Variety has a nice little profile on Marion in its latest issue. The trade magazine goes out on a limb and predicts that (gasp!) Marion is an Oscar contender! Here’s an excerpt:
“When I saw that the fourth day of shooting for me was a scene in 1960 when she hears the song ‘No Regrets,’ I was really scared,” Cotillard says. But getting the climax out of the way early proved an unexpected blessing. “If we had saved the aging for the end of the movie, I would have been paralyzed with fear.” More…
Another excerpt from the film. This time Louis Leplée (Piaf’s first benefactor and played here by the great Gérard Depardieu) christens Edith Giovanna Gassione as La Môme Piaf (“the little sparrow” or so I think it translates). But it looks like Edith is more impressed with the fact that Leplée has had a manicure.
Is it just me, or does Leplée’s lapdog look just like Peter Saarsgard in one of his patented effete performances? God, I love that guy.
The greatest filmmaker in history, Ingmar Bergman, has passed away. I’ve been a big fan for the past 15 years. I read his autobiography, “The Magic Lantern,” and found the man to be exemplary and brutally honest. This is truly a great loss.
Bergman with the late great Sven Nykvist
Here’s another excerpt. Let me set the scene for those who haven’t seen the film yet. Here we have a young Edith and her best friend, Momone, in the streets of Paris. Edith, like her mother before her, sings for her supper (literally). But–uh oh–I think I see a cop heading their way! Hilarity ensues:
OK, so not hilarious, but very sweet. By the way, I believe this is one of the several songs where Jil Aigrot provides her powerful voice in a valiant approximation of La Piaf herself.
From The New Yorker: “Cotillard gives an amazing performance: frail and, at times, bent (Piaf suffered from arthritis), she can look terrified and vicious simultaneously, and she goes all the way with the writer-director Olivier Dahan’s concept, which emphasizes Piaf’s suffering as a child and young woman and her monstrousness as an adult.” More…
I may have to finally get a subscription to this rag.
According to Box Office Mojo, “La Vie En Rose” has grossed more than $8M in the North American market. The film is in the North American top 20 right now, almost two months after its initial release. It’s called staying power.
Here are the latest figures:
Domestic: $8,218,000
Foreign: $61,820,416
Worldwide Total: $70,038,416
A treat:
Marion: “After spending so long watching, listening to and loving her, I often had the impression she was there. I was so deeply steeped in the way she moved and spoke, down to the tiniest inflections of her voice, that it was as if she existed within me.” More…
Check out the following fansite: Presenting Marion Cotillard. It’s apparently in the process of being updated, but it has some lovely features and better yet, loads of photos–but beware, you can get lost in there for hours!
My favorite part, however, is the interview from (where else?) Interview magazine.
I came across a review, this time from the Phoenix New Times. While it praises Marion’s performance, it failed to appreciate the film itself–something I’ve grown accustomed to in the past few weeks.
“In a sense, every scene in La Vie En Rose is a holding pattern for the next ballad, which would reduce the movie to a musical were it not for Cotillard’s command of character. Though she’s far prettier than Piaf at any age and has to be heavily made up to come close to the bug-eyed jolie-laide that was la Môme, Cotillard not only has her fluttery mannerisms down, but the fragile sense of self that kept her always on the edge.” More…
Marion Cotillard's Road to Oscar 