Marion Cotillard is back in France – or at least for the time being. She attended the dinner held in honour of all the nominees for a César award. Remember, the ceremony’ll take place on February 22 and if you live in France you can watch it take place live on Canal + as of 9pm. Marion Cotillard is sure to win – else it’ll be a very serious case of snubbing, I think. Many thanks to Mariana for some of the pictures.

013 30th César Awards – Nominees Dinner

I’m still working hard behind the scenes to give you the rest of the picture & video coverage of Marion Cotillard at the Bafta and London Film Critics Circle awards last week. In the meantime, enjoy a lovely interview over at Access Hollywood, recorded after the Oscar Luncheon.

[edit] The previously announced AMC Shootout interview is out: Watch the 2 parts: The Oscar Journey and Energy Creates Voice. Tune in February 15, 10.30pm for the full Oscar Nominee Special. [/edit]

Irish newspaper Rté calls Marion a sweetheart:

Marion Cotillard – a sweetheart, as bouncingly enthusiastic on the red carpet as she was during her acceptance speech later in the evening – and genuinely shocked to be there at all.

I added the article from this month’s Men’s Vogue to the press archive (scans coming soon):

I use the music. It helps me to go into certain emotions. But I don’t use my job as therapy. I feel more like an anthropologist of the inside of the human being, a speleologist!

Ever wondered where Marion’s fantastic red carpet style comes from? People asked her about it: “My French publicist, who is one of my best friends. He does all that stuff!”

Another article I’ve come across mentions Canadian musician Hawksley Workman (recently?) having spent “some time in Los Angeles working and writing songs with Golden Globe winning actress Marion Cotillard”. Let’s stay tuned for more info on that! It certainly sounds intriguing!

To finish this post a TV alert for our French friends: Remember to mark Wednesday, March 14 in your diaries! Canal + will be dedicating that evening to Marion Cotillard. After airing La Môme you’ll be able to enjoy a documentary by Bastien Duval called “Mon clown”. As of 11.10pm on March 14 you’ll be able to follow Marion around the world on her year-long promotion tour for La Vie en Rose! (source)

Daniel Day-Lewis – who won a Leading Actor BAFTA last night – loves Marion Cotillard:

Out of the four, it was Cotillard’s that took most by surprise.

“It has been the most incredible adventure,” said the 32-year-old in an emotional speech. “I loved very single second.”

Collecting his prize, Daniel Day-Lewis paid his own tribute to the French star.
“Never mind all the other qualities in her astonishing performance,” he said. “For sheer balls alone, I feel Marion should have this award as well.”

From BBC Press Release

I’ve started adding pictures of Marion Cotillard at the BAFTA Awards and I’ve also come across 2 lovely interviews. One features a thrilled and over-joyed Marion facing the press after her win and the other is an interview together with Keira Knightley on the red carpet before the ceremony by Sky News. Thanks to KeiraWeb for that one.

If you have any additional videos and especially her acceptance speech please don’t hesitate to send it in! We’d all be soo thankful

42 The Orange British Academy Film Awards 2008
05 Videos Public Appearances – 2008 – BaFTA [edit: Thanks to KeiraWeb we have more videos - incl. the absolutely adoring acceptance speech]

This is such happy news! Marion Cotillard won Best Actress at tonight’s BAFTA Ceremony in London! Congratulations!

Marion won over fellow nominees Cate Blanchett, Julie Christie, Keira Knightley and Ellen Page. This is what Keira Knightley had to say on the red carpet before the ceremony:

I don’t know how many awards we are going to win but I’m so excited the film has 14 nominations. I’m not going to say I’m confident about winning (best actress) because there are some really amazing inspiring performances. Marion Cotillard is my hero at the moment. She’s amazing in La Vie En Rose.

Read the rest of at DailyMail.

The ceremony should be airing right now on BBC One in the UK – and is being aired over in the US on BBC America, not sure about the times, though. It will also be available for viewing online. Not being able to see it right now I’m guessing it will only be made available online after the TV airing.

From the Press Release:

La Vie en Rose received the highest number of wins with 4 BAFTAs. Marion Cotillard received the BAFTA for Leading Actress for La Vie en Rose for her portrayal of Edith Piaf. The film also won awards for Music, Make Up & Hair and Costume Design, presented posthumously to designer Marit Allen.

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.

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