The preview of the new Lady Dior ad is out! Shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott (who also did the recent Vogue Paris photoshoot with Marion) shot her in London holding a gray version of the Lady Dior bag wearing Dior’s cruise collection aboard the London Eye. The prints will appear in December issues of Vogue Nippon, Elle in the U.K. and France, and Vanity Fair in the U.S.

The afore-mentioned online short movie will be unveiled to the press in London in late November along with a new Dior boutique on New Bond Street and a dinner hosted by Dior chief executive officer Sidney Toledano.
• Source: WWD.com

001 Lady Dior > London – Lady Grey > Print Ads

After filming ‘Midnight in Paris‘ and promoting ‘Inception‘ in July Marion Cotillard enjoyed a well-deserved vacation in the South of France during the second half of August – where she also performed as Simone at some Yodélice concerts.

Afterwards, she travelled to London to film the 4th – and last – short movie for the Lady Dior Campaign which will also be starring Ian McKellen. Source: Karen Hayley’s Official Website.

Following a stay in France during which she attended a ‘Les petits mouchoirs‘ advance screening in Paris (Sep 8 or 9) she travelled to Canada to promote the movie together with Guillaume Canet & Gilles Lellouche (see past updates).

Only days later she was back in France doing ADR for ‘Midnight in Paris‘, attending a ‘Les petits mouchoirs‘ advance screening in Orléans (Sep 15, source: Orléans Info), taping her guest appearances on the TV Shows Taratata and Enfants de la télé (Sep 16) as well as attending the U2 concert in the Stade de France (Sep 18, source: U2 France).

Towards the end of September 2010 Marion flew to the other side of the planet to shoot her scenes for ‘Contagion‘ taking place in Hong Kong. There are some pictures of Marion arriving on the set from September 29 on The Sun China.

Stay tuned for updates, pictures and videos from Marion’s activities back in France last week!

I added more screencaptures of Marion Cotillard in short movies. These are mostly very hard to find so if you come across any more (teasers, excerpts of full versions) please let us know! Here are the links to watch the ones I added screencaptures of today:

- Snuff Movie full version
- Quelques jours de trop excerpts
- Heureuse full version
- Forehead Tittaes full version, incl. full transcript

Regarding the recent spoof advert ‘Forehead Tittaes‘ by Funny or die.com which was released this March: Nadine recently directed my attention to a recent German ‘Inception‘ interview with Welt am Sonntag. To my knowledge this is the first time Marion was asked about it so here’s the translation:

Welt am Sonntag: When typing your name in Google a quite funny short film called “Forehead Tittaes” shows up – the clip deals with how men always stare only at women’s boobs. What made you do this?
Cotillard: That’s the great thing about the possibilities America can offer an actress. Thanks to “La Môme” I’m now somewhat privileged. In this case it was that I played quite a number of, let’s say, “suffering” roles back-to-back – “La Mome”, “Public Enemies”, “Nine” and “Inception”. But actually, I’m a huge fan of American comedians – Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn or Steve Carell. “Step Brothers” is one of my favourite movies. So I was talking with my agent about what I wanted to do next and said ‘I’m a bit fed up with always playing the sufferer and to always have to put myself in this state of despair’. It even happened that I sat there during shooting and thought ‘Here we go again, same old story, I’ll be completely desperate for the whole day’.

Welt am Sonntag: So you said ‘There’s an end of it, I’ll do something funny now’?
Cotillard: My publicist suggested meeting the guys of “Funny or die”: I knew them because I love Will Ferrell but I thought: You can hardly just go there and say ‘Bonjour, I’m a French actress and would like to work with you’. But my agent said: Yes, that’s exactly how it works. So two days later I was sitting in a conference room with 20 people writing sketches for me. That was really an absolute dream. Writers I adore telling me totally screwy, absurd stories. Then Will Ferrell came and we shook hands. I immediately hugged him. That’s how “Forehead Tittaes” came to be. It was brilliant. For me comedy is really hard work because it’s something I have little experience in.

048 Short Movies > Snuff Movie (1995) – Screencaptures
055 Short Movies > Quelques jours de trop (2000) – Screencaptures
017 Short Movies > Heureuse (2001) – Screencaptures
001 Short Movies > Forehead Tittaes (2010) – On Set
076 Short Movies > Forehead Tittaes (2010) – Screencaptures

The original source for the recent news about Marion’s upcoming performances in Jeanne au bûcher posted their article online today. There’s not much more information in it, but they list famous actresses who’ve previously played this part since it’s first staging back in May 1939 in Orléans.

However, they forgot to mention some interesting inside information. Back in 1992 Marion’s parents Niseema Theillaud and Jean-Claude Cotillard took on the parts of Jeanne and her brother Dominique when this oratorio was staged in a cathedral in Orléans, while a 17 year old Marion watched in the audience.

When director Jean-Marc Cochereau approached Niseema Theillaud 12 years later for the same part she declined and suggested her daughter Marion. Marion immediately accepted since she’d wanted to work with him for a long time. After accepting the part she had it stipulated in any filming contracts that she’d get a week off for rehearsals and performing in Jeanne au bûcher. She enjoyed working with the orchestra and doing theatre for the first time since her final piece at the Conservatoire d’Orléans in 1994.

Finally, on May 5 and 6, 2005 she played Jeanne opposite Christophe Maltot’s Dominique along with 265 singers and musicians of the Orchestre symphonique d’Orléans. Director Jean-Marc Cochereau remembers that her performance was strikingly sincere, that she played Jeanne d’Arc with what is her talent: the ability to convey immense emotion. The director of the Orchestre symphonique d’Orléans Catherine Mounier recalls that the 3 000 visitors in the sports centre still remember the performance. As do the singers and musicians who took part in those 2 concerts. By accepting the role, Marion Cotillard made them a very beautiful gift, she added.

Sources:
• Marion Cotillard, une fille toute simple, Loiret.com, July 13, 2005
• De Jeanne d’Arc à la Môme, Le Point, March 27, 2008

As posted earlier, Marion Cotillard travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the first week of June and Greenpeace realized a 7-episode documentary of her travels through the rainforests. Travelling by pirogue (a small wooden boat), she witnessed the destruction caused by logging first hand. Many of the episodes are now available with subtitles:

• Original French: Congo: Des forêts en sursis
• English Subtitles: The Congolese Rainforests: living on borrowed time
• German Subtitles: Marion Cotillard mit Greenpeace im Kongo
• Portuguese Subtitles: Congo: floresta ameaçada

Gallery: 371 The Congolese Rainforests: living on borrowed time (2010)
Video: 006 Documentaries > The Congolese Rainforests

PurePeople posted more details about Marion Cotillard’s upcoming special performances in Jeanne au bûcher.

The dates are now November 28 & 29, 2010 and it will be staged in the Salle Pleyel at the famous Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Apparently, the previously mentioned choir of 100 children will be accompanied by the Prague Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Serge Baudo). As we know Marion will play the 19 year old heroine Jeanne d’arc who is remembering important events from her life while awaiting to be burned at the stake. Xavier Gallais will play her brother Dominique.

Jeanne au bûcher is an oratorio – a large musical composition including an orchestra, a choir, and soloists. There is generally little or no interaction between the characters, and no props or elaborate costumes. See pictures of Marion taking part in the same oratorio back in July 2005 in Orléans.

At the beginning of June 2010 Marion Cotillard travelled together with Greenpeace to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Congo: Forests on probation is an impressive 7-part video diary of Marion’s stay there and documents the plundering of the Congolese forests. I am leaving on a short holiday so I don’t have the time to upload pictures but I encourage you to watch these videos.

I will catch up on all the ‘Inception‘ promotion and other Marion news once I’m back next week. And here’s a TV alert: She will be the guest on the Late Late Night Show with Craig Ferguson on the day of ‘Inception‘s LA premiere: July 13.

Ahead of some very exciting new pictures one more “catching-up-post”. Around the release of the music video for Lady Dior Marion Cotillard was featured in the April issue of Vogue Paris. The interview is mostly about music and how it has always helped her to get in character while filming. Interestingly, Marion used Debbie Harry of Blondie as inspiration and model to be able to portray a rock singer in the recent music video.

Her favourite music artists are among others MGMT, Yodelice, Izia, Radiohead, Otis Redding, U2, Bowie, Franz Ferdinand, Regina Spektor, Hawksley Workman, Pixies.

004 Scans from 2010: Vogue Paris (France) – April
001 Sessions from 2010: Vogue Paris

Kindly do not redistribute the magazine scans at another Marion Cotillard fan site as they were scanned exclusively for ‘Magnifique Marion Cotillard’. Thank you.

I also added the 2 songs from Marion’s movies Edy (2005) and Une affaire privée (2002) to the Songs Page.

This reminded me of Marion’s iTunes Celebrity Playlist I never updated about. Unfortunately, I can’t post a direct link as I have no access to the US Store of iTunes. But here’s the information:

There are additional behind the scenes clips of the new Lady Blue short movie – called Sequences – on LadyDior.com.

Gallery: 078 Lady Dior > Shanghai – Lady Blue > Lady Blue – The Sequences
Video: 005 DVD Extras & Featurettes > Lady Diior

Yay! The full short movie by David Lynch and starring Marion Cotillard as Lady Blue for Lady Dior is online! I love it – it’s both stylish and engaging!

Gallery: 262 Lady Blue Shanghai – Screencaptures
Video: 001 Movie Clips – Lady Dior