Emag.co.uk Entertainment News Leader
Oscar winning French actress Marion Cotillard may have been catapulted into the limelight thanks to her virtuoso performance in the Edith Piaf biopic La Vie En Rose (La Mome), but her varied acting career had been building steadily to this point. Cotillard’s past has seen her take on roles large and small in a whole array of film and television projects.
Taxi
Perhaps the best known, and certainly the most successful, of Cotillard’s previous film work was in Luc Besson’s Taxi series. She starred in 3 of the Taxi films as Lilly, the sassy, streetwise girlfriend of wise-guy leading man Daniel (Samy Naceri). The first Taxi film, written by Besson, is a riotous, fast-paced comic adventure. It has a spark and humour that puts it in the same bracket as celebrated Besson fare such as Leon and Nikita. Unfortunately, the franchise has been stretched to breaking point, with a soul destroying American re-make starring Queen Latifah, and a host of French sequels of ever-decreasing quality. Cotillard sensibly stood down from Taxi 4, extricating herself from what was once a great series but has sadly become painful in its decline.
Life and Love
Since 2007 she has been romantically linked with French actor Guillaume Canet, whom she first met and worked with on the film Jeux d’enfants (Love Me If You Dare) in 2003. He is a big star in France, but perhaps most familiar to English speaking audiences as the French backpacker Etienne from The Beach.
Marion’s parents were both involved in acting and her cousin Laurent Cotillard is also an actor. Marion has two younger brothers, Guillaume and Quentin, who are twins. She is also a well known advocate for Greenpeace.
Marion was introduced to English speaking audiences in Tim Burton’s Big Fish, and had a small but stand out role in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s film A Very Long Engagement, in which she starred alongside that other darling of Gallic cinema Audrey Tautou. Cotillard won her first Cesar award for A Very Long Engagement.
