This week’s issue of Elle France has 6 pages full of stunning behind the scenes pictures from the set of ‘Le dernier vol‘ (The Last Flight). Enjoy!

006 Elle (France) – August 21

Kindly do not redistribute these scans at another Marion Cotillard fan site as they were obtained/donated exclusively for ‘Magnifique Marion Cotillard’. Thank you.

I replaced two of the ‘Le dernier vol‘ (The Last Flight) stills we recently got from the Figaro magazine with beautiful HQ pictures. Enjoy!

The release date for the film in France and French speaking Switzerland is now November 18, 2009. Unfortunately, I leave for a 3 week holiday the same day so I really really hope it will still be playing in a city nearby when I get back.

002 Le dernier vol (The Last Flight) – 2009 > Stills

I’m back from my summer travels for the time being so I can catch up on all those Marion news I missed during my absence. To start, I have the actual scans of the article I posted last time. The French publication ‘Le Figaro Magazine’ visited the Marrocan set of ‘Le dernier vol‘ and they published some new stills! So exciting!!

004 Le Figaro Magazine (France) – July 4
003 Le dernier vol (The Last Flight) – 2009 > Stills

This second batch of new interviews consists of French interviews and articles. If anyone has time to translate at least one or two of them that’d be great! This is the last update for a while as I’m leaving town again tomorrow and won’t be with internet access until at least next week.

• Sa Vie en Rose, Le Petit Bulletin, July 7
• Confidences d’une môme qui devient grande, Gala, July 3
• Marion Cotillard, une Môme en plein Sahara, Le Figaro Magazine, July 4
• Marion Cotillard, de retour d’Amérique dans la peau d’une compagne de gangster, La Voix du Nord, July 3
• “Johnny Depp est un vrai gentleman”, Metro, July 2
• Marion Cotillard : l’amour, l’ego et Hollywood, Madame Figaro, June 27

The Sahara article is actually about Figaro Magazine‘s visit to the Le dernier vol set. We learn that the full name of Marion’s character is Marie Vallières de Beaumont.

Marion had an immediate visceral connection with Marie Vallières de Beaumont, this passionate woman who fights to rescue the man she loves to the point of exhaustion and who in the abandonment of the desert discovers a new meaning of life.

Marion Cotillard shares this perfectionism, she’s always extremely focused even for a short scene. The young Oscar winner has lost none of her naturality and simplicity though. Once we see her knitting a scarf for her niece. We’re amused to see her candidly confide her “unhealthy sentimentality” towards animals, including insects. Then the Marion we know is back, one evening she’s singing and dancing, together with a nomadic Berber family who arrived to work as extras on the film. “Like my character, I’ve found a lot more in the desert than I set out for: especially these smiles of the children!”

I added 6 more ‘Public Enemies‘ stills. As you must have noticed, Marion Cotillard is very busy at the moment and I could almost constantly update the site with news etc. My own life however, is pretty busy too right now, so I don’t know how soon I will catch up with everything. Thank you for your patience!

Don’t forget, Marion will appear on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson tonight at 12:35am ET/PT on CBS.

New release date for ‘Le dernier vol‘ in France is November 11, 2009.

Marion Cotillard’s character in ‘Inception‘ is reportedly called Lisa Hastley.

006 Public Enemies – 2009 > Stills

From Gaumont’s Cannes Promo Flyer and Marion’s appearance on ‘Le grand journal’ (caps & clips coming soon) we have 2 new ‘Le dernier vol‘ stills. Have I already said how impatiently I’m awaiting its cinema release?!

Apart from France the movie is also scheduled to come to the French part of Switzerland on November 25, 2009!

002 Le dernier vol (The Last Flight) – 2009 > Stills

Gaumont – the company producing ‘Le dernier vol‘ – lists the movie on their homepage with a picture. It’s the first picture from the movie and doesn’t the dreamy picture of Marion as aviator make you want to see the movie like right now?!

I’ve been trying to find confirmation of the start of shooting for Marion Cotillard’s new movie Le dernier vol (The Last Flight). While I haven’t exactly been able to find it everything I did find seemed to confirm the previously reported date of March 9. Also the movie’s main producer Gaumont mentioned the movie in their March 5 newsletter and said it was set for a release in November 2009! Wow! [edit:] And apparently the shooting will last for 8 weeks – till the end of April 2009.

I added a photoshopped poster (with the “international” title The Last Flight) that someone took a picture of during the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, where the producers tried to secure finances. Also, I need to point out that despite something I read online somewhen last year everything points to this film not only being French in terms of producers (additionally, France 3 and Canal + are co-producing) but also in terms of language – which makes sense actually.

On another note I came across a new synopsis of the film’s story here. Does that mean the film will only be loosely inspired by real-life couple Chubbie Miller and Bill Lancaster?! I’m confused. Here my attempt of its translation:

Young aviator and stubborn adventurer Marie leaves to search for her lover in the Sahara desert where he went missing while attempting a record flight from London to Cape (South Africa). Her sudden arrival disrupts the routine at an outpost of the Meharists (French Foreign Legion) who are facing a Touareg rebellion.

A captain with a hierarchy conflict, Antoine, decides to help Marie in her quest – in the midst of an ocean of magnificent and hostile sand.

Under the overpowering heat their desire to survive unites them and leads to a disturbing and unexpected love story…

Original French text:

Jeune aviatrice, aventurière obstinée, Marie part à la recherche de son amant disparu dans le désert saharien lors d’une tentative de record de traversée Londres-Le cap. Cette arrivée impromptue vient bouleverser le quotidien d’un poste avancé de méharistes français aux prises avec la montée de la rébellion touareg.

Antoine, capitaine en conflit avec sa hiérarchie, décide d’aider Marie dans cette quête, au coeur d’un océan de sable grandiose et hostile.

Sous une chaleur accablante, leur désir de survivre les unira dans une histoire d’amour troublante et inattendue…

If this turns out to be the real story of the film it could mean Guillaume Canet would play Antoine instead of Marion’s character’s missing lover – which would give the two actors a lot of scenes together. I’m definitely excited to hear more about this film!

I added a total of 94 regular quality pictures to almost all of 2009′s event albums.

Also I would like to remind everyone that tomorrow the 34th César Ceremony is taking place in Paris. As last year’s winner of the Best Actress césar it is very likely that Marion will be attending and/or presenting. Canal+ is airing the show as of 8.50pm MET. And apparently as of 9pm MET we will all be able to watch it live on CanalPlus.Fr..

I am not sure whether I will be able to record anything as my computer is acting weird lately whenever I’m dealing with media files. Could anyone watch out for Marion on the red carpet and during the ceremony and provide clips for this site? Thank you very much.

[edit Feb 27:] I couldn’t get that direct link to play but from what I’ve been able to gather on the live blog Marion Cotillard was absent from tonight’s Césars Ceremony despite having reportedly returned to France earlier this week (thanks Gemma for the link). I’m sure she’s taking a well deserved break before filming for her first leading role since La Vie en Rose starts in little over a week from now: Aviator Chubbie Miller searching for her fiancé in the much awaited Sahara-set adventure-romantic drama “Le Dernier vol de Lancaster” by Karim Dridi opposite Guillaume Canet. Filming starts March 9 and will mostly take place in the Moroccan desert.

The first ever issue of Studio Ciné Live (combination of former French movie magazines Studio and Ciné Live), on newsstands January 28, will feature a special interview with Marion Cotillard. Last week French gossip website Purepeople.com released an extract (Scans & full translation will follow as soon as I’m able to pick up the magazine). From that we get 2 fantastic news:

1) Marion is all set to appear on stage! She’ll appear in Arthur Honegger’s play Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher at the Théâtre Marigny in Paris this July! She last played that role in May 2005, back then however in Orléans.

2) Marion’s much awaited first French film (though maybe in the English language) after her Oscar win The Last Flight by Karim Dridi, in which she plays female aviator Chubbie Miller next to Guillaume Canet’s Bill Lancaster, is still happening. Filming is set to begin March 9 in the Moroccan desert.