By Calvin Wilson St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Being nominated for an Academy Award is a rare honor, and receiving such recognition more than once is rarer still. But Marion Cotillard has been singled out twice in that regard — and in both cases for French-language roles.
A French actress who frequently stars in American films, she took home an Oscar for her performance as legendary chanteuse Edith Piaf in the biopic “La Vie en Rose” (2007). The other nod came for Cotillard’s performance in “Two Days, One Night” (2014), as a worker threatened with unemployment.
Her latest film, “Allied,” opens Wednesday. In the spy drama set during World War II and directed by Robert Zemeckis (“Flight”), Cotillard plays a French Resistance fighter who becomes involved with a Canadian spy portrayed by Brad Pitt.
One of the things that attracted to her the project, Cotillard said, was its blend of old-fashioned and contemporary sensibilities.
“What Bob Zemeckis wanted was the spirit of an old movie, but with all of the technology that we have today,” she said. “I read the script four years ago and fell in love with it. There was no question of saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ — I was just waiting for this movie to be made.”
One of the perks of the project was working with Pitt: “He’s an amazing actor — everybody knows that. And he’s down to earth.”
Cotillard has been praised for her wide acting range — encompassing characters from the adorable Adriana in Woody Allen’s fantastical comedy “Midnight in Paris” (2011) to the manipulative Mal in Christopher Nolan’s cerebral heist movie “Inception” (2010).
“I never know how the character will start to live in me,” she said. “It can come from nowhere. But I love the fact that I never know how I’m going to work or what’s going to happen.”
Working on “Two Days, One Night,” she said, was one of the highlights of her career so far. The film was written and directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, who are known as the Dardenne Brothers and whose work is more arthouse than mainstream. Because of Cotillard’s participation, “Two Days, One Night” became one of their more high-profile films.
“That was really unexpected,” she said. “I’m a huge fan of the Dardenne Brothers, but I never thought that one day I would be part of one of their projects. That was a dream that I had never dared to dream.”
Acting, she said, is something she’s always wanted to do.
“There’s this thing about actors. We want to tell stories.”
not mine.credit and source: ST. LOUIS POST DISPATCH
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