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Originally published on October 24, 2006
from A Good Year Production Notes
Also joining the starring cast is Marion Cotillard (“A Very Long Engagement”) as Fanny Chenal, a Provençal beauty who owns the local café – and who catches Max’s eye. “I liked the script’s spontaneity,” the Parisian beauty states. “I also appreciated Max’s journey – how he comes to understand what he really needs is right there at the chateau and in Provence.
“Fanny is the owner of a restaurant,” she continues. “She’s a broken heart who decided that life would be much easier, less painful, without love. She organized her life not to be hurt again. Her café is called La Renaissance, which means ‘rebirth’. But, sometimes, hopefully, life brings you what you need, even if you don’t know what that is. Even if Fanny doesn’t want to confess that she needs love, she definitely needs love. And she deserves it, too.”
MARION COTILLARD (Fanny) made her American movie debut as Josephine in Tim Burton’s “Big Fish.” Cotillard is well-known in her native France for her performances in Luc Besson’s “Taxi” (reprising her role in the equally successful sequels, “Taxi 2” and “Taxi 3”), for which she collected her first Cesar nomination. She is equally recognized for her work in director Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s romantic drama “Un long dimanche de fiancailles” (“A Very Long Engagement”), for which she won the Cesar in 2004 for Best Supporting Actress. She earned her second Cesar nomination in 2001 for “Les Jolies choses” (“Pretty Things”), under the direction of Gilles Pacquet-Brenner.
The daughter of working theatre actors (her mother runs acting workshops in Paris), Cotillard started her career at age sixteen, making her film debut in “L’Histoire du garcon qui voulait qu’on l’embrasse” (“The Story of a Boy Who Wanted to Be Kissed”). She played the title role in the 2001 production, “Lisa,” and more recently starred in “Une Affaire Privee” (“A Private Affair”), “Jeux d’enfants” (“Love Me If You Dare:), “Ma vie en l’air” (“Love Is in the Air”), “Cavalcade” and “Sauf le respect que je vois dois.”
The busy actress also stars in the current and forthcoming releases “Edy,” “La Boîte noire,” “Toi en moi,” “Fair Play” and Abel Ferrara’s “Mary,” which unspooled at the 2005 Venice Film Festival, walking off with the Special Jury Prize. She will next play Edith Piaf in “La Vie en rose,” and also has coming out in 2006 the features “Le Concile de Pierre” and “Dikkenek.”
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