dernier Vol de Lancaster. Oui, j’ai changé. J’ai évolué. Je n’ai guère plus confiance en moi mais je suis beaucoup plus détendue avec un réalisateur s’il connaît mon travail. Mon travail parle pour moi car je ne sais toujours pas me vendre. J’en suis incapable, ça n’est pas ça du tout…

Au dernier Festival de Cannes, vous avez accepté de vous laisser photographier avec Guillaume Canet, votre compagnon, ce que vous n’aviez jamais fait précédemment…
C’est vrai que jusqu’à présent, nous n’avions jamais posé ensemble, même aux oscars. Mais c’est ridicule de ne pas arriver ensemble quand on va au même endroit ! (Elle rit.) Je ne dis pas que je suis à l’aise, mais j’ai moins peur de l’exposition. En réalité, nous sommes assez tranquilles et nous faisons en sorte que notre vie privée soit respectée. Mais en même temps, je sais que je ne pourrais pas échapper indéfiniment aux questions, d’autant qu’il va me diriger dans son troisième film comme réalisateur (NDLR : Les Petits Mouchoirs, avec François Cluzet).

Qu’est-ce qui vous manque aujourd’hui ?
Le temps bien sûr, mais c’est mon choix. Et puis j’aimerais enregistrer un album. La musique me remplit de joie ; j’ai adoré chanter dans Nine, le film de Rob Marshall. On était sept filles et l’on s’est super bien entendues, sous l’œil de Sophia Loren, qui était un peu notre mamma. On a toutes pris deux mois de cours. Les plus douées pour chanter, c’était Kate Hudson et Fergie bien sûr. Moi, j’adore la voix de Nicole Kidman. Et je n’ai jamais vu quelqu’un de plus perfectionniste que Penélope Cruz : elle bossait même plus que moi !

C’était un peu un club de superstars à oscars…
Pas du tout, juste des femmes qui travaillent ensemble. Des femmes complexes, pas toujours dans l’équilibre. Des femmes qui ont un rapport ambivalent avec leur image. Moi, j’ai besoin d’être regardée et en même temps je me préserve beaucoup. Par exemple, je ne lis plus rien de ce que l’on écrit sur moi. J’ai perdu cette curiosité-là. Les mots vous placent dans un égocentrisme malsain.

Quel rapport entretenez-vous aujourd’hui avec votre ego ?
Avant, je cherchais à l’exterminer. Là, j’ai appris à l’accepter. Et il est présent, bien sûr : je suis actrice !

Vous avez signé un contrat avec Dior et tout le monde loue désormais votre beauté. Cela vous réconcilie-t-il avec cette féminité que vous avez mis du temps, disiez-vous, à apprivoiser ?
J’ai grandi. Le fait d’être aimée et d’aimer change tout. Cela ne veut pas dire que je suis encore complètement à l’aise sur le tapis rouge, qui est devenu bizarrement un lieu stratégique pour les actrices. Je suis impressionnée quand je regarde le show de Sharon Stone sur les marches cannoises. À Hollywood aussi, c’est une épreuve obligée et archistructurée. Je dois dire que je me fais un peu aider…

Vous arrive-t-il de faire des caprices ?
Non, j’aurais bien trop honte de faire des caprices ! Je n’ai qu’une seule impatience, et elle concerne mon engagement sur l’environnement : je trouve que rien ne bouge assez vite.

Que peut-on vous souhaiter ?
À moi, rien, je suis comblée. Je pense souvent à Aung San Suu Kyi, prisonnière en Birmanie, et à sa phrase : « Servez-vous de votre liberté pour promouvoir la nôtre. » Cette femme est mon modèle, c’est mon héros.

D’un point de vue plus personnel, aurez-vous des enfants ?
Je veux des enfants. J’en ai envie et j’y pense.

(1) En salle le 8 juillet 2009.

I added more pictures to some albums of earlier events this month as well as replaced the recent Public Enemies stills with better ones.

030 ‘Public Enemies’ Press Conference
019 Bike In Style Challenge Ceremony
006 Public Enemies – 2009 > Stills

I added the screencaptures and a clip of Marion Cotillard’s lovely & funny appearance on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson last Monday night. Enjoy!

Gallery: 207 The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson – 2009
Video: 001 Talk Shows > 2009 Craig Ferguson

I have been working behind the scenes these past few days getting new material prepared and ready to upload to the site – so stay tuned!

Until then why don’t you read the interviews I added to the press archive:

• Tales from the red carpet, Chicago Now, June 18
• Accent was welcome task for Marion Cotillard, The Associated Press, June 23
• Marion Cotillard On The Complex Secrets Of ‘Inception’, MTV Blog, June 24
• Just a Minute With: French actress Marion Cotillard, Reuters, June 25