Audrey Tautou

Quotes by Audrey Tautou:

"I wouldn't mind being in an American film for a laugh, but I certainly don't want to be in Thingy Blah Blah 3, if you know what I mean."

"In France we have a law which doesn't allow the press to publish a photo that you didn't approve. It lets the paparazzi take the picture, but if they publish this picture, you have the choice to sue the newspaper. So me, I always sued them."

"When I wanted to do this job it was for making movies not for the glitter. Of course with the fame I got more offers from different countries so it is great to have huge luxuries for an actor to work and to have the choice. But after, in life, I can't enjoy anonymity. But I can hide myself."

"People in France are very intrusive when they recognize you. In New York, they are very polite, with quick words, so it's great."

Juliette Binoche

Juliette Binoche is an Academy Award, BAFTA, César Award, Venice Best Actress, Berlin Best Actress, three-time European Film Award, NBR Award winning and four-time Screen Actors Guild Award, three-time Golden Globe nominated French film actress.

Contents
Early life and career
Personal life
Filmography
References

Early life and career

Binoche was born in Paris, the daughter of Jean-Marie Binoche, a director, actor, and sculptor, and Monique Stalens, a teacher, director, and actress. Binoche's mother is of Polish descent, and her maternal Polish-Catholic grandparents were imprisoned at Auschwitz because they were intellectuals. Binoche also has French, Flemish, Brazilian and Moroccan ancestry. Her parents divorced when she was four and Binoche, with her sister Marion, was sent to a boarding school.

Binoche began acting in amateur stage productions, and at 17 directed and starred in a student production of the Eugène Ionesco play, Exit the King. The next year, she studied acting at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts of Paris. She found an agent through a friend and joined a theatre troupe in which she toured France, Belgium and Switzerland under the pseudonym of "Juliette Adrienne".

After quiting the CNSAD, she began acting lessons with famed coach Vera Gregh. Following in her mother's footsteps, she became a stage actress, occasionally taking small parts in French feature films. Her first screen role was a small part in the 1983 television film Dorothée, danseuse de corde by Jacques Fensten, which was followed by a similarly small role in the provincial television film Fort bloque by Pierrick Guinnard. After Binoche secured her first big screen appearance with a small supporting role in Pascal Kané's Algeria-themed Liberty Belle, she decided to pursue a career in cinema.

Personal life

Binoche has two children: Raphaël (born on September 2, 1993), whose father is André Halle, a professional scuba diver, and Hana (December 16, 1999), whose father is fellow French actor Benoît Magimel, with whom Binoche starred in the 1999 film Children of the Century. Binoche is currently romantically involved with Argentine writer/director Santiago Amigorena.

Filmography

1983 Dorothée, danseuse de corde (Dorothy the Rope Dancer) Television
Liberty belle La fille du rallye
1985 Le Meilleur de la vie (A Better Life) Une amie de Véronique au bar
Rendez-vous Nina/Anne Larrieux Nominated - César Award for Best Actress
Adieu blaireau (Farewell Blaireau) Brigitte B., dite B.B.
La Vie de famille (Family Life) Natacha
Les Nanas (The Chicks) Antoinette
'Je vous salue, Marie' (Hail Mary) Juliette
Fort bloqué Nicole Television
1986 Mauvais sang (Bad Blood) Anna Nominated - César Award for Best Actress
Mon beau-frère a tué ma soeur (My Brother-in-law Has Killed My Sister) Esther Bouloire
1988 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Tereza
1989 Un tour de manège (Roundabout) Elsa
1991 Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (The Lovers on the Bridge) Michèle Stalens Nominated - César Award for Best Actress
Women & Men 2: In Love There Are No Rules Mara Television
1992 Damage Anna Barton Nominated - César Award for Best Actress
Wuthering Heights Cathy Linton / Catherine Earnshaw
1993 Trois couleurs: Bleu (Three Colors: Blue) Julie Vignon (de Courcy) César Award for Best Actress; Nominated - Golden Globe
1994 Trois couleurs: Blanc (Three Colors: White) Julie Vignon (de Courcy)
Trois couleurs: Rouge (Three Colors: Red) Julie Vignon (de Courcy)
1995 The Horseman on the Roof Pauline de Théus Nominated - César Award for Best Actress
1996 The English Patient Hana Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; BAFTA Award;
Nominated - Golden Globe
A Couch in New York Beatrice Saulnier
1998 Alice et Martin (Alice and Martin) Alice
1999 Children of the Century George Sand/Baroness Aurore Dudevant
2000 Chocolat Vianne Rocher Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress;
Nominated - BAFTA Award; Nominated - Golden Globe
Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys Anne Laurent
La Veuve de Saint-Pierre (The Widow of Saint-Pierre) Pauline (Madame La) Nominated - César Award for Best Actress
2002 Jet Lag Rose
2004 In My Country Anna Malan
2005 Mary Marie Palesi / Mary Magdalene
Bee Season Miriam
Caché (Hidden) Anne Laurent
2006 Breaking and Entering Amira
Quelques Jours en Septembre (A Few Days in September) Irène Montano
Paris, je t'aime (Paris, I Love You) Suzanne segment "Place des Victoires"
2007 Dan in Real Life Marie
Désengagement (Disengagement)
Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge (Flight of the Red Balloon) Suzanne
2008 The Other Man (in production)
Paris Elise
L'Heure d'été (Summertime) Juliette
Une autre forme de silence (Another Kind of Silence)

References

^ Yahoo! Movies
^ NNDB

Eva Green

Contents
1 Early life
2 Career
3 Personal life
4 Filmography
5 References

Eva Gaëlle Green is a French actress, raised in Paris and living partly in London. She has been described by The Independent as "gothic, quirky, and sexy".

Early life

Eva Green was born in Paris, France on July 5, 1980, the daughter of French actress Marlène Jobert and Swedish dentist Walter Green. Green has a fraternal twin sister named Joy, who was born two minutes earlier than her. Green described her family as "bourgeois", and that her sister is very different from her. Green is a natural blonde; she dyed her hair black during her teens. French-Swedish actress Marika Green is her aunt.

Green was raised in France, and spent some time as well in Ramsgate, London and Ireland. Her school was English-speaking. Green was quiet at school, and developed an interest in Egyptology when she visited the Louvre at age seven. Green aspired to become an actress when she saw Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele H. at the age of fourteen. Jobert initially feared the effect an acting career would have on her sensitive daughter, but she soon supported her ambitions.


Career

At seventeen, Green enrolled at Eva St. Paul Drama School in Paris for three years, and then spent ten weeks at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Green stated that at drama school, "I always picked the really evil roles. It's a great way to deal with your everyday emotions." Green trained at Tisch School of the Arts in New York City, before she returned to Paris, where she performed in several plays. Green was nominated for a Molière Award award for her performance in Jalousie en Trois Fax.

Director Bernardo Bertolucci discovered Green in 2002, and found her "so beautiful, it's indecent". She accepted his invitation to star in The Dreamers (2003), despite her parents' initial objections because of Maria Schneider's traumatisation after filming Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris. Green performed extensive nude scenes, which felt natural once on set, though she was embarrassed when her family saw the film. In addition to performing, Green was also credited with writing the score. Her performance was well received, with some comparing her to Liv Tyler. Green expressed surprise when a minute was cut from the film for the American market, as "there is so much violence, both on the streets and on the screen. They think nothing of it. Yet I think they are frightened by sex." Green followed up The Dreamers with Arsène Lupin (2004), in the light-hearted part of a love interest which she had fun playing, though she generally preferred more complex parts.

It was her performance in The Dreamers that convinced Ridley Scott to cast Green in Kingdom of Heaven (2005), a film about the Crusades where she played Sibylla of Jerusalem. Green performed six screen tests, and was hired with only a week before principal photography began. Green found the atmosphere of coming onto a film so late tense and exciting, and also liked the film's ambiguity in approaching its subject matter. To her disappointment, much of her screentime was cut. Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com praised her performance as "She doesn't quite know what to do with her character's stilted dialogue, but she carries herself so regally that you barely notice", but Nev Pierce of the BBC called her character "limp". Green was satisfied when her character's complex subplot was restored in the director's cut. Total Film noted the new scenes completed her performance: "In the theatrical cut, Princess Sibylla sleeps with Balian and then, more or less, loses her mind. Now we understand why. Not only does Sibylla have a young son, but when she realises he's inflicted with leprosy just like her brother Baldwin, she decides to take his life shortly after he's been crowned king."

Green portrayed the witch Serafina Pekkala in the film adaptation of The Golden Compass (2007), and will return to shoot two sequels if she wishes. Green hoped the religious themes of the book would be preserved, but references to Catholicism were removed from the film. Green next appears in Franklyn, playing Emilia,a schizophrenic woman. One personality she portrays is a tormented artist (which she compared to real-life figures Sophie Calle and Tracey Emin) and Green described the other personality as "full of life, very witty, big sense of humor".
In addition to her acting career, Green has modelled for Breil, Emporio Armani, Lancôme, Heineken, and Christian Dior SA's "Midnight Poison" perfume, in an advert directed by Wong Kar-wai. She has also expressed interest in returning to the theatre, and has no plans to go to work in Hollywood because, "The problem with Hollywood is that the studios are super powerful, they have far more power than the directors. My ambition at this moment is just to find a good script."

Personal life

Green considers herself nerdy. "When people first meet me, they find me very cold. I keep myself at a distance, and I think that's why I'm so drawn to [acting]. It allows me to wear a mask." She moved to Primrose Hill, London in mid-2005, She prefers the "village-like" atmosphere of the London neighbourhood: "I feel more centred when I'm [there]." She lives alone, jokingly referring to her border terrier, Griffin, as her "husband". She is currently dating New Zealand actor Marton Csokas, who she met on the set of Kingdom of Heaven. She has no particular fitness regime, as, "I'm French and I'm lazy, which means I smoke and I don't exercise", though she does run and practises pilates. Green finds dieting too stressful. She thinks of herself as an international actress: she can speak both her native French and English fluently, and is also learning Japanese as well as perfecting an American accent.

Filmography

Film Year Role Notes
The Dreamers 2003 Isabelle
Arsène Lupin 2004 Clarisse de Dreux-Soubise
Kingdom of Heaven 2005 Sibylla
Casino Royale 2006 Vesper Lynd BAFTA Rising Star award
The Golden Compass 2007 Serafina Pekkala
Franklyn 2008 Emilia

References

^ a b c d Eva Green Biography. Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved on 2007-08-27.
^ a b c d Monique Webber. "The Green Mile", Australian Vogue, January 2007, pp. 90.
^ "Eva Green", The Independent Magazine, 2007-04-14.

Marion Cotillard

Best known for portraying Edith Piaf in 2007's "La Môme" (retitled "La Vie en Rose" in the United States) for which she won the Best Actress Academy Award.

Quotes by Marion Cotillard:

Oscar Acceptance Speech: "Oh -- thank you so much. Olivier, what you did to me, Maestro Olivier Dahan, you rocked my life. You truly rocked my life. Thank you so much to Picturehouse for your passion, members of the Academy, thank you so, so much. And -- wow. Well, I'm speechless now. I -- I -- well, I -- thank you life, thank you love, and it is true, there is some angels in this city. Thank you so, so much."

"I don't think you learn how to act. You learn how to use your emotions and feelings, and my first teacher was my mother and then I worked with my father, who helped me to find in myself all those emotions and how to play with the emotions."

Sophie Marceau

Sophie Marceau is a French actress. She has worked in international films such as Braveheart and The World is Not Enough.

Contents
Early life
Career
International success
Author and director
Personal life
Filmography
References

Early life

Sophie Marceau was born Sophie Danièle Sylvie Maupu, the second child of Benoît and Simone Maupu. Her father, Benoît, a veteran of the Algerian War, worked as a truck driver, painter, and bartender; her mother, Simone, was a demonstrator in department stores. Her brother Sylvain is three years older.

Career

Marceau started her career at 14 when Claude Pinoteau cast her in the starring role of the teenager movie La Boum.

The family lived a working class life that left Marceau with generally fond memories of childhood. During the week, she helped at the family restaurant. She spent weekends with her family in La Cabane, a small house in Vert-le-Petit in the Essonne.

She collected stray and abandoned animals with her older brother. She had a dog named Scotch, a cat called Bidule and adopted a German shepherd at the Société de Protection des Animaux.

International success

In 1995, Marceau achieved international recognition as Princess Isabelle in Mel Gibson's Braveheart. That year, she was part of an ensemble of international actors in the French film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and Wim Wenders, Beyond the Clouds.

In 1997, Marceau continued with William Nicholson's Firelight, filmed in England, Véra Belmont's Marquise, filmed in France, and Bernard Rose's Anna Karenina.

In 1999, two films defined her as an international star. For A Midsummer Night's Dream, she played Hippolyta. That same year, she became a Bond girl by playing Elektra King in The World Is Not Enough.

In 2000, Marceau teamed up again with her then-boyfriend Andrzej Zulawski to film La Fidélité.

Author and director

In 2001, Marceau wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, Telling Lies, in which the narrator is a beautiful actress who is confident in her beauty and talent and yet insecure. The unnamed narrator takes the reader into a world of memories, fantasies, and impressions, but never reveals herself completely. Marceau describes what the narrator is going through:

It's the day of separation, and from that second she realises she has gone, like an everyday lifetime with memories coming back. Because she's in the middle of something new that hasn't been yet, and something done already. How time can be elastic; how it can betray you, be capricious and play with you.
Marceau produced an exploration of female identity.

Personal life

Marceau married the producer Andrzej Żuławski, who is 26 years her senior. Their son Vincent was born in June 1995. In 2001, Marceau separated from Zulawski and became involved with producer Jim Lemley and later gave birth to her second child, Juliette, born in London in 2002. In 2007, French newspapers and magazines reported that Marceau was dating Christopher Lambert, with whom she acted in La Disparue de Deauville.

Filmography

La Boum (The Party) (1980) – Victoire Beretton
La Boum 2 (1982)
Fort Saganne (1984) – Madeleine de Saint-Ilette
Joyeuses Pâques (Happy Easter) (1984) – Julie
L'Amour braque (Mad Love) (1985) – Mary
Le Flics (Police) (1985) – Norya
Descente aux enfers (Descent Into Hell) (1986) – Lola Kolber
L'étudiante (The Student) (1988) – Valentine Ezquerra
Chouans! (1988) – Céline
Mes nuits sont plus belles que vos jours (My Nights are more Beautiful than your Days) (1989) – Blanche
Pacific Palisades (1990) – Bernadette
Pour Sacha (For Sacha) (1991) – Laura
La Note bleue (The Blue Note) (1991) – Solange Sand
Fanfan (Fanfan & Alexandre) (1993) – Fanfan
La Fille de d'Artagnan (The Daughter of D'Artagnan) (1994) – Eloïse d'Artagnan
Braveheart (1995) – Princess Isabelle
Al di là delle nuvole (1995)
Beyond the Clouds (1995)
Anna Karenina (1997) – Anna Karenina
Marquise (1997, by Véra Belmont) – Marquise du Parc
Firelight (1997, by William Nicholson) – Élisabeth Laurier
Lost & Found (1999) – Lila Dubois
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999) – Hippolyta
The World Is Not Enough (1999) – Elektra King
La Fidélité (Fidelity) (2000) – Clélia
Belphégor – Le fantôme du Louvre (Belphegor, Phantom of the Louvre) (2001) – Lisa
Alex and Emma (2003) – Polina Delacroix
Je reste! (2003) – Marie-Dominique Delpire
Les clefs de bagnole (The Car Keys) (2003)
A ce soir (2004) – Nelly
Anthony Zimmer (2005) – Chiara Manzoni
La Disparue de Deauville (2007) – Lucie/Victoria
Les Femmes de l'ombre (2007)


References

^ a b Billen, Andrew. "Lies and loves of ma belle Marceau," Sunday Herald, June 10, 2001.
^ a b c d Net Glimpse, Retrieved on December 1, 2007
^ Bennett, Oliver. "Sophie Marceau - The Left Bank ambassador" in The London Independent, May 31, 2001.
^ Features | The First Post

Arielle Dombasle

Arielle Dombasle is a French singer and actress. Her breakthrough roles were in Éric Rohmer's Pauline at the Beach and Alain Robbe-Grillet's The Blue Villa.
Formerly married to a man who Vanity Fair magazine described as a "Jewish playboy society dentist 32 years her senior," she has been, since 1993, the third wife of French philosopher and writer Bernard-Henri Lévy.

Charlotte Gainsbourg

Quotes by Charlotte Gainsbourg:

"I couldn't do anything else, I enjoy it so much. But I find it tough."

"I don't feel I have to share everything."

"I hated seeing myself on screen. I was full of complexes. I hated my face for a very, very long time."

"I used to hate being recognised."

"I'm a very shy person towards my intimacy and private life."

"If I take a step back, I see that it's a weird job to be doing. But I've been into it since I was 12 and I love it."

" In France you're with the crew and you have lunch with them. It's more like a family."

"Journalists wanted to get information about how I was raised, what my father was like, our private life. I hated it."

"The English was really my mother, it was never me. Being the daughter of my father, I always felt very French."

"There were always questions about my parents; I got so fed up with that."

Brigitte Bardot

Quotes by Brigitte Bardot:

“I leave before being left. I decide.”

“It is better to be unfaithful than to be faithful without wanting to be.”

“A photograph can be an instant of life captured for eternity that will never cease looking back at you.”