Movie Sportlight—Marion Cotillard - French actress - Brief Article - Interview

THIS KIND OF ROMANCE? IT MUST BE FRANCE

SCOTT LYLE COHEN: You got your big break in Taxi [1998], one of France's first big blockbusters. Since then you've been pretty busy. MARION COTILLARD: [laughs] Yeah. I broke out with Taxi. After that people didn't stop calling me. Thankfully, they really haven't stopped since.

SLC: That film and its sequel, Taxi 2 [1999], also a blockbuster, are among a number of recent projects that represent a new sort of thinking in the French cinema, almost a new energy. Things are changing, aren't they?

MC: Yeah. At the moment there are a lot of new faces in France, and with new faces come new ideas. I've met so many young people who are making today's cinema--and music--and there really is a special energy about them. And, also, more and more women are picking up cameras and shooting movies.

SLC: So it's predominantly a female energy?

MC: Not exactly. It's a young energy. I think young actors and actresses today are really more uncomplicated--closer to life and reality--than the stars of the '50s and '60s.

SLC: What makes Paris so special?

MC: It's like a village. A few days ago I tried to step into the skin of a tourist. I really tried to be a stranger in Paris, to feel again for the first time the energy of the city. There is all this art, the movies, the fashion, the museums, and it's close to everyone. There's a history, and there's an old energy. All the people who walked on these streets, all the great painters, writers, artists--you can still feel them.

Scott Lyle cohen is Interview's Senior Editor. Above: Marion Cotillard wears a top by KENZO. cosmetic colors: AVEDA.

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