Last Tuesday evening ‘Les petits mouchoirs‘ became officially the most successful French movie in France of the year – dethroning Camping 2. According to today’s Le Figaro 4.7 million people have now seen it! This is only one month after its release and despite somewhat mixed reviews and a length of 2h40 minutes. The newspaper says that the movie has become a social phenomenon and have a psychoanalyst / philosopher try explain its success. There’s also a new interview with writer/director Guillaume Canet where he says he’s surprised by the huge success.

Interestingly, when it comes to all movie releases in France ‘Inception‘ (also with Marion Cotillard) is currently holding the record with over 4.9 million entries – but it looks like ‘Les petits mouchoirs‘ will beat it soon. Its distributor Europa Corp expects that 5.5 million people will have seen it by the end of the year. The only other movie to maybe become the most successful movie in France of 2010 is Harry Potter which opens this week. But in any case it’s definitely the most successful French movie of 2010! Congratulations!

As regards international release dates there are no details yet but they’re previewing it in The Netherlands – thanks Nadine.

Here are scans of some extra stills featured in the soundtrack:

004 Home > Movies > Les petits mouchoirs (Little White Lies) – 2010 > Stills

‘Les petits mouchoirs‘ is set to become the most successful French film in France this year as it continues to break records. In only 3 weeks since its release it has already got 3.5 million entries! Last week it collected an estimated $5.3 million from 600 screens, which cumulates to $28.9 million total. Congratulations!

Source: The Hollywood Reporter & Courrier International.

As of Wednesday, ‘Les petits mouchoirs‘ is being shown in cinemas across France. On the day of the premiere alone, 166,477 people went to see it – which apparently makes this the 2nd best French opening of the year behind Camping 2 and the 12th best start overall. Congratulations! Visit the OFFICIAL movie website!

To promote the movie, Marion Cotillard attended more advance screenings: on Tuesday evening in Montpellier (South of France) from where she took a plane back to Paris – Guillaume & Co. attended screenings in 5 different cinemas in Paris throughout Wednesday – the day of the theatrical release. View a picture of Marion and Guillaume taking a stroll near UGC Bercy in the morning.

Then, pre-recorded interviews with Marion Cotillard were shown on TV while Guillaume Canet was a guest in the studio: Evening news JT20h on France 2, October 17 and Cooking Show C A Vous on France 5, October 19. This show went to the Paris premiere and asked the cast members to divulge something about Guillaume we didn’t know yet. Marion was asked what he’d like to have on the show – she suggested Crumble, which was then the dessert on the show. And everyone was given a handkerchief (“mouchoir”) with their name.

A proper video about the gala premiere in Paris can be found on Gala.fr and Marion, Guillaume & François did stay for the La boîte à questions on Monday. The segment – with a reference to Marion’s Forehead Tittaes – aired on Wednesday on Canal+.

Visit our forum to find out what was going on during Le grand journal and La boîte à questions.

Gallery:
020 TV Shows > C A Vous – 2010
046 Talk Shows > La boîte à questions – 2010
030 News Segments > JT20H (France 2) – 17/10/2010
018 Award Shows & Premieres etc > ‘Les petits mouchoirs’ Premiere – Paris

Video:
001 TV Shows > C A Vous
002 Talk Shows > Le Grand Journal & La boîte à questions
001 News Segments > JT20h
001 Other Public Appearances – Les petits mouchoirs Premiere

Guillaume Canet & Co. were very busy the previous Sunday, October 3. First they made a 15-minute stop (source) at the Pathé cinema in Lievin. Marion was unable to accompany them since she had to arrive earlier at their 2nd stop in Lomme for interviews (source) but sent greetings (source).

As already mentioned, they then stopped at the Kinepolis cinema in Lomme near Lille. This is where fans and media greeted Guillaume Canet and his friends: Marion Cotillard, Gilles Lellouche, François Cluzet, Pascale Arbillot, Laurent Lafitte and Joël Dupuch. Only absent due to filming commitments were Jean Dujardin, Benoît Magimel and Valérie Bonneton. France 3 aired a news report about the premiere with a short Marion interview the following day.

The group also made a stop at the UGC theatre in Villeneuve. There’s a video of this on YouTube uploaded by jeanpierreblauw. La voix du nord has 2 articles about this here and here.

The last stop was the UGC Ciné Cité Cinema in Lille. There are 2 very good videos by CalogeroFanzone on Youtube: Part 1 and Part 2. These are particularly noteworthy because they were having so much fun, even singing bits of songs while introducing the movie. I added screencaptures of these to the gallery.

Not surprisingly, all these highly successful advance screenings around the country in the past weeks have resulted in over 10,000 people having seen the movie prior to its official theatrical release on October 20 – as of October 4 (source). The number has increased since.

Many thanks Nadine for your tremendous help in finding the links to all this information. Stay tuned for more catch-up posts as well as pictures from the official premiere which took place earlier tonight.

Gallery:
021 ‘Les petits mouchoirs’ Premiere – Lomme/Lille/Villeneuve
088 Award Shows & Premieres etc > ‘Les petits mouchoirs’ Premiere – Lille
026 France 3 – 04/10/2010

Video:
001 News & Segments > France 3 – 2010/10/04

I added more pictures to the album of the ‘Little White Lies‘ premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival – and also finally uploaded all the other pictures taken of Marion during her 2 days at the festival. After the premiere she attended the Fox Searchlight party where she was pictured with Josh Brolin and director Darren Aronofsky. The following day she attended the press conference, changed clothes for Unifrance’s Celebration of French Cinema before wrapping up the day in yet another dress at vitaminwater’s Backyard Dash. This is also where she met up with Harvey Weinstein. Many thanks Jess for your help with the pictures. Enjoy & stay tuned for videos when I get back from my holiday.

007 ‘Little White Lies’ Premiere – 35th TIFF
007 35th TIFF – Fox Searchlight Party
092 ‘Little White Lies’ Press Conference – 35th TIFF
002 35th TIFF – Out & About
009 35th TIFF – Unifrance Celebration of French Cinema
003 35th TIFF – vitaminwater’s Backyard Dash
008 Sessions from 2010 > Toronto International Film Festival – Session 001

After many ‘Les petits mouchoirs‘ (Little White Lies) advance screenings in France – even one that was kept rather quiet in Paris but which Marion & Guillaume attended – the official world premiere took place earlier this afternoon during the Toronto International Film Festival. Marion Cotillard looked effortlessly chic in a somewhat new look. Together with director Guillaume Canet and co-star Gilles Lellouche I’d say a very handsome & charming trio represented the movie in Canada.

After some technical difficulties to screen the movie with subtitles there were two screenings at another venue to make up for the annoyance. The first English reviews are out by The Hollywood Reporter and Variety – though especially the latter is spoilery and not only positive.

And the ever-lovely, always genuine Cotillard.
- The Hollywood Reporter

Cotillard offers a strong presence, though Marie’s character feels too diffuse.
- Variety

033 ‘Little White Lies’ Premiere – 35th Toronto International Film Festival

I still can’t quite believe I managed to see ‘Les petits mouchoirs the other night. I’ve since had a day to think about it and here are my thoughts. I’m not going to spill any more plot details than the official synopsis revealed as I feel watching ‘Les petits mouchoirs‘ is a real experience, in the end you’ll feel as if you are a part of the gang yourself and as if you went through everything yourself. This because the movie has a perfect flow and all of the performances feel real, there’s no false note. Even though I didn’t understand everything I laughed a lot, sometimes just because of how comical the situations were but mostly because of the hilarious dialogue. Make no mistake though, it’s a rollercoaster for your emotions!

Marion as independent Marie is fabulous, she got to play the most interesting and engaging female character in the movie. While all characters are well developed the movie does focus more about the friendship between the men. Additionally to Marion, also Gilles Lellouche, François Cluzet and Benoît Magimel are definite standouts in my opinion. Do look out for interesting cameo appearances by Matthieu Chedid (aka M), Maxim Nucci (aka Yodélice), Jean-Claude Cotillard and Niseema Theillaud. But most of all, if you get a chance to watch ‘Les petits mouchoirs‘ (Little White Lies) do not hesitate to buy a ticket! It’s easily made my personal list of my 5 most favourite Marion movies & performances!

Guillaume Canet released the 4th Making of Video on Facebook which sheds more light on 4 characters including Marie:

I was very very touched by Marie’s character. There was a sense of understanding and I had already the wish to work on a character that could be similar to me even if not entirely like me.
- Marion Cotillard (free translation by myself)

In time for the world premiere on Saturday, the final poster for ‘Les petits mouchoirs‘ was released, credit to Jean-Claude Lother, Les Productions Du Tresor, EuropaCorp, Caneo Films and M6 Films. Isn’t it perfect?!

I also scanned the ‘Les petits mouchoirs‘ article in last October’s Studio Ciné Live – the on set pictures from which are no longer new – as well as this month’s Premiere which focuses mainly on Guillaume Canet, but he talks about working with Marion in the interview and there are new pictures of her taken during filming. Enjoy!

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

001 Les petits mouchoirs (Little White Lies) – 2010 > Artwork
019 Les petits mouchoirs (Little White Lies) – 2010 > Behind the Scenes
002 Studio Ciné Live (France) – October 2009
009 Premiere (France) – September 2010

‘Les petits mouchoirs‘ (Little White Lies) is doing the festival rounds. It’ll be shown at the 6th Festival du Film Français d’Helvetie in Bienne, Switzerland on September 18, 2010, 8pm as well as at the 54th BFI London Film Festival on October 16, 2010, 6pm and on October 18, 2010, 12pm. Thanks Giovanna and Nadine for the heads up!

Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard along with fellow ‘Les petits mouchoirs‘ cast members François Cluzet, Gilles Lellouche, Benoît Magimel and Laurent Laffitte will appear on Les Enfants de la télé (TF1) on Saturday, September 25, 2010 at 8.45pm when the show comes back after summer break. Other guests on the same evening include Marion’s former costars Julie Depardieu and Thierry Lhermitte as well as Kad Merad and Pierre Palmade. Source: TVMag.com

The line-up for the upcoming episodes of Taratata, which comes back from summer break on September 28, 2010 has been announced: Louis Chedid, M, Phil Collins, Ben l’Oncle Soul, Eliza Doolittle, Guillaume Grand, Maroon 5, Yodelice, Marion Cotillard, Sara Schiralli, K’naan will be taping their performances on Thursday, September 16, 2010. No air date has yet been announced but if the order of the taping sessions is anything to go by we can expect the episode with Marion on October 5, 2010 8.35pm on France 4. Go here to register to attend the taping session. Source: Actu-Loisirs.com

And a little bit of trivia about the programmes. Les Enfants de la télé shows old and rare – maybe awkward – video clips of its guests. Taratata showcases live and pre-recorded footage of current rock acts and features unique duets as well as brief interviews with the artists. The prerecorded sessions air on France 4 every Tuesday at 8.35pm together with bonus material such as footage of rehearsals. Later, it also airs on France 2 (Fridays after midnight) and France 3 as well as throughout Europe on TV5 Monde on Saturday and on TV5 Québec Canada.

The sidebar has been updated with all of these dates.