Marion Cotillard is playing Lena
English title: You and Me

Directed by Julie Lopes-Curval Written by Sophie Hiet, Julie Lopes-Curval Genre Romance, Comedy Tagline La vie est un roman-photo! (Life is a photo-novel!) Theatrical Release France: 08/03/2006 DVD Release France: 04/10/2006 Starring Marion Cotillard, Julie Depardieu, Jonathan Zaccaï, Eric Berger, Tomer Sisley, Sergio Peris Mencheta, Chantal Lauby

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Editor of the photo romance section of “You and Me” magazine, Ariane has a tendency to transpose the love lives of herself and her sister, Lena, onto the pages – albeit with some extra flourishes. However, their lives are not exactly romantic: Ariane clings on to Farid, who wants nothing to do with her, while Lena has grown bored with her companion, François. But what if Ariane let herself go and fell in love with Pablo, the handsome Spaniard who is working her building? And what if Lena let her heart beat for Mark, the remarkable violinist she has just met?

She plays Lena. In order to be able to stay close to her family - and first love François - she chose to play in an orchestra in Paris rather than to pursue a career as a solist. When she meets Mark, an accomplished violinist, during a concert in London and later again by chance in Paris the attraction is obvious. But Lena is timid and introverted. The film shows beautifully how decisions to wait or to act can decide your destiny. Marion is absolutely brilliant and shows us all facettes of Lena's character, her insecurity, her longing to be loved, her frailty and most of all her musical talent.

• Filming Locations:
• Marion Cotillard had to learn to play the violin, an instrument she had always admired but never played before. She took lessons for 3 months and practiced every day in order to be able to play the instrument herself in all the scenes.
• Was shown at a number of festivals in 2006: Kiev (Molodist) - International Film Festival, Mexico City - Franco-Mexican Film Festival, New York - New Directors New Films, Seattle International Film Festival, Tel-Aviv - French Film Festival, Tokyo/Osaka - French Film Festival, Vienna (Viennale) - International Film Festival

Depardieu and Cotillard's agile yin-yang performances are significantly more modulated than their characters' up-and-down narrative arcs, often providing a measure of sweet sincerity that's otherwise lacking from Lopes-Curval's uneven screenplay.
from Slant Magazine

This is one of my favourite Marion films overall. I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. The characters are believable and drawn from real life. Adding the phantasy scenes added something fresh & funny to a familiar genre.
by Maria