Marion Cotillard

Biography

Marion Cotillard was born on September 30th 1975, in Paris. Her mother is a theatrical actress, her father, Jean-Claude is a theater actor, director, founder of the "Cotillard" theater company and a teacher in the school of acting. Marion's childhood was spent in the city of Orleans, the department of Loire, where she studied at the Conservatory of Dramatic Art and attended singing courses. However, the profession of her parents played a role - already at the age of six, she began to appear on stage - either to give replicas to the actress-mother, or shone in a specially designed for her director-father child plays.Start of the career

In 1994, she starred in an episode ("Nowhere to Run") of the American television series "Highlander. After this debut, Cotiyar began acting in films and on television. Her first role on the big screen was the role of Mathilde in the film "The Story of the Boy Who Wanted to be Kissed" by Philippe Arel about the life of a young and lonely student Raoul, who dreams of love and the first kiss. In the same year, Marion got a major role in the youth series "The Edge", which tells about the life of students of the French Institute of Sports. In 1996, she played a supporting role in the drama Arnaud Depleshena "As I discussed ... (my sex life)" and the science fiction comedy Colleen Cerro "Green Beauty". Despite these attempts to carve a niche for herself in French cinema, the actress' career began to stagnate.

A breakthrough in the cinema

In 1997, Marion was awarded a prestigious theatrical award for her role in a theatrical production of Affaire classée. Then she was approved for the role of Lily Bertino, the bride of the main character, in a comedy action movie directed by Girard Pires "Taxi", written and produced by the famous Luc Besson. The film, with its thrilling action and car chases through the busy streets of Marseille, was one of the most successful films of the 1990s in France and gained international fame, and Marion is now well known to French and foreign audiences and was nominated for her performance at the major French film awards, "César", as the most promising actress. In 2000 and 2003, she again appeared on screen in the same role in the two sequels to this film, "Taxi 2" and "Taxi 3" respectively.

After "Taxi" Marion established herself in the French cinema and began to receive one proposal after another. Her notable films include Francis Ressers' historical love drama "War in the Mountains" and Pierre Grimblatt's war drama "Lise". In 2000 she was a member of the jury at the Gerardme Festival of Fantastic Films. In 2001, Cotiyar played her first major film role, in the melodrama Gilles Paquet-Brennet's "Pretty Things", where she played two roles at once, twin sisters Marie and Lucy. Both roles required Marion to sing in the film, for which she additionally took a month-long singing course, already having undergone some musical education. For this film, Cotillard again received a nomination for "Cesar" as the most promising actress and again did not receive an award.

Although Cotillard is still better known in France, the pictures with her participation began to bring her worldwide fame. She starred in Guillaume Nicklo's thriller Private Investigation and in Yann Samuel's romantic comedy Love Me If You Dare, where she demonstrated her ability to play a complex touching and romantic lead role. For her performance, she was awarded the best actress award at the Newport Beach Film Festival. In 2003, Marion starred in her first major foreign film, playing the role of Josephine, the pregnant daughter-in-law of the main character in director Tim Burton's sci-fi tragicomedy Big Fish, which featured a very serious cast of Evan McGregor, Albert Finney, Helena Bonham Carter, Danny DeVito, Steve Buscemi and Jessica Lange.

At the pinnacle of his career.

The collaboration with director Jean-Pierre Genet is the apogee of the actress' career. In his 2004 World War I drama The Long Engagement, Genet tells the story of a young girl, Mathilde (played by Audrey Tautou), who searches for her missing fiancé, sentenced to death along with four other soldiers for intentionally injuring herself out of fear of battle. Marion Cotillard played the role of Tina Lombardi, a former prostitute who is also looking for her lover. But he died in the war, and Tina takes out her anger on the accused, seeking their death out of revenge. The role of Marion played very vital and, as the director notes in his audio commentary to the film, during the filming of experienced great nervous tension. For her excellent game Cotiyar was awarded "Cesar" in the category "Best Supporting Actress".

After the international success of "The Long Engagement" Marion has become one of the most popular actress of French cinema. In 2005, there were six films with her participation, and in November 2006 there was the premiere of the romantic comedy by Ridley Scott, "A Good Year" in which Cotiyar played a major role in a couple with Russell Crowe. And in 2007, Marion appeared on the screen in the form of the famous French singer Edith Piaf in the movie "Sparrow". For this role she was chosen out of hundreds of actresses tried.